National Football League

Rams' Jared Verse, Cowboys’ DeMarvion Overshown stand out among rookie defenders

Published Oct. 2, 2024 8:53 a.m. ET

The NFL has Rookie of the Month honors on offense and defense, and while it's easy to give Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels the offensive nod for September, it's harder to find rookie impact on the defensive side of the ball.

If you remember, the 2024 NFL Draft had no defensive players selected in the top 14 picks, so from the start, there wasn't an expectation of a splash pass-rusher or lockdown corner in this class. And four weeks in, that's how it's been with the rookies — 19 rookies have played in 70% of their offensive snaps this season, but only seven rookies have played 70% or more on defense.

None of the first-round picks has more than one sack, and no rookies have more than one interception. To find a defensive rookie leading the NFL in anything, you'd have to turn to Lions corner Terrion Arnold, who leads the league with 118 penalty yards in his first four games. Pro Football Focus hasn't been kind to him, ranking him 94th out of 97 cornerbacks so far this season.

If you had to pick a Defensive Rookie of the Month for September, you could make a good case for Rams defensive lineman Jared Verse, the leader of a deep rookie class in Los Angeles. He has five tackles for loss, the most among rookies, with a sack among his 19 tackles. PFF ranks him as the league's No. 16 edge rusher, one spot ahead of fellow rookie Laiatu Latu from the Colts.

Verse and his former Florida State teammate Braden Fiske, the Rams' second-round pick, have been a solid 1-2 punch up front. Fiske got his first career sack and forced a fumble from rookie Caleb Williams in Sunday's loss to the Bears. Due to injuries, the Rams now have 18 rookies on their 53-man roster — with several pressed onto service. With top receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua sidelined by injuries, sixth-round pick Jordan Whittington played all but two snaps Sunday and led the Rams with six catches for 62 yards.

Two other mid-round rookies worth mentioning on the defensive side: Cowboys linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, a third-round pick from Texas, leads all rookies with 29 tackles, and Seahawks linebacker Tyrice Knight, a fourth-round pick from UTEP, isn't far behind with 22 tackles in the past three games since stepping into a larger role.

McConkey stepping up for Chargers

Five rookie receivers already have multiple touchdown catches, and the non-first-rounder of the group is Chargers second-rounder Ladd McConkey, who got his second score in L.A.'s close loss to the Chiefs on Sunday.

Jim Harbaugh employs a run-first offense, but McConkey leads the team in receptions (15) and receiving yards (176) and has caught two of Justin Herbert's five touchdown passes. There's a void after the departure of longtime Chargers stars Keenan Allen (Bears) and Mike Williams (Jets), but McConkey has been more productive than either of those two with their new teams so far.

It won't take much for McConkey to have one of the best rookie receiving seasons in Chargers history. Only twice has a Chargers rookie even had 700 receiving yards, with Allen getting 1,046 in 2013 and John Jefferson having 1,001 in 1978.

Bring on the rookie kickers

The NFL has five rookie or first-year kickers, and some have been quite busy in the first month of the season. The Rams' Josh Karty, a sixth-round pick from Stanford, is already 9-for-10 on field goals, and the Packers' Brayden Narveson, a waiver claim from the Titans, is 9-for-13 on field goals.

Nine field goals in four weeks puts them on pace for 38 over a full season. That's the NFL rookie record for field goals, set by the Chiefs' Harrison Butker in just 13 games in 2017. The Cowboys' Brandon Aubrey was close last year with 36, and he owns the first-year NFL scoring record of 157 points. Narveson, on pace for 153 points right now, could challenge that as well.

Steelers building potentially special O-line

Pittsburgh has set the bar impossibly high for impact from a single draft. Fifty years ago, the Steelers drafted four Hall of Fame players in one class, getting Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster in 1974.

We'll stop short of any comparisons to that class, but the Steelers used three of their top four picks this year on offensive linemen, and a month into the season, three have already started games. Second-round center Zach Frazier may be the best offensive lineman in this draft, and first-round tackle Troy Fautanu was starting until he fractured his kneecap, an injury likely to sideline him for the rest of the regular season.

And Sunday, the Steelers started rookie Mason McCormick, their fourth-round pick out of South Dakota State. He had to step in at right guard against the Colts after James Daniels was lost to a season-ending Achilles injury. Pittsburgh is 3-1 now, so that means a team with playoff aspirations will try to make the postseason with two rookies on the offensive line. Dallas is attempting the same thing.

It's chaos for the immediate future, but long term, the idea of having multiple starting linemen cheap on their rookie contracts could be huge in the next three years before they're even allowed to get paid top dollar on a second contract.

More rookie name-dropping

PFF's highest-graded rookie at any position in Week 4 was Titans defensive lineman T'Vondre Sweat, their second-round pick out of Texas. He had six tackles and two TFLs in Tennessee's win over Miami on Monday night, looking like a physical presence up front. ... Seahawks tight end AJ Barner, their fourth-round pick out of Michigan, had his first career touchdown on a 9-yard throw from Geno Smith in Monday's loss to the Lions. That matches his total for all of last season with the Wolverines after three seasons at Indiana. ... Dolphins corner Storm Duck, already with the coolest name in the rookie class, played 60 snaps on Monday, a huge number for an undrafted rookie. His given name is actually Storm, a nod from his mother to a character from "The Bold and the Beautiful." Duck already has 10 tackles in his first month in the league.

Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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