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The staff at Packers Wire answered this question: Who is an under-the-radar breakout candidate for the Packers in 2023?
Pro Football Focus believes Christian Watson, Josh Myers and Devonte Wyatt could be breakout players for the Green Bay Packers in 2023. Jordan Love, Romeo Doubs, Zach Tom and TJ Slaton are other potential breakout candidates entering the season.
But almost every year, a player breaks out unexpectedly (see: Keisean Nixon as a kick returner last season).
So, who are some under-the-radar breakout candidates for the Packers in 2023?
Our staff at Packers Wire made their picks:
Taking a look at the biggest breakout candidates for the Colts in 2023.
The Indianapolis Colts have added a ton of young talent in the last few draft classes.
Some players have developed into key contributors, some have outright busted while some are somewhere in the middle.
These in-between players entering Year 3 or are in the final year of a contract, while not outright busts by any stretch, must take advantage of the opportunity presented to them and finally turn those flashes into full-fledged production.
There are also younger second-year players who performed well in 2022 and feel due for even more production ahead or simply will get more opportunities afforded to them in Year 2.
Here are seven breakout candidates for the Colts in the 2023 season:
Smith impressed as a true freshman, and he’s expected to take a leap this fall.
With so many new faces on this year’s LSU roster, there are a number of positions of concern entering into the season. Defensive line is not among them.
The Tigers have a talented group that features veterans [autotag]Jaquelin Roy[/autotag] and [autotag]Ali Gaye[/autotag], as well as edge rusher [autotag]BJ Ojulari[/autotag], who is expected to be one of the SEC’s best pass rushers.
But perhaps the most intriguing member of the group is [autotag]Maason Smith[/autotag], a sophomore and former five-star recruit who appeared in nine games and started four during an impressive true freshman campaign in 2021. Smith is expected to have a breakout season, and he was listed by Athlon as one of 50 breakout candidates in college football this fall.
Smith may not post huge statistics as the anchor in the middle of LSU’s defensive line, but the trajectory of his career in Baton Rouge is clearly pointing up. The Louisiana native impressed with 19 stops (five for a loss) and four sacks in nine games as a true freshman last fall.
As mentioned above, Smith may not rake in the stats this season. But his 6-foot-5, 300-pound frame makes him an absolute menace up front that should hinder opponents’ rushing attacks while also wreaking havoc on passing downs.
LSU expects big things from Smith this year, and after the season he turned in last year, he should take a major leap in Year 1 with [autotag]Matt House[/autotag] as his defensive coordinator.
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These Longhorns have the potential for monster 2022 seasons.
Steve Sarkisian and the Texas staff have their eyes set on a bounce-back 2022 season.
A rebuilt roster with an influx of talent via the transfer portal and high school ranks has people around the program feeling confident major improvement is coming.
Texas signed the No. 5 recruiting class for the 2022 cycle along with a strong list of exciting transfers, including quarterback Quinn Ewers and wide receiver Isaiah Neyor. The fresh faces on the team hope to establish themselves as premier players in the Big 12 Conference in 2022.
Wide receiver Xavier Worthy and defense back Anthony Cook enjoyed breakout seasons for the Horns in 2021. Texas needs multiple players to step up in a similar way if they want to reach their goal of competing for a Big 12 title this fall.
Here is a look at one breakout candidate for each position group entering the 2022 season. Big seasons from these Longhorns would go a long way towards getting the program headed in the right direction.
PFF recently listed breakout candidates by position for the 2022 season, here’s their selections on offense.
It’s no secret that the Texas Longhorns had a terrific offseason when it comes to acquiring high level talent. Continue reading “PFF deems Texas’ Quinn Ewers the breakout quarterback for 2022 season”
Jones found his groove down the stretch in 2021. Can he build on that in 2022?
Recently, we took a look at [autotag]Garrett Dellinger[/autotag] and [autotag]John Emery[/autotag], two guys who LSU could be counting on to breakout.
Today, we’ll take a look at linebacker [autotag]Mike Jones Jr.[/autotag], who could also be critical to the Tigers’ efforts in 2022.
Jones transferred to LSU in the summer of 2021, and it seemed like a perfect match. LSU needed help after a dreadful 2020 on defense that saw some of its worst play at safety and linebacker in years. Jones was seen as a guy that could aid the team in both places.
In 2020 at Clemson, he was named to the All-ACC list by Pro Football Focus. As a redshirt freshman in 2020, he saw action in all 15 games, including special teams snaps against LSU in the national championship game.
When Jones only played one snap in the opener against UCLA, many were surprised. The next three games presented more snaps for Jones, but against Auburn, he was back down to just two snaps. A couple of weeks later against Florida, just one again.
It wasn’t until after the bye week, against Alabama, that Jones saw more time. That bye week is also the period in which LSU almost entirely reinvented its defense, resulting in it looking like one of the best units in the country down the stretch.
In that Alabama game, Jones lined up all over the place, much like people thought he would when he first joined LSU. Playing a role in its new blitz packages, Jones recorded three pressures and a sack.
Jones saw a healthy amount of playing time the next week against Arkansas, where LSU held the Razorbacks to just one touchdown all night. Against ULM the next week, Jones added three more pressures.
While he never became a dominant or All-SEC player with LSU in 2021, he found a role, starting the final five games, something that wasn’t close to guaranteed when he was riding the bench against UCLA.
Jones is a former four-star recruit and was ranked as the 210th best player in 2018 on the 247Sports Composite. He’s talented and versatile, a combination defensive coordinators love to see.
With the loss of [autotag]Damone Clark[/autotag], a linebacker whose speed allowed him to have an effect in the passing game, LSU needs Jones to step up. The opportunity is there with a new staff and some open spots on that defense.
