Another week in the books, and after a largely very impressive week 2 for the 2013 1st round class, we saw major regression in week 3. The overwhelming majority of the picks played quite poorly and most of them hampered their team's ability to win. All part of the growing pains of life in the NFL. The top performing 1st round pick for the week is Cowboys' center Travis Frederick, just a week removed from being 31st out of 32. Below are the overall standings through three weeks:
1. DeAndre Hopkins, WR of Texans, originally drafted 27th: He remains atop the standings after another stellar performance. He had 6 receptions for 60 yards and is already a key component to the Texans' passing game every week.
2. Sheldon Richardson, DE/DT for the Jets, originally drafted 13th: Richardson is up a spot this week and he continues to be a menance both in run support and in pass rushing. He's already proving to be a complete player. He had 4 tackles, 2 for a loss and a sack against the Bills, and would have had a fumble recovery but it was called back due to his penalty.
3. Star Lotulelei, DT of Panthers, originally drafted 14th: He drops a spot in the rankings to Richardson after a quieter week than the first two, but he still played very solidly on the interior helping shut out the Giants. He had two tackles and a sack.
4. Ziggy Ansah, DE/LB of Lions, originally drafted 5th: We knew he was raw when he was picked, but he's proving the Lions right in taking him so high so far. He was all over the field notching 7 tackles and 2 sacks. This great performance moves him up two spots from last week.
5. Eric Reid, S of 49ers, originally drafted 18th: It was going to be hard for Reid to live up to his first two weeks where he got picks, and sure enough he and the 49er defense struggled in a bad loss. He still had 5 tackles and a pass break up. Enough to keep him in the top 5.
6. Alec Ogletree, LB of Rams, originally drafted 30th: While his tackle total continues to be high (tied for the team lead with 7), he's also missing his fair share and getting victimized with a lot of plays coming his way. He and the Rams defense were embarrassed by the Cowboys. Ogletree drops two spots from last week.
7. Kyle Long, G of Bears, originally drafted 20th: He was 22nd in week one, 10th in week two and now 7th as he continues his upward ascent. He was fantastic in run blocking especially, but has played a big part in keeping Jay Cutler cleaner this year.
8. Kenny Vaccaro, S of Saints, originally drafted 15th: Like Long he continues to rise as his play improves (12th, 11th and now 8th). This week he had 7 tackles, continuing to find the football and tackling both sounding and with ferociousness. He also had his first career interception off of Carson Palmer.
9. Tavon Austin, WR of Rams, originally drafted 8th: Down from #7, the Rams are doing a good job of getting him involved a lot but he's not doing much with his short receptions. His yards per reception are very poor this season. 6 catches for 30 yards did nothing to help that. He also had a rush for 3 yards.
10. Jarvis Jones, LB of the Steelers, originally drafted 17th: He's a big mover up five spot this week. He played the run very well in particular and was good in pursuit. Finished with 5 tackles. The question of his durability hasn't been an issue so far.
11. Desmond Trufant, CB of Falcons, originally drafted 22nd: Also up a couple of spots, he continues to be unspectactularly reliable as a cover corner. The Falcons must he very encouraged by how he's playing so early. He had 4 tackles and a defended pass.
12. Tyler Eifert, TE of Bengals, originally drafted 21st: A significant drop from #8 last week for the tight end that was hardly involved at all in the gameplan against the Packers. He finished with just one reception for 7 yards.
13. Travis Frederick, C of Cowboys, originally drafted 31st: He vaults himself a whopping 15 (!) spots in the rankings, after being 28th last week, on the heels of a masterful performance on the interior against the Rams. He dominated the point of attack and created huge lanes for the running game to be effective. I have to admit I didn't think he had it in him after the first two weeks but the Cowboys have to be feeling better about their choice after this week. Nice bounce back for the young center who graded out the highest of all 1st round picks this week.
14. Cordarelle Patterson, WR of Vikings, originally drafted 29th: He's up 5 spots, but that's more due to how poor some of the performances were this week, whereas he treaded water. He did have a big 37 yard play, finished with 2 catches for 49 yards on the day.
15. Dion Jordan, DE of Dolphins, originally drafted 3rd: He's up two spots after doing a really good job of playing the run. He's supposed to be a pass rusher primarily but he's showing he can do it all. He had 2 tackles and a handful of pressures.
