Tag: 2021 rookie class

Who was Washington’s top rookie in the preseason?

Pro Football Focus ranked every rookie this preseason. Who was Washington’s highest-rated rookie? And lowest-rated rookie?

The Washington Football Team completed the preseason last week with a 1-2 record after losing the Baltimore Ravens in the finale.

It was a positive and productive preseason for Washington because the team stayed healthy heading into Week 1 of the regular season next Sunday.

Another reason this preseason was a good one for Washington was the play of several rookies. Undrafted running back Jaret Patterson received plenty of headlines as players who touch the ball often do. Patterson was fantastic for Washington in all phases and ended the preseason as the team’s No. 3 back for the regular season.

Despite Patterson’s preseason success, was he Washington’s top-graded rookie, according to Pro Football Focus?

No, that honor would go to second-round pick Sam Cosmi.

PFF gave Cosmi a grade of 81.8, offering the following analysis of his preseason play:

Cosmi doesn’t have the luxury of elite players around him to mask some deficiencies. They need him to be ready ASAP, and he looked as much in the run game where he earned a 92.5 grade.

Cosmi ran with the second team at right tackle during minicamp, but Cornelius Lucas opened training camp on the reserve/COVID-19 list, and Cosmi moved into the starting lineup. After struggling initially, he improved over each day and had solid efforts in both preseason games in which he played.

So, which Washington rookie had the lowest grade, per PFF?

That would be first-round Jamin Davis.

PFF game Davis a grade of 43.6.

With only one year as a starter in a limited role at Kentucky, Davis was not the type of player you’d expect to make an immediate impact. The speed of the game in a new system may just take some catching up.

I wouldn’t put too much stock in that grade. Davis played a limited amount of snaps, and, as PFF included in their analysis, he is still catching up to the speed of the game.

 

Cowboys News: Rookies on facing Tom Brady, jersey number changes, Tyron Smith and La’el Collins updates

Osa Odighizuwa provides a scouting report on the Bucs’ QB, Tony Romo and Phil Simms weigh in on Dak, updates on two key O-linemen. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy has turned his focus to Tampa Bay. With the Dallas defense facing a stiff test in the season opener against Tom Brady, the Cowboys rookies on that side of the ball are both awed and determined at the prospect of taking on the GOAT. Osa Odighizuwa, for one, has even done some scouting of the seven-time Super Bowl champ, and he thinks he’s found a weakness or two.

The business of game-planning for an opponent comes now that the Cowboys have thinned their roster to 53, though the personnel shuffling continues. Several players were placed on short-term IR Thursday, to allow several others to come off the COVID list. And if that’s not confusing enough, several more players have picked new jersey numbers to wear. There’s reaction to Cam Newton’s sudden unemployment status, updates on Tyron Smith and La’el Collins, expert analysis on what to expect from Dak Prescott in Week 1, and early predictions on who will walk away with the NFC East crown and an automatic playoff bid. News and Notes, coming right up.

Gil Brandt: Cowboys LB Micah Parsons among rookies in best position to succeed

The legendary talent scout says Dallas’s first-round pick could step in and make an immediate impact on a defense that got gashed last year.

Gil Brandt knows a thing or two thousand about evaluating football players. He was instrumental in finding and scouting countless players over his tenure of nearly three decades as the Cowboys’ vice president of player personnel. From pioneering the process of grading collegiate football stars to scouring other sports for athletes who could transition to the gridiron, from seeking out small-school prospects to helping create the NFL combine, few men have demonstrated as keen an eye for identifying football talent.

So when Brandt singles out a Cowboys draft pick as one of the league’s rookies in the most favorable situations for immediate success, it’s worth noting. And Brandt says linebacker Micah Parsons has just such a stage set for him in Dallas.

Of the 259 players selected in this year’s draft, the numerous undrafted free agents, and the other invited players looking to make up the league’s rookie class of 2021, Brandt selected just eight that he thinks have the best chance- based on their team’s situation- to make a splash right away.

“It can be easy to forget,” Brandt points out in his NFL.com column, “that team fit and other surrounding circumstances can have as much to do with rookie success as anything.”

It’s those surrounding circumstances- particularly the Cowboys’ poor defensive showing last season- that gives the Penn State product a leg up on making his impact felt right from the jump in Dallas.

Of Parsons, Brandt says:

“For a variety of reasons, linebacker play slipped considerably in Dallas last season, and the Cowboys hope installing the 12th overall pick in new defensive coordinator Dan Quinn’s system will reverse that downward trend. Parsons’ skill set will enable him to both play a traditional linebacker role and help DeMarcus Lawrence rush the passer off the edge. The team apparently feels bullish enough about Parsons that one-time Pro Bowler Leighton Vander Esch — who has been slowed recently by injuries — had his fifth-year option declined in the days following the draft.”

By all accounts, Parsons got off to a strong start during the weekend’s minicamp, seeing time at the middle linebacker spot. The rookie will turn just 22 years old next week.

But the legendary 89-year-old scout is already impressed by what he sees.

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