This has been an all-hands-on-deck kind of season. Teams that are winning consistently are doing so with help from all corners of their roster. Teams that are just surviving are also drawing on contributions from players who we may not yet consider to be the face-of-the-league types. Rookie power has much to do with this. And while the NFL always ebbs and flows from a trend perspective, we are at the tail end of two Super Bowl-winning teams—the Rams and the Buccaneers—who opted for more immediate success, and the beginning of a handful of teams—the Jets, Giants, Texans, Seahawks, Dolphins, etc.—who accumulated draft picks en masse to try and build something more whole and sustainable.
From that font of draft equity, we have some pretty amazing first-year players, including some rookies who are transforming their team’s present and future. We also have some pretty solid role players, too. And we have some players who are responsible for some of the little things we might not associate with consistently winning games, but are ultimately so vital.
Here’s our crack at the top rookies of 2022, which was initially a top 10 but we couldn’t stand the idea of leaving anyone out.
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1. Sauce Gardner, cornerback, Jets
He’s on pace to miss just six tackles this season, and he’s allowed fewer than five yards per target. Quarterbacks throwing in his direction complete about 50% of their passes. While I don’t think Gardner, or any defensive back, will ultimately get the Nnamdi Asomugha treatment, where quarterbacks simply decide against throwing at him altogether, Gardner is becoming one of those elite-tier pass defenders right away. Gardner leads the league in passes defensed (13), and among corners with 50-or-more targets, only James Bradberry and Chidobe Awuzie are allowing a lower opposing quarterback rating. I also admire, just from a personal standpoint, that when the Steelers are running a toss sweep to his side and Chukwuma Okorafor is barreling down on him, Gardner isn’t bailing out of the play. He also has about half the opposing QB passer rating as the three defensive backs who have more tackles than he does.
2. Tyler Linderbaum, center, Ravens
He’s third in run block win rate among centers (76.5%), according to ESPN Stats and Information. The Ravens are the best run-blocking team in the NFL, according to their metrics and the second-best pass-blocking team. I queued up the Ravens’ game against the Buccaneers and what I loved about this performance was how difficult the game was for Linderbaum. Todd Bowles historically puts a lot of pressure on the opposing center and on the first play, he’s stunted on. He had Vita Vea jammed down his throat, and he made mistakes. But throughout, Linderbaum is battling and, I’d be willing to bet, fared much better in similar circumstances than another rookie centers just learning the ropes. It’s pretty impressive to see how his instincts have evolved in this offense which, we can safely say, was nothing like what he did at Iowa. Linderbaum is blocking some behemoth while also having to check behind him to see what Lamar Jackson is doing. It’s like driving down the highway and keeping tabs on your kids in the backseat (a learned skill, for sure). I value Linderbaum highly because he fits into a unique role. There aren’t many jobs like playing center for Jackson.
3. Travis Etienne Jr., running back, Jaguars
Yes, Etienne is technically a rookie in my book because he didn’t play a snap last year for Urban Meyer because of injury, and we can all thank goodness for that. Etienne, who has 680 yards rushing and averages 5.7 yards per carry, is making big plays, squeezing additional yardage out of tight spaces and turning lost yardage into positive gains. The Jaguars’ offense is turning into something formidable, and the second-year back out of Clemson has a lot to do with it. While a lot of the conversation around Etienne seems to be about his size (5'10", 215 pounds), he’s evolved in short yardage. Last week against the Raiders, we saw his body angle on a score, which felt indicative of how he now approaches goal-line opportunities (more like a dropped missile at a downward angle).
4. Jack Jones, cornerback, Patriots
He earned his first start against the Packers this year and debuted what I thought was some real veteran savvy. The Packers tried to conflict him in the quick game and Jones ended up sidestepping a block and stripping the receiver. He moves like his counterparts, and has a noticeable flexibility, wiggle and confidence. After that Packers game, he said: “Personally, I find it disrespectful to throw an out route on me. If you can get the ball outside of me, I’m no good.” I think that goes for quick-stop and comeback routes as well. There was a throw Jones broke up against the Browns that is broken down nicely here that really puts his skills into perspective. There is always going to be a delay between the moment the receiver reveals his intentions and the moment the defensive back counteracts. That space is thinner for Jones than it is for other players.
5. Dameon Pierce, running back, Texans
An incredible 42.6% of Pierce’s rushes are finishing above expectation, according to NextGenStats. He’s netting almost a yard per carry against the league average player at the position and his offensive line is pretty good at best (though the Texans are, puzzlingly, running a majority of their plays up the middle similar to the Buccaneers, despite the fact that their interior is the worst part of their line at the moment). There is an exciting, impending kind of violence to Pierce’s runs, including 17 broken tackles in a single game against the Jaguars and 58 broken tackles on the season. While he is not yet a contributor in the passing game (season-high six targets), Pierce is the kind of grinding, pace-dictating running back the Texans can build an offense around.
6. Garrett Wilson, WR, Jets
Wilson over Olave? For now, yes. And perhaps some of this is based on potential, but when Wilson (42 catches, 521 yards, two TDs) touches the ball, your breath just stops for a moment in the kind of way it did when Odell Beckham Jr. was a younger, more dominant receiver. There is so much potential in each-and-every snap, and, oh what am I going on for. Just watch this. Look at what he does to poor Kaiir Elam. How do you defend that? Just watch this. Or this.
