Preseason Week 1 Report Cards for Notable Rookies and Vets

Every preseason, we tell ourselves that we aren't going to jump to conclusions, and every preseason we lie. After Week 1's slate of games, several splash performances have taken over fanbases, who have been patiently waiting—some for nearly eight months—for action on the field.

After watching the 16 games from this past weekend, 10 efforts stand above the rest, either good or bad, which push narratives forward. Confirmation bias be damned, many feel as though those results will have an impact on the regular season come this fall.

We'll go over which of those players played above, below or at expectations and what their projection moving forward, within context, is for this preseason, all while imparting a concise letter grade, which should cause havoc in the comment section.

Owamagbe Odighizuwa, Edge, New York Giants

Alex Goodlett/Getty Images

There were plenty of questions surrounding New York's edge pressure heading into this offseason. The Giants did manage to re-sign Jason Pierre-Paul, a former Pro Bowler who rang up 12.5 sacks in 2014, but they lost Robert Ayers, who signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after ending his 2015 season on a hot streak.

In free agency, they added Olivier Vernon, a 25-year-old from the Miami Dolphins who will likely end his football career with nine figures in total earnings. With all that being said, it wasn't Pierre-Paul or Vernon who flashed in the Giants' 27-10 loss to Miami but second-year third-round pick Owamagbe Odighizuwa.

Odighizuwa was a first-round talent who slipped down draft boards late in the draft process, possibly due to the two hip surgeries he had while at UCLA. Earning reps with the first team, Odighizuwa started his second season in the league as a base end in the team's Week 1 preseason game and kicked inside to defensive tackle in nickel looks, like Ayers and Vernon have known to do.

He earned a week-leading two sacks against the Dolphins, as well as some even more impressive power rushes against left guard Dallas Thomas that led to Ryan Tannehill incompletions. Right now, he's the defensive player of the preseason.

Grade: A

Chris Jones, DL, Kansas City Chiefs

Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images

The Kansas City Chiefs didn't make their first pick of the 2016 draft until the early second round, but they seem to have made the most out of the choice. Their top selection, Chris Jones of Mississippi State, showed flashes of elite potential as an interior defensive lineman against the Seattle Seahawks' first-team offensive line.

While he made only two tackles in the game, it's hardly fair to measure defensive linemen by statistics. If you were able to catch the game, you would have seen absolute dominance up front.

At 6'6" and 310 pounds with the athleticism of Muhammad Wilkerson, Jones has all the potential in the world, if not for questions about his effort. Jones went from a Freshman All-American to a sophomore slump to a top-40 pick in just about two calendar years while in Starkville.

If general manager John Dorsey and head coach Andy Reid can channel his concentration, he has Pro Bowl potential. This is an interesting task for the staff, as Kansas City brought in Marcus Peters, a cornerback who was suspended by the University of Washington football team, as its top pick in the 2015 draft.

Peters was able to win the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award and make the second-team All-Pro list last season. Do not discount this team's ability to manage characters, as the Chiefs could become Cardinals East, should they keep Jones on the right path.

Grade: A

Dak Prescott, QB, Dallas Cowboys

Associated Press

The Dallas Cowboys have had some recent history with quarterback drama, but against the Los Angeles Rams, their fans were pleasantly surprised with the emergence of the rookie fourth-round pick Dak Prescott. According to ESPN.com's Todd Archer, Tony Romo, the Cowboys' starting quarterback, hasn't played in a preseason opener since 2012, and this year didn't buck the trend.

Second in line behind Romo would have been Kellen Moore, who is best known for winning 50 games at Boise State, but the former Bronco broke his ankle in training camp, ending his season before it even got off the ground. Prescott was quickly elevated to the second spot in the depth chart as an unproven rookie in non-ideal circumstances, playing for a "win now" team behind an aging passer with a lengthy injury history.

For a while, as Dallas was involved in rumors for Nick Foles, who eventually signed with Kansas City Chiefs, and Josh McCown, it seemed like the squad was going to turn to a veteran to take the No. 2 slot behind Romo. But after Prescott's performance, which featured 10 completions off 12 attempts for two touchdowns, that debate should be over.

Prescott didn't thread the needle much against the Rams, but he did display what made him successful at Mississippi State: trusting his playmakers to come down with 50-50 balls. His entire relationship with De'Runnya Wilson in Starkville was based on trusting his wideout to win individual matchups, and if Romo goes down at any point this season, that's exactly what the Cowboys will ask Prescott to do.

