{"id":20086,"date":"2025-05-03T08:04:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T08:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/20086\/"},"modified":"2025-05-03T08:04:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T08:04:16","slug":"4-teams-that-put-immense-pressure-on-their-rookies-to-justify-their-nfl-draft-moves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/20086\/","title":{"rendered":"4 teams that put immense pressure on their rookies to justify their NFL Draft moves"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s every fan\u2019s favorite time of year: hope season. The 90-man rosters are set for the summer, with most teams knowing the general framework for the team they\u2019re going to be in the fall. However, there are a handful of teams that still have a few serious questions to answer in the coming months.<\/p>\n

Atlanta Falcons<\/p>\n

The Falcons were a big story of NFL Draft<\/a> weekend for reasons on and off the field, but let\u2019s focus on their on-field evaluation. They drafted Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr. in the first round, hopefully fixing a pass rush problem that has plagued the team for over a decade. Despite addressing the need, they\u2019ve left themselves susceptible against the run with the players they\u2019ve assembled on the interior defensive line and linebacker room. Neither Walker nor Pearce is among the biggest defenders, so there\u2019s a real chance that the Falcons’ run defense could be so bad it takes them out of games. With the development of quarterback Michael Penix Jr. still looming, the Falcons may find themselves in a spot where they regret trading up for Pearce at the bottom of the first round<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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That was a risk they were willing to take, but it feels like the Falcons have built the ultimate bend-but-don\u2019t-break defense with a quarterback who has only three starts on the other side of it.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati Bengals<\/p>\n

Cincinnati will have one of the best offenses in the league \u2014 that will always be true as long as Joe Burrow, Ja\u2019Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are all on the same team. What they needed to do was fix a defense that had really started to deteriorate in talent over the past few years.<\/p>\n

They addressed the issue to some degree<\/a> with early picks on Shemar Stewart, Demetrius Knight Jr. and Barrett Carter, but all those players are long-term projects for a defense that needs help right now. Perhaps those guys will get off to a hot start and be productive pros, but they might be a couple years away from being the impact players the Bengals\u2019 defense needs.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

The Bengals drafted Texas A&M defensive lineman Shemar Stewart in the first round, but will that be enough to fix what was an abysmal defense last year? (AP Photo\/Joe Maiorana)<\/p>\n

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)<\/p>\n

Even Dylan Fairchild, the offensive guard from Georgia the Bengals took in Round 3, is a bit of a project. All of these guys have high-end athleticism and upside, but there is a worry that they won\u2019t be ready to get the Bengals where they need to be to compete for a Super Bowl this season. This is a very volatile draft class that could swing in either direction.<\/p>\n

Houston Texans<\/p>\n

Houston wisely picked up draft capital by trading down<\/a>, but the Texans spent only one premium pick on offensive line in Minnesota offensive tackle Aireontae Ersery. That\u2019s probably because they spent a lot on the offensive line during free agency, but it\u2019s fair to wonder if they\u2019ve acquired enough quality talent up front. The additions of Cam Robinson, Laken Tomlinson and Ed Ingram make for a crowded room on the offensive line, but they have to get more talented up front to avoid the disaster they saw last year under offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, who was let go after the season. They\u2019ve likely fixed their wide receiver problem with the selection of Iowa State wide receivers Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel, but that might not have actually been Houston’s biggest problem. It addressed the offensive line, but maybe not in the most productive manner.<\/p>\n

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San Francisco 49ers<\/p>\n

The 49ers had a bizarre draft<\/a>. They started off with two players in Mykel Williams and Alfred Collins to help them get tougher against the run, but then they doubled back with two third-round picks that might make life harder for those guys. Linebacker Nick Martin and cornerback Upton Stout are two of the smallest defensive players in the draft for their positions. As third-round picks, they\u2019ll be expected to start soon. It\u2019ll be interesting to see if those guys can get on the field early and buck the trend as smaller players who will be a part of the run defense as they try to fix that unit and get back to a championship-caliber roster.<\/p>\n

San Francisco\u2019s offense should be more stable than it was a year ago, but its defense might be volatile with the additions the Niners made in the third round \u2014 unless Williams and Collins are truly elite run defenders off the bat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s every fan\u2019s favorite time of year: hope season. The 90-man rosters are set for the summer, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[286,583,254,2778,1820,256,1769,1165,1812,7,253,1486,1497,569,289,1577,1826,1879,233,1493,6,15,1161,252,1496,2978],"class_list":{"0":"post-20086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-aireontae-ersery","9":"tag-alfred-collins","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-barrett-carter","12":"tag-cam-robinson","13":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","14":"tag-demetrius-knight-jr","15":"tag-dylan-fairchild","16":"tag-ed-ingram","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-houston-texans","19":"tag-jalon-walker","20":"tag-james-pearce","21":"tag-jayden-higgins","22":"tag-jaylin-noel","23":"tag-joe-burrow","24":"tag-laken-tomlinson","25":"tag-michael-penix-jr","26":"tag-minnesota","27":"tag-mykel-williams","28":"tag-nfl","29":"tag-nfl-draft","30":"tag-san-francisco","31":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","32":"tag-shemar-stewart","33":"tag-tee-higgins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114442867040454656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20086","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=20086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}