There’s a reason so much ink, breath and bandwidth is used to predict how the NFL draft will play out each year.
These players aren’t chosen to watch and learn. In a league that prides itself on parity, even the worst teams believe that the future is now, and they need these rookies to make them better right away.
Even teams that played in January last year need young players to make an impact, or they may find themselves watching the following postseason games from their couches.
Each of these 10 NFL rookies fall into one of those categories, and they are all on track to usurp playing time from veteran starters.
Packers WR Davante Adams (to replace Jarrett Boykin)
Davante Adams is about to usurp Jarrett Boykin as the Packers’ No. 3 receiver. He’s caught seven passes. Boykin has caught two and he’s also dropped two.
Adams, a second-rounder, comes from Fresno State’s high-octane offense. He emerged with five catches for 50 yards in the Packers’ 31-24, come-from-behind win over the Jets in Week 3.
His first NFL reception went for four yards to the Jets’ 38-yard line, close enough for Mason Crosby to kick a field goal to narrow the Packers’ deficit to 21-9 in the second quarter. Later in the quarter, Adams caught a 24-yard pass at the Jets’ 6-yard line to set up the touchdown that brought the Packers to within 21-16. The Packers reached the Jets’ 1-yard line after Adams caught another pass for nine yards, and Aaron Rodgers threw to Randall Cobb for the Packers’ go-ahead touchdown.
Boykin caught 49 passes in eight starts and had an opportunity for a bigger role this year with the departure of James Jones. But it looks like the second-round pick is going to beat out the undrafted player.
Jets TE Jace Amaro (to replace Jeff Cumberland)
Jeff Cumberland has played 190 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, and Jace Amaro has played 68.
Expect Amaro’s workload to increase in the near future.
Cumberland has eight catches and Amaro has six through three games. But Cumberland hasn’t caught more than 29 passes in any of his four seasons. Amaro, meanwhile, led the Big 12 last season with 106 catches for 1,352 yards. The Jets used a second-round draft pick on him to get some offensive punch at the tight end position.
Amaro had a costly third-down drop in the Jets’ 27-19 loss to the Bears Monday night, but overall he turned in his most productive game with three catches for 54 yards.
Panthers CB Bene Benwikere (to replace Antoine Cason or Melvin White)
Bene Benwikere helped the Panthers secure their season-opening win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Panthers led 17-14 when Benwikere recovered a fumble at the Tampa Bay 29-yard line and returned it six yards with 1:36 left. Carolina increased its lead with a field goal, and the Bucs got the ball back at their own 21-yard line with 17 seconds left and no timeouts.
The fifth-round pick from San Jose St. started the following week in the Panthers’ 24-7 win over the Detroit Lions. If he keeps playing the way he has, he’ll take more snaps away from Melvin White and Antoine Cason.
Cason has seen 20 passes thrown his way, according to Pro Football Focus. White and Benwikere both have been thrown at 16 times. Cason has allowed 17 completions (85 percent). White has allowed nine completions (56.3 percent) and Benwikere has yielded 10 (62.5 percent).
Cardinals WR John Brown (to replace Larry Fitzgerald)
Instead of Larry Fitzgerald, Cardinals quarterback Drew Stanton hit John Brown for two crucial touchdown passes in the third quarter Sunday. Those 14 points swung a 14-6 deficit into a 20-14 lead over the San Francisco 49ers. The Cardinals went on to win, 23-14, and improved to 3-0.
The Cardinals don’t have a clear-cut No. 1 receiver. Michael Floyd leads the team with 11 receptions. Next is Fitzgerald with 10 and Brown is third with nine. Brown, however, leads the team at all positions with three touchdowns.
Floyd has been targeted 22 times and Fitzgerald has been targeted 21 times, which means neither has caught the ball more than half the time when it’s been thrown their way.
On the other hand, Brown’s nine catches have come on 15 targets.
The 31-year-old Fitzgerald has never caught less than 58 passes in a season, and that was his rookie year. At his current pace, he’ll fall short of that this season. If Brown continues at his current pace, he’ll take touches away from Fitzgerald. The third-round selection from Pittsburg St. in Kansas caught two passes in Week 1, three in Week 2 and four in Week 3. He’s increasing his production every week.
Packers FS Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (to replace Micah Hyde)
Micah Hyde has started all three games at free safety this season, but he’s played only six more snaps than Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.
Pro Football Focus ranks Clinton-Dix 53rd and Hyde 54th among NFL safeties this season. But Clinton-Dix has two things Hyde doesn’t have, a sack and an interception.
The Packers chose Hyde in the fifth round of the 2013 draft, and he played cornerback as a rookie. Clinton-Dix, the 21st player off the board in May, has more of a pedigree as a safety.
