Under-the-Radar Day 3, UDFA Rookies Who Could Thrive in First NFL Season
The NFL Draft has never been a perfect exercise. Players slip through the cracks each and every year. There is always a fresh batch of Day 3 and undrafted players who immediately prove to teams that they should have gone higher.
The luckiest NFL teams land on guys like Puka Nacua -- a fifth-round pick who immediately proved himself capable of playing like an All-Pro for the Los Angeles Rams. That's the most extreme and unlikely case, but there are plenty of other successes from around the league just last season that serve as proof that these players can make a stamp right away.
Jacksonville Jaguars safety Antonio Johnson asserted himself as a starting-level safety by year's end after being a fifth-round pick. Undrafted free agent linebacker Ivan Pace Jr. was a mini-missile in the middle of the Minnesota Vikings defense. Christian Izien, another undrafted free agent, was a legit contributor for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers secondary.
Fourth-round guard Sidy Sow showed real flashes as a 13-game starter for the New England Patriots. Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Aidan O'Connell, a late-fourth round pick, was one of the biggest surprise performers of the season. Fifth-round pick Dontayvion Wicks captured the hearts of film-watchers and fantasy analysts alike with his rookie season as a Green Bay Packer. The undrafted Keaton Mitchell was an electric force at running back for the Baltimore Ravens before he suffered an injury.
The list goes on and on. Plenty of players on both sides of the ball made immediate impacts for their teams despite their late-round or undrafted status. They did not let one weekend in April define the dawn of their careers.
So with training camps on the horizon, it's time to try our hand at finding who that next batch of surprise players might be. Be it prospects who fell too far in the draft or players with a clear path to playing time ahead of them thanks to a shaky position group, we're going to look at a handful of rookie primed for surprisingly effective play in 2024.
Tennessee Titans LB Cedric Gray
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The Tennessee Titans are planning to start Jack Gibbens and Kenneth Murray at linebacker. Gibbens, though he's disciplined enough to have earned the green dot role on the defense, doesn't have the juice of a real playmaker at the position. Murray, by contrast, is one of the fastest players at the position without any of the skills or violent tendencies you want from a linebacker.
If there were ever a path for an early Day 3 linebacker to see the field, it would be in Tennessee.
That's where Cedric Gray comes in. At 6'2" and 234 pounds, Gray isn't an overwhelming presence but he is one hell of an athlete who isn't afraid to throw his body around.
Gray's sideline to sideline speed is a clear strength. He may not be quite as blazing as Murray but he more than makes up for it elsewhere. Namely, Gray is plenty willing to shoot his hands through a guard's chest and create some disruption between the tackles. He doesn't just concede space. That combination of speed and physicality alone is a good starting point for any young linebacker.
Gray's ability to find the field will come down to consistency and coverage ability. At North Carolina, Gray's vision and trigger ran hot and cold at times. He's willing to play fast downhill; it's just a matter of him trusting what he sees. In coverage, Gray finds himself in a daze rather often but so does Murray, so maybe he's not really at a disadvantage in that sense.
Linebacker is a tough position to find immediate success in this league. Playing both the run and the pass from the heart of the formation brings so many responsibilities. Gray has both the tools and the opportunity in front of him, though.
Atlanta Falcons DL Brandon Dorlus
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Arguably Atlanta's biggest departure on defense this offense was defensive lineman Calais Campbell. The 6'8", 300-pound veteran played both on the edge and along the interior for the Falcons. He finished the year tied for the team lead in sacks with 6.5. Campbell's combination of size and flexibility made him an asset that the Falcons no longer have.
Or do they?
Just a few months ago, the Falcons selected Oregon's Brandon Dorlus in the fourth round. Dorlus isn't as towering as Campbell in size but he is a sturdy 6'3", 283 pounds. Like Campbell, Dorlus is caught somewhere between a base end and an interior player. Dorlus has the explosiveness and length to be a weapon off the edge, as well as the weight to theoretically be a useful player along the interior, though that's more up in the air given his college tape.
It's hard to know exactly what Raheem Morris' defense will look like in Atlanta but his stop in Los Angeles may inform Dorlus' usage this year. Dorlus likely slots into the base end role that Jonah Williams played last year and A'Shawn Robinson played before that. Dorlus brings more juice and less of an anchor against the run than those players but the body types track, and there's really nobody else in Atlanta with that kind of hybrid body type.
