2021 NFL ROOKIES

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

TREY SERMON
RB, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

Trey Sermon (concussion) was limited in Wednesday's practice.

Sermon remains in the league's protocol and in a no-contact jersey, but coach Kyle Shanahan said the rookie is making good progress. Sermon was inactive for Week 1 and then suffered a concussion on his lone snap of Week 2. Elijah Mitchell (shoulder) didn't practice Wednesday, and JaMycal Hasty (ankle) is already out for Week 3 against the Packers.
SOURCE: Nick Wagoner on Twitter

Sep 22, 2021, 3:56 PM ET

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

IFEATU MELIFONWU
S, DETROIT LIONS

Lions placed CB Ifeatu Melifonwu (quad) on IR.

Melifonwu made his first career start against the Packers, injuring his quad in the game. Dan Campbell described Melifonwu's injury as "a bad one" and the cornerback is expected to miss significant time. The Lions signed CB Daryl Worley from their practice squad in a corresponding move. Worley played in 10 games for three different teams in 2020, and will serve as emergency depth for the Lions secondary.
SOURCE: Dave Birkett on Twitter

Sep 22, 2021, 9:15 AM ET

[Dodub]

There's no doubt the athleticism gives this new class of QB both a higher floor and a higher ceiling. And it's easier for a guy to reach the heights with those abilities. That said, even in today's NFL, a guy like Tom Brady is able to tear sh*t up. Drew Brees was, too, until a couple years ago. And that's what you're hoping for with a guy like Mac Jones. That he won't be a Dalton or Carr, but will be one of the truly elite guys. But there's a much narrower road to that sort of success.

But I totally agree on the danger of spending huge money on a mediocre starting QB. That's usually a recipe for disaster, and it's the situation we were in with Garoppolo. You can't wing longterm with that type of player eating up 10% or more of your cap space.

That type of QB is a dying breed and if the idea is to take that player, because Tom Brady made it work then I certainly wouldn’t be on board. In his 2 NFL games Mac has been exactly what I thought he would be and completely reinforced my reasoning for not wanting him. He’s been a game manager at best and I still don’t see his ceiling being much higher than Jimmy G.

As for Carr, I would argue that there’s no comparison there. Carr has a much bigger arm and way more mobility than Mac and those things aren’t even close. I’d also point out that hes many many tiers above Dalton and cureently and MVP candidate.

[CrimsonCrew]

There's no doubt the athleticism gives this new class of QB both a higher floor and a higher ceiling. And it's easier for a guy to reach the heights with those abilities. That said, even in today's NFL, a guy like Tom Brady is able to tear sh*t up. Drew Brees was, too, until a couple years ago. And that's what you're hoping for with a guy like Mac Jones. That he won't be a Dalton or Carr, but will be one of the truly elite guys. But there's a much narrower road to that sort of success.

But I totally agree on the danger of spending huge money on a mediocre starting QB. That's usually a recipe for disaster, and it's the situation we were in with Garoppolo. You can't wing longterm with that type of player eating up 10% or more of your cap space.

That type of QB is a dying breed and if the idea is to take that player, because Tom Brady made it work then I certainly wouldn’t be on board. In his 2 NFL games Mac has been exactly what I thought he would be and completely reinforced my reasoning for not wanting him. He’s been a game manager at best and I still don’t see his ceiling being much higher than Jimmy G.

As for Carr, I would argue that there’s no comparison there. Carr has a much bigger arm and way more mobility than Mac and those things aren’t even close. I’d also point out that hes many many tiers above Dalton and cureently and MVP candidate.

As said, the route to truly elite play for the Mac Jones type is pretty narrow in today's NFL. But there's plenty of room to be somewhere between Garoppolo and Brady.

A guy who lacks elite athletic traits has to be pretty much perfect everywhere else: processing, accuracy, touch, anticipation, pocket presence, footwork, leadership. Garoppolo is at best average in a lot of those areas, in addition to being below average athletically. And saying Jones has effectively achieved his ceiling after two NFL games is pretty silly. He can be a very good NFL QB - not saying he will be, but the path is there.

I mentioned Dalton and Carr because they were mentioned together in the post I responded to. I don't personally conflate those two. Carr is clearly physically superior to Dalton, possessing a very good NFL arm and decent movement skills. He's a guy who has hit some heights in his career, but he hasn't had a lot of consistency. Dalton hasn't really ever been more than a solid player with the singular exception of 2015 when he didn't finish the season.

