As we enter the final quarter of the 2017 NFL regular season, we take a fresh look at the league’s top 10 rookies this season and rank them.
1. New Orleans Saints RB Alvin Kamara: The third-round pick out of Tennessee is only the third rookie in NFL history to post 600-plus yards as both a rusher and a receiver, and he’s still got four weeks to go.
2. Saints OT Ryan Ramczyk: The first-rounder out of Wisconsin is getting better and better each week and will probably wind up in the Pro Bowl.
3. Saints CB Marshon Lattimore: He’s still probably leading the defensive player of the year race after dominating the first 10 weeks of the season, but his grip has loosened as he has missed the last two games due to injury.
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4. Buffalo Bills CB Tre’Davious White: The first-round pick out of LSU continues to be stellar in coverage, and he now has interceptions in back-to-back games. He was concussed late in Sunday’s affair as a result of an incredibly dirty hit from Rob Gronkowski, but hopefully that doesn’t force him to miss time.
5. Los Angeles Rams WR Cooper Kupp: In his last six games Kupp has caught nearly 70 percent of the passes thrown his way for 400 yards. The third-round pick out of Eastern Washington might make a run at 1,000 this season.
6. Los Angeles Chargers CB Desmond King: The fifth-round pick out of Iowa continues to impress. He picked up a sack and was superb in the return game against the Browns.
7. Kansas City Chiefs RB Kareem Hunt: Hunt’s 63 scrimmage yards against the Jets isn’t bad considering he touched the ball only 12 times. The Chiefs haven’t been giving him enough opportunities, but he still ranks third in the league with 930 rushing yards.
8. Pittsburgh Steelers WR JuJu Smith-Schuster: For whatever reason, controversy plagued top-notch rookies this week. And while White was victimized by Gronkowski’s act of violence in Buffalo, Smith-Schuster was the culprit in Cincinnati. The suspension resulting from his blind-side hit and taunting of an injured player hurts, as does the fact he has just 64 receiving yards the last two weeks.
9. Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett: He hasn’t been healthy but still has five sacks in seven games and is coming off a pressure-filled outing against the Chargers.
10. San Francisco 49ers LB Reuben Foster: The highly-touted first-rounder out of Alabama has 37 solo tackles in just six games. According to Pro Football Focus, he ranks fourth among linebackers with an 11.7 run stop percentage.
Honorable mentions: Rams S John Johnson III, Carolina Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey, Steelers OLB T.J. Watt, New York Jets S Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye, Cincinnati Bengals DE Carl Lawson, Jacksonville Jaguars RB Leonard Fournette, Detroit Lions LB Jarrad Davis, Houston Texans QB Deshaun Watson, New York Giants DT Dalvin Tomlinson and WR Evan Engram, Chicago Bears RB Tarik Cohen, QB Mitchell Trubisky and S Eddie Jackson
