Welcome to the first installment of the SB Nation Rookie Watch, a series meant to track and analyze rookie player performances throughout the season. Making the jump from college football to the NFL is notoriously difficult: new schemes, new systems, new coaches, new teammates, and bigger, faster and better opponents across the board.
Sammy Watkins, Kyle Fuller make biggest impacts in NFL Week 2 rookie watch
There are several rookies making an immediate impact in the first month of the NFL season, but Sammy Watkins and Kyle Fuller had the greatest effect in their Week 2 games for the Bills and Bears.
Ezra Shaw
Bottom line, more than 230 players get drafted every year, and even if you’re taken in the first few rounds, the odds aren’t great that you’ll become an effective, productive starter in this league. With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few rookies who stood out in Week 2 for their new teams.
Watkins showing up on this list is hardly a surprise, but the fact he's helped lead the Bills to a 2-0 start may be. As a receiver, Watkins has it all -- speed, power, body control, catch radius. And I believe a huge part of the Bills' logic behind using the fourth overall pick on him -- rather than a big-time pass rusher, an offensive lineman or a defensive lineman -- was to provide second-year (hopefully franchise) quarterback EJ Manuel with a great weapon to target on offense. Manuel was a huge investment in 2013 and a guy like Watkins could, in their minds, take a ton of pressure off of their quarterback to do it all himself.
Against the Dolphins this week, that plan seemed to come to fruition. Watkins was targeted 11 times, catching eight passes for 117 yards and a touchdown, and if you watch his highlight reel from the game, you'll notice he was used in the intermediate area heavily. Crossing patterns with natural "picks" were the big game plan in this one, and his speed and size against both man and zone coverage gave Manuel relatively easy throws.
His touchdown catch was a great example.
I’d expect to see Watkins continue to get targets on crossing patterns and comebacks over the middle. He’s a receiver who runs like a running back, so he can still get big yardage without forcing Manuel to carry the offense with too many difficult downfield throws.
RB Jeremy Hill
The Bengals believe in balance on offense and love running the football (45 totes this week to just 24 throws), so it made sense when they added Jeremy Hill in the second round this year. Cincy envisioned him as a "thunder" element to complement Gio Bernard as the "lightning" in their offense, and in Week 2, that combination showed up. Hill only got 15 carries, but the 238-pound bruiser broke tackles up the gut, steamrolled a few second-level defenders, and even took a few carries around the corner, showcasing his excellent athleticism.
I’ve heard that this type of 2:1 share of carries is around where the Bengals want to split the load between Hill and Bernard, but if Hill keeps averaging nearly 5 yards per carry, that ratio might get closer to a true committee type of situation.
RBs Terrance West & Isaiah Crowell
The Browns are another team that believe in running the rock under new offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. With the injury to starter Ben Tate, rookies West and Crowell have stepped up into the fold and produced. In the Week 2 upset victory over the Saints, West ran the ball 19 times for 68 yards and a touchdown, and Crowell added 11 carries for 54 yards.
West runs with balance and vision and looks to be a perfect fit in the zone-blocking scheme. His selection by the Browns in the third round now looks like a prescient decision, especially considering free agent signee Ben Tate's injury history.
Crowell has once again been showcasing the explosive burst that originally made him the SEC Freshman of the Year at Georgia (before he transferred to Alabama State to finish his collegiate career). It’s fun to see him not only make the Browns’ squad after surprisingly going undrafted, but also to find some playing time on the field as a rookie. Talent has never been the issue with Crowell, and if he can continue to show consistency, you may be hearing his name more often this year.
Speaking of players with a ton of talent who had a few red flags, Seantrel Henderson appears to be rewarding the Bills for taking him with a late seventh-round pick. Henderson took the Vontaze Burfict track to the NFL -- a disastrous pre-draft period combined with a track record of suspensions and team discipline did nothing to give teams any confidence that he was ready to be a pro, but somehow he's broken not only on to the Bills' roster, but into their starting lineup. Even more encouraging, he bottled up Cam Wake this week from the right tackle position, which is no easy task. After Wake grabbed two sacks and two forced fumbles against the Patriots in Week 1, he was quiet in Week 2.
Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
OG Gabe Jackson
Remarkably, Jackson held his own. He wasn’t matched up across from Watt on every play -- the All-Pro moves around from tackle to end in Houston’s scheme -- but when he was, Jackson displayed good functional movement in a phone booth along with great ballast and anchor. I can’t really overstate how difficult it is to not only stonewall a Watt bull rush, but to move and reset once he’s exploded into a gap next to you. Jackson did both of these things on Sunday, a great start for the third-round pick out of Mississippi State.
CB Kyle Fuller
Last on our list of rookie standouts this week is Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller, who was deservedly named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week after picking off Colin Kaepernick twice in the fourth quarter of Sunday night's game. Both picks, coming on successive 49ers drives, led to touchdowns for the Bears, and helped them overcome a 17-point deficit.
The Bears picked Fuller in the first round of the draft this year but probably didn’t realize they would need to call on him so quickly in the season. After losing Peanut Tillman for the year, Chicago used Fuller quite a bit in this game, and he emulated some of Tillman’s crazy ball skills to grab his first pick.
As you can see below, the Bears run a cover-3 look and Fuller (bottom) bails at the snap, making sure to keep his eyes trained in the backfield while tracking receiver Michael Crabtree. A huge part of cornerback play is reading routes, and Fuller demonstrates that well by recognizing that Kaepernick is throwing after a quick drop. He jumps the route, looking to break up the pass, and it somehow ends up in his arms.
The next drive, the Bears get another huge play from Fuller, again in a cover-3 type of look. In the All-22 footage below, Chicago disguises its coverage prior to the snap as a cover-2 scheme, but quickly rotates into a cover-3 when the ball is snapped.
Fuller, instead of taking the short flats area that a cover-2 would call for, now has deep-third responsibility of a cover-3.
When Kaepernick scrambles and decides to throw to a deep crossing route by Derek Carrier, it's possible that the Niners' signal caller thought Fuller wouldn't be quite so deep (it's also quite possible he just thought he could float it over the top of him).
In either case, Kaep ends up being wrong, and Fuller, after stumbling briefly, recovers to make the pick. It’s unfortunate for the Niners, because it actually appears for a second that Fuller had bitten on the underneath route (as seen in the GIF), but he’s able to react and get into the passing lane in time.
The Bears capitalized on the turnover, and upset the Niners at their home.
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