No one expects a backup passer, especially a Day 3 rookie, to be a surgeon on the field. However, it is within reason to expect him to test defenses deep enough to allow his offensive coordinator to call the entire playbook. After his flashes to both Dez Bryant and Terrance Williams, it seems like this would be the case.

Grade: A

Derrick Henry, RB, Tennessee Titans

Associated Press

There is one of two ways you can view Derrick Henry's effort against the San Diego Chargers in his NFL debut.

The first option would be that his 74 rushing yards, which ranked third in the league in the first week of the preseason, is a reflection of his Heisman-winning talent. The second option would be that DeMarco Murray's 93 rushing yards, just four yards shy of tying the NFL lead at this point, is a reflection of San Diego's poor run defense.

In total, with Bishop Sankey posting 52 rushing yards and Antonio Andrews posting 41, the Titans combined for 288 yards on the ground in that single game, a mark the Chargers are probably hoping they can quickly forget about. With their own first-round 3-4 defensive end Joey Bosa missing the game, there's no question as to why their run defense played so poorly.

When watching Henry's runs back-to-back-to-back, though, it's clear that his success wasn't simply the result of his opponents. He showed flexibility for a big back that is rarely seen, and that could have been judged in a vacuum.

While it's going to be hard to pin down the Titans' backfield pecking order, we can establish that Henry is a legitimate NFL talent now.

Grade: B

Trevone Boykin, QB, Seattle Seahawks

Associated Press

The Seattle Seahawks have been able to ride a recent wave of success, which is largely based off quarterback Russell Wilson. A former third-round pick, he was once a tremendous value for his price point, but in the second half of the 2015 regular season, he really found himself as a legitimately great pocket passer.

Matt Flynn and Tarvaris Jackson, two current street free agents, have been the backup quarterbacks in Seattle for the majority of Wilson's time with the team. Entering camp, there was some talk that the team may have the weakest backup situation in the league with only Trevone Boykin and Jake Heaps battling for the spot behind Wilson, who has played in 64 of a possible 64 regular-season games since his 2012 debut.

Boykin is an undrafted rookie out of TCU who ran a spread offense against wide-open Big 12 defenses, while Heaps, who played at three universities after coming out of Washington as a super recruit, hasn't had a decent regular season since 2011.

In a tight 17-16 win against the Kansas City Chiefs, Boykin came out as the second quarterback, ahead of Heaps, and his on-field effort proved why he's in that slot. Silencing doubters, he completed 16 of 26 passes for 188 yards and a passing touchdown while also adding 21 yards on the ground.

Heaps got only two drives in the game, in the late third quarter through the early fourth quarter, before Boykin returned to the lineup and drove the team from a 16-9 deficit to a victory. He capped it off by completing a two-point conversion with no time on the clock after a 37-yard Hail Mary.

He wasn't perfect, but he was exciting and showed promise, and that's more than you should ever expect from an undrafted rookie.

Grade: B

Mackensie Alexander, CB, Minnesota Vikings

Associated Press

Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer's started as the defensive backs coach for the eventual Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys. From there, he earned defensive coordinator jobs from 2000 to 2013 with the Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons and Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bengals, a draft-and-develop team, put a lot of emphasis on their coaches evaluating the college ranks to pick their own groceries, so it should be no surprise that the defensive back specialist always had a healthy roster of cornerbacks while in Cincinnati.

Zimmer's sway appears to be strong in Minnesota, too, as he already had former Pro Bowl cornerback Terence Newman, former first-round pick Xavier Rhodes and former first-round pick Trae Waynes at the position when the squad selected Mackensie Alexander of Clemson in the second round of this past draft.

Despite Zimmer's credentials at evaluating and coaching the position, some were still skeptical of Alexander's talent for two reasons.

First, he was a 5'10" cornerback in a league that is increasingly playing Cover 3, which means that cornerbacks are locked up a majority of the time one-on-one outside, where length matters. Second, Alexander never made an interception in his career with the Clemson Tigers, which was a point of concern.

Between those issues and the fact that he never had to backpedal in college, some believed it was impossible to project him translating to the NFL game. However, in the Vikings' 17-16 win against the Bengals, Alexander proved everyone wrong by not only adding two pass breakups to the box score but also making his first live interception since he was in high school.

Zimmer is better at this than just about anyone on Earth.