[thesack12]

Rookie QB performances in this week's early batch of games:

Trevor Lawrence: 22/34 for 219 yards, 1 TD with 2 INT (1 pick 6) , 2 lost fumbles, 3 sacks for -17 yards... 6 rushes for 27 yards
Justin Fields: 6/20 for 68 yards, 0 TD with 0 INT, 0 fumbles, 9 sacks for -67 yards... 3 rushes for 12 yards
Mac Jones: 30/51 for 270 yards, 1 TD with 3 INT (1 Pick 6), ) 0 fumbles, 2 sacks for -19 yards... 6 rushes for 28 yards

Saying the rookie QB's struggled today, would be a very generous assessment. The above guys were downright bad.

In a game where the QB didn't commit a turnover, I'm not sure you will ever see a worse game from a QB than the one Fields had today. The Bears had a total of 47 yards of offense today with only 6 first downs (2 being awarded via penalty), and Fields took 3 more sacks than he had completions. That's insane.

[Jikkle]

You can see why the Bears wanted to stick with Dalton as that's a pretty brutal stat line for Fields there. Browns have a great pass rush but yeesh 9 sacks is a lot.

Starting to see the concern that these QBs had predraft crop up now. Mac's concerns was he was just going to be a great dink and dunk QB and that's what we're seeing so far and with Fields there were questions that he holds the ball too long and I haven't see the game but if you got sacked 9 times you probably held the ball too long on a few of those.

[thesack12]

Jets @ Broncos just finished up.

Zach Wilson: 19/34 for 160 yards, 0 TD with 2 INT, 0 fumbles, 5 sacks for -41 yards... 1 rush for 2 yards

Just by not playing, Trey Lance looks far and away the best rookie QB so far. Lol

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

AMON-RA ST. BROWN
WR, DETROIT LIONS

Amon-Ra St. Brown caught his lone target for two yards in the Lions' Week 3 loss to the Ravens.

St. Brown now has six receptions through three regular season games. He's a tertiary part of a Lions offense that will continue funneling targets to running backs and tight ends. St. Brown should be on waiver wires, no matter league depth.

Sep 26, 2021, 9:42 PM ET

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

JAYLEN WADDLE
WR, MIAMI DOLPHINS

Jaylen Waddle caught 12-of-13 targets for 58 yards in Miami's Week 3 loss to Las Vegas.

Waddle's outlandish volume with minimal return solidified him as the first player with 12-plus receptions for fewer than 60 receiving yards since Brian Westbrook did so in 2006. A field-flipping deep threat with the Crimson Tide, Miami's inconsistent quarterbacking has essentially morphed Waddle into vintage Jarvis Landry, seeing the rookie average 5.0 yards per target from Jacoby Brissett the past two weeks. Although his value in PPR is safe with this type of usage, Waddle obviously needs to be deployed differently to provide help in both standard and half-PPR formats. He'll be ranked as a high-floor WR3/4 in Week 4 against the Colts.

Sep 26, 2021, 8:53 PM ET

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

JAVONTE WILLIAMS
RB, DENVER BRONCOS

Javonte Williams rushed 12 times for 29 yards and a touchdown in the Broncos' Week 3 win over the Jets, also catching three passes for 33 yards and losing a fumble.

Williams' score was a one-yard rumble in the first quarter. His fumble came from the Jets' one-yard line with 3:38 remaining. Quinnen Williams put his helmet on the ball. It was not costly in the context of the score — the Jets were up 23-0 en route to a 26-0 victory — but it will undoubtedly put doubt in the Broncos coaching staff's mind. Williams had a third goal-line tote where he was stood up for a two-yard loss. Williams got out-carried and out-produced by Melvin Gordon this afternoon, though the veteran was far from lights out as averaged 3.4 yards per carry. Gordon had two goal-line carries. There is every reason to expect this to remain a two-man backfield unless coach Vic Fangio is so vengeful he hurts one of his team's strengths by committing fully to Gordon. Williams will remain a mid-range FLEX for Week 4 vs. Baltimore.

Sep 26, 2021, 7:37 PM ET

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

ELIJAH MOORE
WR, NEW YORK JETS

Jets WR Elijah Moore suffered a concussion in New York's Week 3 loss to the Broncos.