16. E. J. Manuel, QB of Bills, originally drafted 16th: He's down seven spots from 9 after a really poor performance against the Jets. I had a feeling it might all come crashing down soon for him. 19 of 42 (45%) and getting sacked 8 times is just not going to cut it. His line played exceedingly poorly, which didn't help, but he was way too late getting the ball out and inaccurate with numerous throws. He did avoid a turnover, though. He had 243 yards passing and 6 carries for 40 yards. He also had a touchdown pass. Poor performance overall, though, after a pretty good first two weeks.
17. Xavier Rhodes, CB of the Vikings, originally drafted 25th: He's down two spots after a very quiet day at the office. He had just two tackles and no major mistakes, but he certainly didn't help the field day Brian Hoyer had passing against the Vikings.
18. Luke Joeckel, T of the Jaguars, originally drafted 2nd: He's up from 21 and seems to be improving a bit. He did give up a sack but otherwise had a decent performance. Still not playing to the level of his draft status, though.
19. Matt Elam, S of Ravens, originally drafted 32nd: His playing time continued to increase and with it his positive play. He's up 10 spots from 29th overall. He had 5 tackles and a defended pass.
20. Barkevious Mingo, LB of Browns, originally drafted 6th: He's up again this week from 23rd. He had 4 tackles and a sack. While he did show his explosive edge speed off at times, he also showed his shortcomings of being so light in the pads. When he's not blowing past someone and they actually get their hands on him, he's getting pushed around.
21. Chance Warmack, G of the Titans, originally drafted 10th: He really struggled in run blocking but was decent in pass protection. He's navigate somewhere between average and mediocre consistently so far, but he's shown he can hold his own as a starter.
22. Lane Johnson, RT of Eagles, originally drafted 4th: Hard to believe this is the same player I had ranked 2nd overall after week one. He drops 10 spots for the second consecutive week (2nd, 12th and now 22nd). He had one of the absolute worst performance of the class, maybe the worst. He was beaten for three sacks and constantly got his quarterback mauled. A very poor showing.
23. Sharrif Floyd, DT of Vikings, originally drafted 23rd: Hard to move much in the standings when you're not doing much. He had 1 tackle and a tip ball.
24. D. J. Fluker, T of Chargers, originally drafted 11th: He did not play this week due to an injury, which costs him 8 spots.
25. Justin Pugh, G/T of Giants, originally drafted 19th: A disaster performance by Pugh giving up 2 sacks. He's down 7 spots from 18th. The Giants were shut out and they couldn't pass protect or get anything going in the running game. Pugh looked like a lost puppy and struggled mightily against the Panthers' front.
26. D. J. Hayden, CB of the Raiders, originally drafted 12th: He's down six spots after getting absolutely roasted by Peyton Manning. He was poor in coverage and targeted continuously. In fact, I think he just gave up another reception for 27 yards just now. Just kidding. He had two tackles.
27. Bjoern Werner, DE/LB of Colts, originally drafted 24th: He remains low in the rankings after another very quiet performance. Just one tackle.
28. Sylvester Williams, DT of Broncos, originally drafted 28th: He's hardly playing at the moment and just doesn't really seem to be anything more than a reserve that'll get spot play at this point.
29. Dee Milliner, CB of Jets, CB of Jets, originally drafted 8th: He was benched last week for looking so bad but he at least moves up one spot this week after looking a tad better as a reserve in spot duty. He seemed to do ok in limited snaps in coverage.
30. Eric Fisher, T of Chiefs, originally drafted 1st: The top pick goes further down the rabbit hole. He down four spots and clearly not worthy of being 1st overall in my opinion. This week he was penalized twice and gave up yet another sack. Just not a good performance for the third straight week. Hopefully his play will improve.
31. Datone Jones, DE of Packers, originally drafted 26th: He remains to me the worst 1st round pick of the players actually playing so far in this young season. This week he only saw 9 snaps. As much as the Packers' defense is struggling, they still can't find a spot for him.
32. Jonathan Cooper, T of Cardinals, originally drafted 7th: Due to a season long injury, he will occupy this spot all season.