In a conference where speed is the name of the game, and a sport where defense is more about making plays than trying to play consistently from drive to drive, someone with Jones’ ability is invaluable.
Will he be one of the best defenders in the SEC? Probably not, but it is on the high end of probabilities. Can he be a real difference-maker for LSU? Yes, and the Tigers probably need him to be.
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Trevor Lawrence and Andre Cisco could be poised to make big jumps in Year 2.
It was a fairly disappointing season from Jacksonville’s rookie class. Aside from Tyson Campbell, who started most of the year at cornerback on the outside and improved quite a bit, there wasn’t much encouraging from this class.
But there is hope that the group could take a big leap in Year 2, and Pro Football Focus identified two of them as potential breakout candidates in 2022: quarterback Trevor Lawrence and safety Andre Cisco.
Lawrence finished the year with nine touchdowns to seven interceptions, and he completed less than 60% of his passes on the season. Still, he showed enough positives for there to be optimism about his play moving forward.
File this one under “no duh.” Look no further than an 85.1 passing grade in an upset win over the Indianapolis Colts and their top-10 defense in Week 18 to see what Lawrence is capable of. Outside of that, there really wasn’t too much in the way of positive takeaways from his rookie season. Between one of the ugliest coaching situations in recent memory and a banged-up supporting cast, Lawrence wasn’t put in near the situation to succeed that he should be in this upcoming season.
Unlike Lawrence, Cisco didn’t see a lot of action until later in the season. He appeared in every game but only started the final three due to injury. He impressed in those contests and could be poised to win the starting job in 2022.
Cisco was an afterthought when Urban Meyer was the Jaguars’ head coach, but the Syracuse product looked like one of the team’s best defenders when he took over as a starter in Week 16. He allowed only one catch for 12 yards while adding a pass breakup over the final three games of the season. The range Cisco was known for with the Orange stood out amongst the Jaguars safeties. Expect considerably more ball production in Year 2.
The Jaguars expected more from both players this season, but they both had impressive moments and ended the season on high notes. The early returns on the 2021 draft class haven’t been great so far, but the team will hope that changes down the line.
Big seasons from these players could put Texas over the top.
The 2022 Longhorns do not have many question marks entering the new season. Texas returns a star-studded pitching staff as well as a very experienced lineup from a team that was right on the doorstep of playing for a national title.
For that reason, most media outlets have Texas ranked as the preseason No. 1 team in the country.
Much of the success of the Horns’ 2021 season came from breakout stars Mike Antico and Ivan Melendez along with freshman All-Americans Tanner Witt, Mitchell Daly and Aaron Nixon. Even Tristian Stevens who was an older guy stepped up and became an All-Big 12 weekend pitcher.
On paper, Texas has another Omaha caliber roster but if the Horns have a few breakout players similar to last year, the sky is the limit for this group.
Here is a list of five players who could have breakout seasons this spring and put Texas over the top:
Breakout performances of young players might be one of the most exciting parts of training camp. Who could break out for the Packers this summer?
Training camp is often the setting for young players on the brink of something big to take the next step and become a legitimate difference-maker for their team.
Who will be the breakout players for the Green Bay Packers this summer?
For the sake of this exercise, no rookies will be included. Only players with at least one year of experience.
Here are the five best breakout candidates for Matt LaFleur’s team at training camp:
K’Lavon Chaisson may not have lived up to his first-round billing as a rookie, but with the new system, he could be poised for success.
K’Lavon Chaisson’s rookie season wasn’t exactly what the Jacksonville Jaguars were hoping for when they used the 20th pick in last year’s NFL Draft on the defensive end.
Though he appeared in all 16 games in 2020, he started just three and totaled only 19 tackles in the process. He managed to put some pressure on opposing quarterbacks, hitting them nine times on the season, but that didn’t translate to eye-popping off the edge, as he managed just one sack on the year.
It’s certainly not time to panic, though. A lot of Chaisson’s struggles can likely be explained by a scheme that wasn’t built around his skillset. Under previous defensive coordinator Todd Wash, the team ran almost exclusively a Cover 3 scheme with a 4-3 base.
For Chaisson, who is a bit undersized as a down defensive lineman at just 6-foot-3 and 254 pounds, that didn’t exactly fit his abilities. In college at Louisiana State, he played almost exclusively as a stand-up, 3-4 edge rusher, and that didn’t translate well at all to Wash’s defense.
With new defensive coordinator Joe Cullen installing a multiple defense, it stands to reason that the team will run more 3-4, which will allow Chaisson to play in his more natural position.
Because of that, it shouldn’t be surprising that many in the national media think he’s poised for a breakout Year 2. On Bleacher Report’s list of breakout candidates for each team, Chaisson was the player listed for Jacksonville.
New Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer made his approach to team-building apparent. The defensive line takes priority.
“That was the place we built, and I believe we’re going to be in the top fourth in the league on the defensive line,” Meyer told reporters.
Josh Allen is an exciting edge-rusher, though he’s coming off a season-ending knee injury. The Jaguars added linemen Tyson Alualu, Malcom Brown and Jihad Ward in free agency.
A bookend to Allen would go a long way toward solidifying this group.
Jacksonville chose K’Lavon Chaisson with the 20th pick in last year’s draft. But Chaisson did not show the same type of fluidity as he did with LSU. A fully realized Chaisson could boost the line beyond Meyer’s lofty expectations.
With the mentioned additions to the defensive line, there should be less pressure on Chaisson in 2021. Still, the Jaguars didn’t do as much to address the edge as they did the interior, and they’re banking on the second-year player to make major strides this season. If he can, the young edge-rushing tandem of Chaisson and Allen could be dangerous in the league for years to come.