Atlanta's front-four is so thin that it's hard to imagine a world where a player of Dorlus' flexibility can't find the field one way or another.
Denver Broncos RB Audric Estimé
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The Broncos backfield is a mess.
Javonte Williams, the assumed starter, remains a player with more potential than proof of ability. For as explosive and agile as Williams is for a 5'10", 220-pounder, his vision and consistency as a runner can be crippling. He isn't as forceful between the tackles as his size suggests and he too often bounces around aimlessly. In a run scheme as diverse as Sean Payton's, that's a problem.
The rest of the Broncos backfield is made up of role players. Samaje Perine is a good pass protector and checkdown option but that's it. Jaleel McLaughlin, by contrast, is a burst of electricity whenever he touches the ball. McLaughlin doesn't have the size of a real workhorse back at 5'8", 187-pounds, though. He will always need a pitch count.
Audric Estime can be the player to tie all of those traits and skills together.
Estime, just 20 years old last season, is a stocky 5'11" and 221 pounds. He's got the same workhorse frame that Williams does. Where Estime differs is that he actually runs like that kind of player, too. Estime is a smart, tough runner with the vision and relatively light feet to navigate the line of scrimmage effortlessly. Estime proved his ability to do that in a wide variety of run schemes at Notre Dame as well, which he'll be asked to do again under Payton.
Don't let his horrid 4.71s 40-yard dash time fool you either: Estime can run away from people. Go watch the North Carolina State game and tell me Estime doesn't have the speed to be a serious threat. No, he's not CJ2K or anything like that, but he has enough gas to be more than a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust type.
Best of all, Estime even showed the veteran skills like pass protection and reliable checkdown work of a player like Perine. He won't be as polished at it as Perine right away, of course, but Estime has a good baseline for such a young player.
Estime did hurt his knee in early practices back in May. There's a shot that hinders his ability to fight through the stable of running backs ahead of him, at least early in the season. Estime is too talented to stay hidden on the depth chart for long, though.
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Dallas Cowboys WR Ryan Flournoy
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Dallas' wide receiver room is bare. CeeDee Lamb is an obvious superstar and Brandin Cooks is a solid speed-oriented No.2 receiver but everyone else is either incomplete or entirely unproven at this point in their careers.
Jalen Tolbert is likely the next man up for a starting outside receiver role with Michael Gallup now out of the picture. In two years of play, however, Tolbert has hardly proven to be a reliable player. Tolbert barely saw the field as a rookie and was inconsistent at best in 2023. There are clear flashes of strength and speed that make Tolbert an intriguing long-term prospect but that all needs to materialize into something real sooner than later.
That being said, Tolbert may have already met his match with sixth-round rookie Ryan Flournoy.
Like Tolbert, Flournoy is a height-weight-speed dream. Flournoy is 6'1", 202-pounds with outrageous explosive ability and impressive 4.44s speed. He was a menace both down the field and with the ball in his hands at the FCS level.
There's a little more to Flournoy than just athleticism, though. He uses his massive 10 ⅛" hands effectively at all levels of the field, proving capable of both plucking the ball from the top shelf and going low to scoop throws out of the dirt.
Flournoy also flashes decent route-running ability. He certainly needs to be more physical and work on how he beats press coverage but he has the snappiness at the top of routes to separate, especially on in-breaking routes.
If he can prove just a little bit more consistent than Tolbert, it shouldn't be hard for him to earn some real opportunities as the year goes on.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers OL Elijah Klein
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There's a case to be made that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had the worst interior offensive line in all of football last year. The combination of Matt Feiler, Robert Hainsey, and Cody Mauch wasn't moving anybody. It's why their run game was downright abysmal.
The Bucs made an effort to right those wrongs with upgrades at left guard and center. Ben Bredeson comes over in free agency from the New York Giants to fill in at left guard, while first-round pick Graham Barton looks to slot in as the new center.
At right guard, however, Cody Mauch remains in place for now. Mauch was a roller coaster with mere flashes of starting level play. Though the arrow may be pointing up for him as a young player, he's far from a player entrenched into a starting position.