Saints WR Brandin Cooks (to replace Marques Colston)
Brandin Cooks doesn’t really belong on this list, because not only is he already the No. 1 option among Saints wide receivers, but he’s an Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate.
It’s hard getting used to the concept of someone not named Marques Colston leading Saints wide receivers in catches. Colston has done that for five straight years. That will change this season.
Tight end Jimmy Graham is currently the Saints’ top overall pass catcher with 24, and Cooks is second with 18. Running back Pierre Thomas has caught seven balls while Colston and Kenny Stills both have caught four.
Among Cooks’ career-high eight catches in the Saints’ 20-9 win over the Vikings Sunday was a 16-yarder that set up the Saints’ second touchdown, which gave them a 13-0 lead. He also hauled in an 18-yard reception on third-and-16 in the third quarter and a 19-yarder on third-and-7 that immediately preceded Colston’s 1-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. That score made it 20-9 and helped the Saints breathe a little easier.
Part of the reason the 31-year-old Colston has fallen out of favor is his Week 1 overtime fumble in Saints territory. The Falcons won with a field goal. He wasn’t targeted in Week 2.
Bears CB Kyle Fuller (to replace Charles Tillman)
This one’s not hard to figure out.
Kyle Fuller already has replaced Charles Tillman as the starter. The 34-year-old Tillman is out for the season with a triceps injury. Even if he comes back in 2015, he’s not taking Fuller’s job.
The Bears took Fuller with the No. 14 pick in the draft. The Virginia Tech product has intercepted three passes in the last two games and forced two fumbles Monday night in the Bears’ 27-19 win over the Jets. His interception at MetLife Stadium came in the end zone, and he made a rookie mistake by running it out to the 5-yard line instead of taking the touchback. But he was off the hook when a unnecessary roughness penalty on the Jets put the ball on the 20 anyway.
Only five rookies have intercepted passes so far, and Fuller has three of those picks. No other rookie cornerback has even one interception.
Dolphins WR Jarvis Landry (to replace Brandon Gibson)
Something needs to change in Miami. The Dolphins’ season-opening victory over the Patriots seems so long ago that it might as well have been played in the Orange Bowl.
It looks like Ryan Tannehill will remain the starting quarterback for at least another week, according to NFL.com. Wide receiver Brandon Gibson doesn’t have such a firm grip on his starting job.
Jarvis Landry has caught eight passes for the 1-2 Dolphins while Gibson has caught five. Landry was selected in the third round out of LSU and he already sees more action than Gibson. It’s only a matter of time before he’s officially listed as the starter and challenges Brian Hartline as Tannehill’s top complement to Mike Wallace.
Browns RB Terrance West (to replace Ben Tate)
Ben Tate has had more ailments than the guy on the Operation game board. He never started more than seven games in his four seasons with the Houston Texans.
So what happens in Week 1 at Pittsburgh? Tate hurt his knee, and rookies Terrance West and Isaiah Crowell have filled in nicely. The Browns are 1-2, but all their games have been decided by three points or less.
West, a third-round draft pick out of Towson St., has run for 204 yards, including 100 in the loss at Pittsburgh, and two touchdowns. The powerful, downhill runner has great feet and is athletic enough to break big runs if the blocking is there.
Browns coach Mike Pettine said West and Crowell have “made it tougher” to decide if Tate will return as the starter when he’s healthy, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
Ravens RB Lorenzo Taliaferro (to replace Bernard Pierce or Justin Forsett)
Journeyman Justin Forsett started for the Ravens in Cleveland Sunday in place of Bernard Pierce, who missed the game with a thigh injury.
But it was Lorenzo Taliaferro, a fourth-round pick from Coastal Carolina, who led the Ravens with 91 yards in a 23-21 win.
Making his NFL debut, the 6’0″, 226-pounder scored on a 1-yard run to give the Ravens a 17-14 lead in the third quarter. He did most of his damage on a scoring drive in the second quarter that gave the Ravens a 10-7 lead. Taliaferro opened the drive with a 31-yard rumble and gained 62 of his 91 yards on the series, which was capped by Joe Flacco’s nine-yard touchdown pass to fullback Kyle Juszczyk.
Taliaferro’s 91 yards came on 18 carries, better than five yards a carry. The only Raven to rush for more yards in a game this season was Pierce, who had 96 yards in the Ravens’ 26-6 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2. However, 20 of those yards came in the last two minutes with the outcome long since decided.
Even after Pierce’s thigh heals and he returns from injury, Taliaferro has clearly earned a place in the running back rotation.