Every year in the NFL, we see breakout stars. And they come in all shapes and sizes with different backstories. Some find their footing on a new team. Others play to their potential in a contract year before seeing that monstrous payday in March. Here, we’re going to begin a breakout mini-series with young “rebound” selections who fell into the shadows of the football-watching world either due to injury or simple disappointment early in their NFL careers.
They might be currently labeled as busts or simply obscure, late-round selection whom no one feels the need to be particularly excited. But they’ll break out from that unenviable distinction or relative obscurity in 2025.
To qualify for this article, a player needed to be entering either his second or third year in the NFL.
Let’s get to it.
Injury rebounds
Keaton Mitchell tore his ACL two years ago, in Week 15 of 2023. That knee-ligament injury kept him off the field until Week 10 of last season, and he could hardly get going when activated. Heck, he only received 15 carries in Year 2.
Now, all the juice that made him my No. 3 RB in the 2023 class should be completely restored. Remember how dynamic Mitchell was in that rookie campaign? If you don’t, here’s a reminder — he averaged 8.4 — yes, 8.4 — yards per carry on 47 attempts before his injury. He was lightning in a bottle.
And he was that explosive weapon at East Carolina, too, before he ran a 4.37-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine. Imagine how good the Ravens run game can be in 2025 with Lamar Jackson AND the ideal complement to King Henry in the backfield?
Bralen Trice doesn’t look like most high-end edge rushers. He’s not incredibly long and sleek with incendiary first-step quicks. He’s an old-school technician with a thick, powerful frame and surprising bend once he reaches the corner. A player can’t stumble his way into 150 pressures on fewer than 900 pass-rushing opportunities in a Power 4 conference like Trice did in 2022 and 2023 combined.
He genuinely has some of the finest, most calculated yet rapid hand work I’ve scouted, and there’s a bull-rush to his arsenal that’ll keep offensive tackles honest. Trice was lost for the year before the regular season began in 2024, so he should be fully healthy now as a ready-to-go 24-year-old in Year 2 with the Falcons.
Atlanta did make significant investments along the defensive line since Trice’s injury — most notably first-round picks Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr., as well as the signing of Leonard Floyd. I’m cool with that as it pertains to Trice’s rebound from the ailment that kept him on the sideline for his entire rookie year. I like he won’t be asked to be the No. 1 rusher on a poor pass-rushing team.
As a situational type, while learning from Floyd, a sage vet, Trice will exceed the normal dividends paid by former third-round picks for the Falcons in 2025 and beyond.
Bust alert: Nine NFL players who are running out of time to prove themselves entering 2025 season
Cody Benjamin
Early-disappointment rebounds
I feel dishonest placing Adonai Mitchell in this early-disappointment category. Why? Because I estimate about 90% of his lack of productivity as a rookie was due to forces outside his control.
Anthony Richardson was one of, if not the least-accurate quarterback in football in 2024. Mitchell was targeted 51 times, and with only four drops, caught just 23 passes. What does that say? There were a lot of footballs over the head or skipping at the feet of the rookie receiver last season.
Check any table on X outlining receiver separation in 2024, and Mitchell hovered near the already-established elite separators. Now, I don’t feel much better about his quarterback circumstances with a potentially still dinged-up Richardson returning for Year 3 and … Daniel Jones as the other option.
But there’s no way Mitchell is held back as drastically as he was in 2024. He’s a tall, fast, subtlety elusive wideout who will repeatedly get open within the Colts offense. And Josh Downs is slippery enough underneath to garner defensive game-plan attention. There’s a big sophomore season loading for Mitchell.
Chris Braswell is a rare cat in that he entered the league with NFL strength. It was palpable on film at Alabama. His long levers routinely tossed SEC blockers out of his intended path and into the backfield. He anchored, then shed offensive linemen on a routine basis against the run. The 57th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft was eased into the rotation in Tampa Bay a season ago, and while he wasn’t dreadful, there’s ample room for improvement from his 10.8% pressure rate in Year 1.
Haason Reddick was added to Tampa Bay’s roster, but first-round disappointment Joe Tryon-Shoyinka is gone. Braswell possesses the three-down game to make a name for himself in Year 2, and I imagine he’s even more of a physical specimen now after a full year in the Buccaneers strength and conditioning program. I expect a pressure rate near 15% for the former Nick Saban recruit who has serious giddy-up off the snap, too, as his 10-yard split and 40-yard dash were in the 87th and 88th percentile, respectively, at the edge-rusher position.
Trey Benson was the second pick in the third round in the 2024 draft, and I thought he should’ve been selected much earlier. Benson exemplifies everything I could conceivably ask for in a running back prospect. He entered the NFL with an exceptionally low workload — just 316 carries across three seasons. Benson was as elusive as any back in the country in the 2022 and 2023 combine. Oh, and he’s a home-run hitter with 4.39-second 40-yard dash speed.
I don’t care that he’s tall and runs high. It didn’t hurt him in the ACC when he averaged 6.1 yards per tote on 310 carries in two seasons at Florida State. The problems for Benson in his rookie year in Arizona were two-fold. Firstly, the Cardinals had a lower-tier offensive line. That 11-carry, 10-yard effort in Week 2 against the Rams was significantly more about dominance from Los Angeles’ ferocious defensive front than Benson’s lack of ability. Secondly, he was firmly behind perpetually underrated James Conner in the backfield.
From Week 10 through Week 15, Benson averaged at least 4.4 yards per carry in every game but only got 22 attempts in that time frame. I can’t totally write-off the now 30-year-old Conner — the dude is the consummate overachiever — but with more mileage on his legs, I expect Benson to be given more of an opportunity in the Cardinals offense in 2025. And with said opportunity, Benson will thrive. He’s too talented not to.
Add Comment