Moore had caught 3-of-6 targets for 22 yards before going down late in the third quarter. He will be week to week with a decent chance at getting cleared for Week 4 against the Titans. Before the head injury, Moore was matching Corey Davis in targets, though neither wideout could produce anything of box score substance vs. the Broncos' elite defense. One of the most hyped players of the entire offseason, Moore's momentum has been spoiled by injuries. With Jamison Crowder (groin) due back soon, it's getting difficult to justify holding onto Moore in 12-team re-draft leagues as the Jets' offense looks like one of the worst in the league.
SOURCE: Rich Cimini on Twitter

Sep 26, 2021, 7:30 PM ET

[Dodub]

It seems like we are the only ones with good strategy on rookie QB’s. All of the rest of them have been awful m

[Jikkle]

It seems like we are the only ones with good strategy on rookie QB’s. All of the rest of them have been awful m

To be fair to the Bears starting Dalton was their plan the whole time and they only have Fields out there because Dalton got hurt.

And I think the Pats have handled Mac Jones fine as he's basically been ok for them and they have a decent enough roster around him.

Jets should've let Wilson ride the bench for a season as they simply don't have the talent, it's a completely new coaching staff with a new scheme, and he was a late riser in college so he could've used a season to learn the system and not get beat up out there.

Lawrence was a more polished prospect that played top college competition with a team that had 0 plans to contend so I don't think it's a terrible move on their part to go ahead and let him grow out there.

[CrimsonCrew]

It seems like we are the only ones with good strategy on rookie QB’s. All of the rest of them have been awful m

I don't know. The Jags and Jets have awful teams that can't support a rookie QB. It's expected that those guys would struggle, though the extent of the struggles, especially for Wilson, are a bit surprising. I expected Fields to be better, but without having watched any of that game, it doesn't sound like he had much of a chance at all behind that OL, playing against a good defense.

[Jikkle]

Pretty good bounce back week for the rookie 1st round class of QBs as they all were pretty solid.

Will have to see what happens from here but a good sign they are showing some growth.

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

ALEX LEATHERWOOD
T, LAS VEGAS RAIDERS

Raiders RT Alex Leatherwood was practicing at right guard on Thursday.

The rare first-round right tackle, Leatherwood has been astonishingly bad on Derek Carr's right side, to the point where not even Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock could deny reality. It is a transcendently bad result after Leatherwood's selection was first guessed across the football world, and GM Mayock openly admitted it would be a controversial selection. The Raiders' front office situation is arguably the worst in all of football.
SOURCE: Tashan Reed on Twitter

Oct 7, 2021, 7:22 PM ET

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

ELIJAH MITCHELL
RB, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

Elijah Mitchell (shoulder) remained "limited" in 49ers practice Thursday.

So far, it has been the same story it was for Mitchell in Week 4, where he got in a slate of limited practices before being declared out on Sunday morning. 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan is an unreliable narrator when it comes to injury information but had said he was hopeful Mitchell would return this week. More than likely, Mitchell will get slapped with a "questionable" tag on Friday and we won't really know what to think ahead of Sunday's game against the Cardinals. For now, we would not pencil Mitchell into FLEX spots.

Oct 7, 2021, 6:18 PM ET

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

ELIJAH MOORE
WR, NEW YORK JETS

Elijah Moore (concussion) was upgraded to "full" on Thursday's injury report.

It should be Corey Davis and Moore on the outside with Jamison Crowder on the inside for the Jets against Atlanta on Sunday morning. Moore missed the first breakout game of Zach Wilson's career with the concussion, but the upgrade to full bodes well for him getting a full bushel of snaps ahead of Denzel Mims (illness), who also practiced in full on Thursday.


Oct 7, 2021, 4:20 PM ET

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

BEN CLEVELAND
G, BALTIMORE RAVENS

Ravens LG Ben Cleveland was carted from the Week 5 game against the Colts with a knee injury and is doubtful to return.

The third-round rookie had been splitting reps at left guard with Ben Powers, so it'll be Powers in that spot moving forward. The Ravens are already without LT Ronnie Stanley because of an ankle injury.

Oct 11, 2021, 9:24 PM ET

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

JUSTIN FIELDS
QB, CHICAGO BEARS

NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reports that Justin Fields (knee) "should be good to go" for Chicago's Week 6 game against the Packers.

The Bears have been run-heavy enough under Bill Lazor that Fields probably won't get to do a lot unless they meet their match on defense ... which could very well happen against the Packers on Sunday. Fields will remain a bit of a fantasy disappointment until he is unchained and given more carries.
SOURCE: Tom Pelissero on Twitter

Oct 11, 2021, 4:57 PM ET