Each NFL team’s rookie most primed to make an instant impact

Every NFL team has a rookie on their roster who’s ready to make an impact in their first season — and not every one most ready to do so is an early-round pick.

It’s official, the 2019 NFL season is here. The engines revved up with the Hall of Fame game and a full preseason slate is approaching quickly. Subsequently, the 2019 NFL Draft picks and undrafted rookie free agents are heading into their first professional seasons. The preseason is the time of year where we’ll see rookies get a lot of playing time.

Of course, the teams that these rookies play for will have an impact on the role that these rookies play. Unlike the Offensive and Defense Rookie of Year awards, though, the round in which a player was drafted doesn’t matter.

Every year, players picked in any of theseven rounds find a way to make an impact in their first years. As the season goes on, we’ll get the answer as to who those rookies are. Right now, we’re just kicking off the preseason with an eye open for those guys that jump off the screen and that have the opportunities to step up.

It’s not easy to predict who those playmakers will be. There are players like Saquon Barkley Leighton Vander Esch and Derwin James who lived up the hype as rookies in the 2018 season. However, others like Darius Leonard, Fred Warner, Braden Smith and Donte Jackson surpassed expectations early in their careers.  Of course, there are the guys that came out of nowhere like Phillip Lindsay, the undrafted running back who made the Pro Bowl.

The 2019 NFL Draft has their own set of rookies looking to make an impact. So, let’s look at each team and the rookie who is ready to make some noise by hitting the ground running.