{"id":165498,"date":"2025-06-28T15:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T15:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/165498\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T15:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T15:08:12","slug":"nick-nash-named-rookie-of-the-year-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/165498\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Nash named Rookie of the Year candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Undrafted wide receiver Nick Nash listed as Falcons&#8217; Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate for 2025 NFL season<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/thefalconswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/falcons\/2025\/06\/27\/atlanta-falcons-michael-penix-jr-praises-ryan-neuzil-matt-ryan\/84380641007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Atlanta Falcons<\/a> went into the 2025 NFL draft with a clear goal to upgrade their defense. Four of the team&#8217;s five draft picks were used on defensive players, including both first-round selections. Next season, the Falcons could have as many as three <a href=\"https:\/\/thefalconswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/falcons\/2025\/06\/16\/atlanta-falcons-pff-grades-projected-starting-defense-in-2025\/84229500007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rookies starters<\/a> on defense.<\/p>\n<p>Offensively, the team returns 10 of 11 starters from last season. Center Drew Dalman signed with the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/chicago-bears\/326\" data-autotag=\"69c69e75-f807-4542-90d2-619e6d4a23b1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chicago Bears<\/a> in free agency, leaving the job to former undrafted free agent <a href=\"https:\/\/thefalconswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/falcons\/2025\/06\/27\/atlanta-falcons-michael-penix-jr-praises-ryan-neuzil-matt-ryan\/84380641007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Neuzil<\/a>. The Falcons offense has top-10 upside, and while there aren&#8217;t many new faces, the team did add some intriguing <a href=\"https:\/\/thefalconswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/falcons\/2025\/04\/26\/2025-nfl-draft-falcons-undrafted-free-agent-tracker\/83293720007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">undrafted free agents<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/profootballnetwork.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pro Football Sports Network<\/a> listed one potential Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate for each team. Since the Falcons only selected one offensive player in the 2025 NFL draft, the options were limited. Offensive tackle Jack Nelson was a seventh-round pick with little chance to play this season.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of just going with Nelson, PFSN looked to Atlanta&#8217;s undrafted free agent class for a better solution. Wide receiver <a href=\"https:\/\/thefalconswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/falcons\/2025\/06\/09\/falcons-news-kirk-cousins-makes-new-53-man-roster-projection\/84116593007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nick Nash<\/a> was listed as the team&#8217;s Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate.<\/p>\n<p>Falcons WR Nick Nash named OROY candidate by PFSN<\/p>\n<p>Nick Nash joins the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/atlanta-falcons\/323\" data-autotag=\"55e278ca-caf0-429b-8b4a-caeb78bff5ff\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Atlanta Falcons<\/a> as an undrafted free agent. Nevertheless, his college production and athletic traits could have an instant impact on the passing offense in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Nash led all college football receivers in receiving yards and touchdowns with the San Jose State Spartans in 2024, accumulating 1,382 yards and 16 touchdowns, transitioning to the position full-time. A former quarterback recruit, Nash has the instincts and natural game feel to impact the field in multiple situations. He could even be used in specialized situations as a passer or rusher. &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballnetwork.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Owain Jones, PFSN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nash might be a project, but the former quarterback-turned-wide receiver has a ton of potential. NFL.com&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/prospects\/nick-nash\/32004e41-5338-4527-25f6-56e5009325dd\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lance Zierlein<\/a> projected Nash as a fifth-round prospect ahead of the 2025 NFL draft. The former San Jose State wideout has good size (6-foot-2, 203 pounds), speed (4.57 seconds in 40-yard dash) and ball skills (16 touchdowns last season).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nash\u2019s competitiveness, ball skills and football character give him a chance to become a productive three-level slot receiver in the pros,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/prospects\/nick-nash\/32004e41-5338-4527-25f6-56e5009325dd\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zierlein wrote in Nash&#8217;s scouting report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that Nash went undrafted was a bit of a surprise, but he has a real chance to make the team. In our most recent <a href=\"https:\/\/thefalconswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/falcons\/2025\/06\/09\/falcons-news-kirk-cousins-makes-new-53-man-roster-projection\/84116593007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Falcons 53-man roster projection<\/a>, Nash snuck in as our final wide receiver. Keep your eyes on the rookie wideout once <a href=\"https:\/\/thefalconswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/falcons\/2025\/06\/12\/atlanta-falcons-training-camp-schedule-11-open-practice-dates\/84171650007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">training camp<\/a> begins in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Undrafted wide receiver Nick Nash listed as Falcons&#8217; Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate for 2025 NFL season&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[204,80,247,265,223,254,2554,374,692,391,2544,19,2543,2551,224,7,20842,248,267,19389,88,6,35196,245,537,530,4791,11428,9,266],"class_list":{"0":"post-165498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-204","9":"tag-2025-nfl-draft","10":"tag-american","11":"tag-american-football","12":"tag-atlanta","13":"tag-atlanta-falcons","14":"tag-atlantafalcons","15":"tag-bears","16":"tag-chicago","17":"tag-chicago-bears","18":"tag-dalman","19":"tag-draft","20":"tag-drew","21":"tag-drew-dalman","22":"tag-falcons","23":"tag-football","24":"tag-hub","25":"tag-national","26":"tag-national-sports","27":"tag-neuzil","28":"tag-news","29":"tag-nfl","30":"tag-nfl-hub","31":"tag-overall","32":"tag-overall-positive","33":"tag-positive","34":"tag-ryan","35":"tag-ryan-neuzil","36":"tag-sports","37":"tag-sports-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114761623487528427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}