The Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers are kicking off the NFL preseason in the Hall of Fame Game, which can only mean one thing: Football is finally back.
Teams have been in the thick of training camp all across the league, and the first week of the preseason officially begins for every team next week. The football drought is finally over.
With the preseason officially getting underway, we're going to take one last shot at predicting some of the top NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year candidates from each conference, starting with the NFC. While there is always the possibility of someone unexpected making their way into the discussion, we've picked the top 5 most likely ORoY candidates from NFC teams in our newest NFL Power Rankings.
Top 5 Offensive Rookie of the Year candidates from NFC teams in 2026, ranked
5. De'Zhaun Stribling, WR, San Francisco 49ers
Unless the electrical substation has anything to say about it, De'Zhaun Stribling might be one of the biggest dark-horse Offensive Rookie of the Year candidates in the NFL. While we're (kind of) kidding about the electrical substation, Stribling has missed some time with hamstring tightness during training camp, halting his progress.
Before the injury, Stribling was impressing, and the injury to Ricky Pearsal paved the way for some more touches during his rookie season.
With Mike Evans and now Deebo Samuel back in the fold for the 49ers, along with the high volume of targets going to Christian McCaffrey, the only question with Stribling is whether or not he'll get enough of the target share to qualify for this award. But he's the top pick on a really good team, so he's got a shot.
4. Makai Lemon, WR, Philadelphia Eagles
With AJ Brown getting shipped off to the New England Patriots this offseason, seeing how the Philadelphia Eagles split up targets is going to be fascinating.
Of course, the expectation will be that DeVonta Smith gets the lion's share of targets in the passing game, along with obviously Dallas Goedert and Saquon Barkley being featured plenty. But the Eagles moved up to get the Biletnikoff Award winner for a reason.
Lemon might not be in line for 150 targets during his rookie year, but he could quickly prove to be one of the most trustworthy receivers on the team. Similar to Stribling, Lemon is already dealing with hamstring issues early in camp, but he was running with the 1st-team offense a good amount as well.
Brown had 121 total targets last season for the Eagles, so between Lemon and newcomer Dontayvion Wicks, there are plenty of opportunities to go around, and if Lemon can catch fire early, he's going to get featured more throughout the season.
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