In the end, the best of the best of the 2021 NFL rookie class was found largely on the first two days of the draft. Four of the top 10 players in our final rookie rankings of the season — which factored in only regular-season performance — were selected in the 2021 draft’s top 10 picks. And every player who made the top 10 was selected in either the first or second round.
But even after all of the discussion about the quarterbacks leading up to the draft and through the preseason, few of the class’ signal-callers were among the league’s best first-year players. In fact, only one QB cracked our rankings. One of the top defensive draft picks led the pack: Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons multitasked his way to a future remember-when kind of season.
So, for one last time this season, let’s run through the top 10 rookies in the NFL. Per usual, we polled personnel executives around the league to get their thoughts and worked our way through game tape to make the list. We also include those who just missed the list and a few other names to keep handy in the coming years. Finally, we looked to ESPN Stats & Information’s Seth Walder to pick an under-the-radar rookie to keep an eye on. We begin in Dallas.
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Top 10 | Just missed
Notes | Under the radar
Stats: 84 tackles, 13 sacks, 3 forced fumbles
Drafted: No. 12 overall
Parsons is enormously disruptive with consistent efficiency in the pass rush. He was one of six players in the league with at least 13 sacks — 10.5 of which came after Week 8 — and was just 1.5 sacks from Jevon Kearse’s rookie record. Plus, Parsons was reliable in coverage and a point-of-attack defender in the run game, with the range to chase down ball carriers even when the play was designed to run away from him. Few, if any, defensive players in the NFL showed consistent excellence across such an expansive job description, let alone a rookie.
Stats: 3,801 passing yards, 22 TDs, 13 INTs
Drafted: No. 15 overall
Jones discovered down the stretch…
Source : espn
