With the NFL season just around the corner, these four first-round rookies have the most to prove once the season opens.
The NFL is a fast-moving sport. Players are given very little time to develop and are instead pushed to start early and look great right out of the gate.
For a rookie just learning the ropes, this can be a daunting task. While every rookie will have a learning curve, these four, in particular, will have all eyes on them. Here are the four NFL rookies with the most to prove during the season.
NFL rookie #1: Cole Strange, OL, Patriots
The Patriots are a team notorious for odd draft classes. Sometimes they work, and other times they fail miserably. Once again, New England had a weird draft as the Patriots seemingly reached on most of their early picks.
This means that fans will naturally be calling these players busts before they even step foot onto the field.
This means that Cole Strange has a lot to prove as a first-round pick. Most people saw Strange as a day two pick, thus him going 29th overall in the draft was a shock.
He has the size and the mauling ability you want in a guard, but he comes from a small school and seemingly needs some refinement to his craft before he can be counted on to be a great starter.
That all said, people are now going to be expecting those results early given his draft status. The Patriots had a hole at guard that Strange fills, but now he has to prove that selecting him in the first wasn’t a mistake.
People will be all over him if he struggles, so he needs to prove that he was worthy of being a first-round pick.