There's always excitement after the NFL draft. There are high expectations for the incoming rookies, and fans are optimistic that their favorite team has filled several holes with promising young players.
It's not always that simple. Some rookies will get injured for weeks or miss the whole season, like Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (knee), who might have started over Sam Darnold if he had been healthy. Others will struggle once they get on the field or never get serious playing time. On the other hand, a few picks become immediate stars, while some teams find contributors among undrafted free agents.
It's time to evaluate every NFL rookie class, ranking the value of their contributions in 2024 from 1 to 32. This ranking is based on only production from this season. Players who started the entire year -- including undrafted free agents -- are worth more here than players who started only three games, such as Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr.
To rank the rookie classes, I started with Sports Info Solutions' total points metric. Based on game charting, total points takes every element of a play and uses that data to evaluate each player on a scale that allows comparisons between positions. In other words, it estimates how many points this player either earned for his offense or saved for his defense. Read more about how it works here. Then, I adjusted teams up or down based on the importance of certain positions or how well players did in ESPN tracking metrics and the FTN Network DVOA ratings. Postseason performance is not included.
The top two teams in 2024 are way ahead of the rest of the league in total points from rookies, and this list is headed up by a team that finished second on this list a season ago.
Jump to a team:
ARI | ATL | BAL | BUF | CAR | CHI | CIN
CLE | DAL | DEN | DET | GB | HOU | IND
JAX | KC | LAC | LAR | LV | MIA | MIN
NE | NO | NYG | NYJ | PHI | PIT | SF
SEA | TB | TEN | WSH