Grade: B

Robert Griffin, QB, Cleveland Browns

Associated Press

Whatever you wanted to see out of Robert Griffin III is what you saw from him against the Green Bay Packers. On the first play of the game, he threw a long bomb to Terrelle Pryor, a quarterback convert, over 2015 first-round pick Damarious Randall for 49 yards.

From there, he had to slowly pick himself up as interior pressure got to him, leading to the massive hit he took after the pass. After that, he completed just three of seven passes for 18 yards and an interception, as pressure that was caused by the likes of center Cameron Erving impacted some of his passes.

So, is Griffin going to take a beating like he did with the Washington Redskins, or does he still have explosive-play potential? Honestly, the truth is somewhere in between.

Coach Hue Jackson and the Browns organization have already named the former first-round pick the starter heading into the regular season, but his battle of attrition with the line in front of him is going to be his week-to-week struggle.

Griffin got back up in Week 1 in the preseason. The question that needs to be answered is if he's going to continue to peel himself off the turf through the end of the regular season.

Grade: C

The Top Two Overall Picks

Associated Press

The first two picks in the 2016 draft were awarded to the Tennessee Titans and the Cleveland Browns, but they were both traded away for a combined amount of top-100 selections in the double digits. Instead, the Los Angeles Rams selected California quarterback Jared Goff with the top pick, followed by the Philadelphia Eagles taking Carson Wentz, a passer from North Dakota State.

Neither started in Week 1, which can mean little, as Week 3 is typically the regular season warm-up, but the fact that they both struggled against lesser competition was much more concerning than their status as starters.

Goff, a 21-year-old, completed four of nine passes for 38 yards on 10 dropbacks, which included a sack and an interception. He had a passer rating of 17.1 while taking some brutal hits against the Dallas Cowboys' mangled front seven.

Wentz, 23, threw for 89 yards and an interception, but his biggest disappointment might be his health status for the remainder of the preseason.

According to NFL.com's Kevin Patra, the 6'5", 237-pounder suffered a hairline rib fracture during the game. If this forces Wentz to the sideline for the remainder of his rookie preseason, he well might not see live snaps again for 12 months.

Overall, last week could have gone much better for the pair.

Grade: D

Blaine Gabbert, QB, San Francisco 49ers

Associated Press

If you didn't know by now, the San Francisco 49ers are in a complete rebuilding process. While they've been able to grab young players and re-sign veterans in their front seven, head coach Chip Kelly still has his work cut out for him on the offensive side of the ball.

Carlos Hyde, who is a mid-level running back in the NFL, is the team's top weapon, which is problematic when Blaine Gabbert is slated to start for the team in 2016. Gabbert, a former first-round pick who flamed out in Jacksonville, started the second half of the 49ers' season last year, posting an 86.2 passer rating for the year.

Gabbert did do some nice things against the Houston Texans in Week 1, but his 4-of-10 effort in the air doesn't even tell half the story of his off-the-mark throws. He did throw a touchdown and ran the ball well against man coverage, something Kelly was missing in Philadelphia, but Gabbert's first two passes, back-to-back misses to his running back in the swing-flat area, were cause for lowered expectations.

In all honestly, San Francisco may be looking at a 2016 season in which it is an underdog in every game. The No. 2 quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, missed the game due to injury, and it's going to be hard to pry away a starting quarterback job from Gabbert while on the trainer's table.

The one hope for the 49ers' season was that Kelly would turn around Gabbert, who has the tools to succeed but has never displayed the consistency, but that dream appears to be over. For example, last year the Eagles were hot in the preseason, leading many to think about Super Bowl possibilities, but they finished 7-9 with Kelly before his firing.

If this offense is looking that much worse than that of a seven-win team, how low can San Francisco sink? Now is about the time Deshaun Watson Photoshops appear on Niners blogs and message boards.

Grade: F

Roberto Aguayo, K, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Associated Press

Here's the thing: If you're a second-round kicker, no less one whose franchise traded up to get into the second round to acquire you, then you can't miss a point-after attempt in your first NFL preseason game. Roberto Aguayo of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers broke that rule last week.

In a 17-9 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Aguayo hit the left upright on his first and only PAT attempt to date, though he did later hit a 38-yard field goal, about five yards further out than the league's PAT distance.

Either way, I'm sure Aguayo will be fine, as this is just one data point in his career, and it's one that missed by just a slim margin, but for now, he's the goat of the preseason.

Grade: F