With five months until the 2026 NFL season kicks off it's now time to lock myself into rookie takes from which I can never escape.

I'm kidding, sort of. Below are my initial impressions of 2025 rookie landing spots (we talked about first round landing spots in last week’s Rotoworld Football Show if you're into it). These takes will probably change as we get coaches' quotes and injury news and everything else that comes in the summertime.

But dynasty players drafting in the coming weeks can't wait for all that. So here are my thoughts on some 2026 rookies and how they might fare on their new teams.

2026 NFL Draft Grades for all AFC Teams: Browns make strides, Jaguars get flunked

The Browns secured a haul of offensive talent in the 2026 NFL Draft, making them one of the big winners of the offseason. The Jaguars, on the other hand, couldn’t help but reach at every turn.

Tyson’s downright unseemly stats and metrics from his dominant 2024 campaign kept him inside the top-10 draft picks last week despite an injury-filled and generally underwhelming 2025 season at ASU.

Tyson really was unstoppable in 2024: He averaged 91.5 receiving yards per game and was among the nation’s most efficient receivers against zone and man coverage. He ended his college career with a 98th percentile target share and a 94th percentile dominator rating. Tyson in his final two collegiate seasons saw a target on an absurd 33 percent of his routes. He also had one of the lowest catchable target rates in the nation (76 percent). That might mean Tyson’s numbers would have been even gaudier had he had decent quarterbacking at ASU.

Now he enters a New Orleans offense without much target competition outside Chris Olave, who led the league in air yards last season and accounted for nearly 32 percent of the Saints’ receiving production. Tyson, who averaged a hearty 125 air yards per game in his final season at ASU, will likely eat into Olave’s sterling air yards profile. Thankfully for the Saints and fantasy folks, Tyler Shough knows what to do with air yards eaters like Olave and Tyson.

We’ve learned by now — or we should have learned by now — that wide receiver straight line speed doesn’t matter at all. That the 176-pound Branch ran a 4.35 doesn’t move the proverbial needle for me.

It’s Branch’s target-commanding that interests me. He comes into the NFL with a 70th percentile college target share, seeing a target on an eye-popping 29 percent of his pass routes in 2025. That marks a big jump from his targets per route over two seasons at USC. Any wideout who can command a target on almost one in three routes has my attention.

Branch, it turns out, was efficient with those opportunities. He ranked 15th among all college receivers in EPA per target in 2025. In short, Branch made the spreadsheets sing at Georgia.

We’ve seen Wan’Dale Robinson function as a usable and sometimes high-end fantasy option in the NFL. Branch compares favorably to Robinson, who is also quite the target commander. And I like Branch’s chances of beating out Jahan Dotson for WR2 duties in the Atlanta offense. That would position the rookie very much as a starting option in 12-team leagues.

Some are calling Bell, a spreadsheet marvel at UConn, “Ja’Marr Chase Lite.” You’re hearing this more and more.

I know he’s old for a rookie (23) but every rookie is ancient now. His efficiency metrics at UConn should have put Bell in the second-round conversation, in one blogger’s humble, metrics-poisoned opinion.

Bell had a 92nd percentile college dominator rating. He had a 99th percentile college target share. Bell in 2025 was second in receiving yards, seventh in yards per route run, and top-20 in yards after the catch per reception. His 2025 weighted opportunity rating was elite.

No one seemed to care, except the Bills, who may have wanted a slot guy who can do something more than catch bubble screens. Bell is a target commanding, missed tackle forcing, highly efficient pass catcher. I think he has a real chance of catching the attention of new Bills head coach Joe Brady and Josh Allen, who’s in desperate need of a wideout who can get open and do something with the football.

2026 NFL Draft Grades for all NFC Teams: Giants earn high marks, 49ers get an F

The Giants got blue chip players at discount prices, making them one of the biggest winners of the 2026 NFL Draft. The 49ers, on the other hand, repeatedly reached to get their guys.

I just can’t care too much about a wideout prospect with a 60th percentile college dominator rating and a 48th percentile college target share. On top of that Tate tested poorly at the NFL Combine. On top of that he was targeted on a less-than-dominant 23 percent of his pass routes in 2025.

One thing I can’t shake in my Tate skepticism: He led college football last year in EPA per target by a pretty healthy margin. The guy’s per-target efficiency and contested catch metrics were true outliers.