NFL Rookie Battle Royale: Week 4

Well, week 4 is pretty much in the books, and it was a pretty eventful week with some key injuries and a few players who did poorly instead of normally performing well. This week was also the first bye week, so not every one of the rookies got their chance to shine.

Matthew Stafford

Although the Lions lost in epic fashion, and although he threw for close to 300 yards, neither of those are the story of the game. Stafford went down with a pretty gruesome looking knee injury in the fourth quarter, which has been reported as a dislocated knee cap by NFL Network. The guys on the show all thought he would be out for a long time, which is going to be extremely detrimental to the Lions and his card values. Nothing is official yet, but this looks really bad for the future of his season.

Mark Sanchez

AHHH! Sanchez is human after all! He had his worst game to date, throwing for under 150 yards with no TDs and three picks versus a great saints team. The issue is that the Saints arent really known for their defense, and Sanchez threw two picks to the oldest part of it. Sharper returned one of his picks 99 yards for a TD, and the other came late when the Jets were trying to rally. His value shouldn’t drop all that much because one game does not a rookie make, or break for that matter, so don’t ditch everything quite yet.

Johnny Knox

Knox had another good game this week, with 50+ yards receiving and a kick return TD for 101 yards. Granted, it was against the worst special teams in the league, but impressive none the less. Knox has been a huge surprise for the Bears, and is slowly starting to look like he is going to be a reliable option for them if he can grow in the system. With Bennett struggling as I expected he would, Knox has been their guy. His values are at their highest of the year right now, and may go higher if he continues to perform.

Knowshon Moreno

The Broncos sure embarrased the Cowboys by handing them their second straight loss, with Moreno scoring a TD and gaining around 80 yards on the ground. Moreno has looked like a feature back, and I guess he will be it until he fucks up or doesn’t perform. He had a key fumble on the first play in the second half, but it didn’t come back to bite them that much. Moreno will be good, and he has had a productive season so far.

Donald Brown

Brown scored a TD in the Colts blowout, and ran for 40 or so yards in addition. I would have expected more from them, but even with the lead, they passed instead of ran. I never was really a Donald Brown guy in the first place because I knew that Manning, Wayne and Addai would take up most of the good plays. Brown has done well in a backup role, no doubt, but he is going to have to play ahead of Addai to become the man in indy. Maybe as the NFL moves to a two back system completely, he will have more of a role. Until then, he is going to be a cleanup player.

Hakeem Nicks

Welcome to the NFL Hakeem Nicks! Even though he only caught one pass, it was a big 54 yard screen that went for 7. Nicks has been injured the last few weeks, so it was good to see him get into the action in the huge Giants win.

Mike Wallace

The Steelers had their work cut out for them on Sunday night, and Wallace had 2 for 47 including a biggie for 35. He has been good for them in a number 3 role, and his values have reflected that. Im guessing its more because of the team he plays on, but having solid numbers has helped just as much.

Kenny Britt

Another solid game for Britt, and he has the first 100 yard game of anyone this year, rushing or otherwise. Even though he didn’t find the endzone, it was still a very impressive performance.

The Rookie Graveyard

Darrius Heyward-Bey - I still think its more of a QB issue than a talent issue, but he has yet to get a good game under his belt.

Beanie Wells - Bye week this week

Jeremy Maclin - Bye week this week

We still have a great game coming up tonight, so we will see how Percy Harvin reacts to being on the national stage, especially with Favre going up against his former team. Im beginning to see the talent in this draft class regardless, as we could have another year where there are a lot of contributors much like 2008. Next week has some key matchups too, plus we will see if some of the guys can rebound from their poor performances.