That's where sixth-round pick Elijah Klein may come in.
A burly man at 6'4" and 319 pounds, Klein is a mauler with a distinctly different playstyle from Mauch. Whereas Mauch wins more with movement skills, Klein simply moves people. He's a big, strong bully with surprisingly clean hand usage already.
Bleacher Report's own Brandon Thorn pinned a fifth-round grade on Klein and compared him to David Edwards, who started a handful of seasons for the Rams, including their 2021 Super Bowl run. Thorn also mentioned Klein as a possible candidate for playing time sooner than later on The Athletic Football Show.
There's no guarantee Klein can beat out Mauch. The latter has the advantage of experience and better movement skills. Sometimes a team wants to adopt a certain personality, however, and Klein would certainly steer the Bucs towards a meaner play style up front.
Minnesota Vikings Edge Gabriel Murphy
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The Minnesota Vikings made it their mission to rework their pass-rushing corps this offseason. Not only did they swap out Danielle Hunter for a younger, healthier Jonathan Greenard, but they also moved around in the first round of the draft to secure Alabama's Dallas Turner. They also signed Andrew Van Ginkel away from the Dolphins to use as their do-it-all player off the edge.
Adding Gabriel Murphy as an undrafted free agent at the end of the draft was the cherry on top.
Murphy was overshadowed by his teammate Laitu Latu at UCLA but many expected him to be a draft pick himself. Murphy earned a high fifth-round grade from Bleacher Report front-seven scout Matt Holder and ranked 111th on Arif Hasan's consensus big board. The industry at large saw Murphy as a player with NFL potential.
That's for good reason, too. Murphy certainly lacks the bulk and physicality of an immediate starting defensive end but his athletic tools are undeniable. Murphy brings an explosive first step and the quickness to work two-way goes effectively. Moreover, Murphy has solid flexibility around the arc and finds ways to keep his legs churning through contact so as to not get run around the back of the pocket.
Movement skills like that would be useful anywhere but especially in a Brian Flores defense. The Vikings defense under Flores' control last year was hectic. They sought to blitz the hell out of their opponents from every angle possible, throwing in loops and stunts and twists galore. Murphy's athleticism makes him a perfect weapon off the bench for that style of defense.
Is Murphy going to come in and start for the Vikings right away? No, definitely not. There's a clear opening for the fourth edge spot, though, and that's a role that will get serious playing time in a defense like this. Murphy has the tools to assert himself in that role and be an effective role player before long.
Jacksonville Jaguars WR Joshua Cephus
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Joshua Cephus isn't cracking the Jaguars' starting lineup. There's no world where Gabe Davis, Brian Thomas Jr. and Christian Kirk aren't the top snap-getters in this offense.
The fourth wide receiver spot is entirely up for grabs, though. Aside from his fellow undrafted free agent rookies, Cephus' only real competition for the job is Parker Washington, Tim Jones and Devin Duvernay.
However, Washington is exclusively a slot receiver whereas Cephus is more of an outside guy. Maybe those two aren't really competing to begin with.
That leaves Duvernay and Jones. Duvernay, a former Raven, is little more than a glorified gadget player and return specialist. Jones fits more into the outside receiver role Cephus is vying for but has never proven himself as someone worth real snaps. Jones did earn 18 targets a year ago but only because the Jaguars' receivers were dropping like flies for a portion of the year.
While Cephus himself is no world-beater, he has two key skills that should put him above these other roster filler types.
First, Cephus has a knack for finding the ball in the air. Nobody is going to mistake him for Mike Evans but he's tough and sure-handed for a 6'2", 89-pounder. Cephus shows a clear comfort in tracking the ball no matter where it is relative to his frame and bringing in the pass with soft hands.
Cephus is also pretty explosive. UTSA regularly tapped him in for screens and other cheap YAC opportunities. He's not a creative or elusive ball-carrier, per se, but he has that instant burst to find 10 yards when it only looked like there were five yards available.
Cephus will need work as a route-runner to reach his maximum potential. He's quite raw in that regard right now, which is hardly surprising coming from a program like UTSA. Cephus' ball skills and explosive athleticism should earn him opportunities, though.
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