The preseason is hardly a crystal ball. However, for rookies who’ve never experienced the speed of the NFL game live, it’s often a terrific early test to see which draft picks — especially the first-rounders — are ready to start providing returns on their teams’ investments. And, just as important, it can reveal which ones aren’t quite there yet.
Advertisement It’s not that cut and dry, of course. It all depends on the team. Atlanta’s not rushing anything.
The Jets aren’t either, though they’ve seen serious growth anyway. And Denver, perhaps more than any other team, learned a ton about its 2024 Round 1 selection. Let’s stack up how every 2024 first-rounder did this preseason.
GO DEEPER NFL Draft 2025 Big Board: Which prospects cracked Dane Brugler's initial top 50? Preseason winners Williams finished two preseason starts a combined 10-of-20 passing for 170 yards and plenty of signature highlights. As was the case at USC (and Oklahoma), most of Williams’ mechanics look effortless and the ball is exploding off his hand. His escapability tools appear to have translated, too.
Williams also pushed the ball downfield as much as he could during the preseason, leading all rookie quarterbacks through two games with 10.1 air yards per attempt. He does need to clean up his decisiveness on the move, however, as it’s led to some misses.
The only surprise so far is that Arizona played Harrison at all during a preseason game. As expected, the former Ohio State sta.