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7. Chris Olave, wide receiver, Saints
Olave (43 catches, 618 yards, two TDs) has been the most proactive rookie receiver of the 2022 class thus far. I very much respect the folks at ESPN who debuted a similar list this week and had Olave No. 2, and comfortably ahead of Wilson based, in part, on how good he’s been with a rotating cast at quarterback much like Wilson has had in New York. Fair enough. Olave is a contributor in all facets of the Saints’ offense. For a while, he was making the hard-to-predict decisions of Jameis Winston make sense, bullying corners deep to haul in YOLO balls. With Andy Dalton, we see some route-running maturity, snapping off some of the quicker routes at the right time to help Dalton get rid of the ball quickly. He’s useful in the quick game and is coming up with the gritty stuff as well. Olave isn’t getting much wiggle room after the snap, with just 2.9 average yards of separation per route run, which is about what DeAndre Hopkins and Ja’Marr Chase are getting.
8. Kenneth Walker III, running back, Seahawks
Kenneth Walker is seeing Titans- and Ravens-like numbers of defenders in the box, so his numbers (111 carries, 570 yards, seven TDs), which are middle of the pack in terms of 2022 rushing leaders, should be placed in their proper perspective. That 5.1 yards per carry mark is a real victory, so, too, is the fact that he’s breaking tackles about once every 15 carries, which places him on the level (right now) of a Christian McCaffrey or a Kareem Hunt. Walker has the benefit of a coach (Pete Carroll) who seems to understand him, and a coach who isn’t afraid to win games in a stylistically muddy fashion. The Seahawks have three tight ends who they utilize often, and two who play on at least 60% of the team’s snaps, which allow the Seahawks to gain an edge on some slower-reacting defenses. They are the best offense running outside the tackle to the right in the NFL. But even up the middle, which is where Seattle still calls a majority of their runs, they are 10th in the league in yards per carry. Walker is just fine cutting a run up the gut and shouldering a linebacker, and he’s quite good, in fact. His small-space decision making is allowing him to net major gains or significant scores in goal-line situations.
9. Tariq Woolen, DB, Seahawks
Woolen is second in the NFL in interceptions (four). The fifth-round pick out of Seattle tracked a ball and a quarterback's intentions against the Lions so beautifully that we should all be forced to watch it in slow motion. Sure, Jared Goff could have looked at anyone else on the play, and maybe Woolen won’t be able to fool teams with this as much in a year or so. But it speaks to the requisite attitude it takes to be a good cornerback in the NFL: The willingness to bait and to dare people to throw at you before allowing your skills to take over. Woolen has only allowed 54% of the passes thrown his way to be completed. We’re seeing a lot of little victories in Seattle this year, but perhaps having Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider find the next great corner in the fifth round of the draft is among the most significant.
10. Kyle Hamilton, safety, Ravens
Monday’s game against the Saints was the first time Hamilton played more than 70% of the team’s defensive snaps. And I thought he was able to showcase why the Ravens like him so much. He can cover a lot of ground quickly like he did on a nice open field tackle of Dwayne Washington. It looked like Hamilton was drifting back into zone coverage and began pursuit of Washington once it was clear Dalton was dumping the ball off. In most of those situations, he’s going to overpower a smaller back, or at least be able to contain a bigger ballcarrier. He’s also smart. The Saints were trying to flood his zone a few times, running a receiver at him and then having a second receiver break into his area of responsibility. But Hamilton is just cool in those moments and mitigates the damage. Hamilton has allowed just over four yards per target, second among qualifying safeties who have fielded at least 10 targets this year.
11. Braxton Jones, tackle, Bears
While I am currently penning a full-scale apology letter to Matt Eberflus and Ryan Poles, this is another piece of the whole deal. Jones, for lack of a better term, is a total dude. Did he get matador-style thrown to the ground by Micah Parsons once during the game against the Cowboys? Yeah. But Parsons does that to every good player in the NFL. Did he get some help sometimes? Yeah. Everyone needs help against that defense. Is the Bears’ offensive staff really smart and did they intentionally take Jones out of some plays to fool Parsons into over-pursuing? Yeah. But he’s still really good. First, watch him on movement plays where he has to pull or lead block for Justin Fields on some kind of bootleg play or designed QB run. The guy is fast. He’s also got an edge to him, and in the instances where he really needs to hang on and keep Parsons out of Fields’ face, he gets the job done. Jones is a fifth-round pick and, while I realize he is third among rookie tackles in PFF’s rankings, and I respect their work a great deal, I’m embracing the unknown a little bit. I think Jones is perfect for what the Bears are doing now, and that if we ditched the first few games and simply graded him on his performances from the Dallas game moving forward, it wouldn’t be particularly close. I also think he’s doing more work than his OL counterparts, given how intricacy of the Bears’ running game.
12. Kerby Joseph, safety, Lions
Some recency bias, perhaps? Joseph was all over the Packers last week, logging a pair of interceptions. While one was on a tipped ball that could have also gone to Jeffrey Okudah, Joseph read the second brilliantly and made what could have ended up being a game-altering play. Joseph also has a little bit of a smaller sample size given that he has only played five weeks of meaningful football before contributing to special teams. He has only been targeted in the passing game 11 times, but is allowing a 54% completion rate. I was admittedly a little torn on Joseph, as some of his early tape has some missed tackles, such as a big one on Rhamondre Stevenson in the New England game, but then you see it in flashes: The guy can go from a standstill posture to being attached to a wide receiver in a second. He’s comfortable against any receiver-body type, and he doesn’t make silly mistakes in coverage. Against a Dolphins team that was trying to conflict them deep, he felt, to me at least, like a really practical player, a person in the secondary who doesn’t allow the speed of the game to cause mistakes.
