Rookie Hot List (Rookie Watch) Week 3 N.F.L

The Rookie Hot list (or Rookie Watch) is a play on the Heisman Watch. I’ll be taking a look at how the rookies are faring so far early in the season. Cam Newton won the first two weeks, can anyone unseat him this week?

10. Jacquian Williams, LB, New York Giants

He made his first appearnce on this list last week with a 9 tackle performance vs the St. Louis Rams and followed that up with a 10 tackles performance vs the Eagles. Williams was the sixth round pick no one liked for the New York Giants in the 2011 N.F.L. draft, but early on in the season he has outshined Greg Jones, Mark Herzlich, and Spencer Paysinger who all played for big time programs and were big time names (Paysinger, not as much). Williams is playing a lot of meaningful snaps on passing downs. He has shown a terrific ability to play coverage and is a good looking tackler in the open field. He also has put a lot of pressure on the QB. No sacks yet, but close. It’s coming soon for Williams. I’ll admit my bias here, but he’s really played well above expectations and I’ll try to highlight a player at #10 who is playing well that most people don’t know. Let’s see who it is that steps up next week.

9. Mason Foster, LB, Tampa Bay

Linebackers are often overlooked so I’m going to show some love to rookie linebackers playing well early in the season. Foster leads all rookies in tackles with 22 and also has 2 sacks and a forced fumble to boot. Foster is playing well early on in the season.

#8 Von Miller, LB, Denver Broncos

Miller notched another sack on Sunday giving him two for the season. Miller has an explosive first step and is a good pass rusher. I still maintain that his first step is DeMarus Ware good. That’s high praise. He should be a good pass rusher for a long time. Miller also has two forced fumbles. There could be an argument that he needs to be higher, but I only saw every snap of his first game vs the Raiders and the run defense for the whole team was bad. I’ll have to watch him again (maybe on NFL rewind) to see if his run defense improved the next two weeks.

#7 Denarius Moore

Moore was held in check for the most part on Sunday, but found his way into the end-zone on a reverse. I’m not convinced he’s a future #1 WR, but he looks really good early in the season. He’s keeping pace with Julio Jones and A.J. Green as the top rookie WR. Moore has 180 receiving yards and a touchdown. Throw in the rushing touchdown and you have a nice start to his career. He was also dominant in the Raiders training camp practices (but the Raiders don’t have much at CB so that’s not exactly high praise). I’ll keep him in the top 10 now. I’m curious to see how he plays as he recieves more attention.

# 6 Phil Taylor

He finally got his first career sack on Sunday. Taylor had 7 tackles and a sack vs the Dolphins. He has 18 tackles, a sack, and a pass deflection early in the season. He has been the best rookie defensive linemen up to this point, helping to clog the middle for Cleveland and also making a lot of plays. Taylor was a good pick for the Browns, even though he was a player many thought would be drafted by a 34 team to play nose tackle.

#5 Daniel Thomas, RB, Miami Dolphins

I’ve beat up on the Dolphins a lot in the off-season. I didn’t like the Pouncey pick, and they have been ranked 28th or lower in pretty much all of my power rankings (even back in preseason when people thought they might be good). I really didn’t like their draft at all, but I may have been very wrong about the selection of Daniel Thomas. In his two games this season he is averaging 4.9 yards per carry and a 101 yards per game. He has 1 receiving touchdown (and 37 receiving yards). It’s premature to say I’m wrong about Thomas though I’ll give him credit. He is showcaseing a bruising style of running. With that being said, his longest carry is only 14 yards.

#4 A.J. Green

I was debating between Julio Jones and A.J. Green to go on this list because I wanted to show some love for the linebackers. Jones could arguably be on the list as well. I decided on A.J. Green because to me it’s much more impressive that he’s putting up good numbers playing with a rookie QB on a dysfunctional team. 15 catches for a 194 yards and two touchdowns. Green is going to be a S-T-U-D in this league, the most unfortunate part of all of this is that he is stuck on the Bengals.

#3 Torrey Smith, WR, Baltimore Ravens

Full disclosure: I don’t expect this to last at all, but what a terrific game. Three receiving touchdowns and a 156 yards receiving. That might have all happened in the first quarter. Jeez, whew doggy. The Ravens were looking for a deep threat and they traded for Lee Evans to get that threat, but he was out and Torrey Smith stepped up big. Smith is explosive and has great speed. I know he’s only had a catch in one game (Sunday’s game), but this kind of performance must be rewarded. Huge game for Torrey Smith. This is a big jump for only one good week, but that’s o.k. He’s the hot name right now.

# 2 Ryan Kerrigan

Kerrigan just makes plays. He makes plays wiht hustle, and he makes plays with athleticsm. He forced a fumble in the Cowboys game and also had a sack. He’s been the best defensive rookie early on in this season. He got beat by Jason Witten in pass coverage, but so does everyone else. No big deal. Impressive start to his career for Ryan Kerrigan.

#1 Cam Newton

He did not have a great game on Sunday, but he’s still the top dog. Newton has a whopping 1012 yards passing on the season and he got his first one even though he didn’t play great. 4 TD and 4 INT. The most impressive number for Newton is the 8.6 yards per pass. Newton also has two rushing touchdowns. It’s going to take a big effort to knock Newton off the perch.

Just missed the cut: Julio Jones, Patrick Peterson, Mike Pouncey. I need to find somewhere for Patrick Peterson next week.

Players on the rise: Drake Nevis, Jabaal Sheard, Titus Young

Let me know your thoughts…

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