The Worldwide Leader in Sports handicaps the field of first-year players following the 2026 NFL Draft with an eye on who could reign as Offensive and Defensive rookies of the Year in the upcoming season
By Ben Solak | ESPN | May 1, 2026
In nine months, some cheerful young player who was drafted in 2026 will be standing on the stage at the NFL Honors receiving the award for Rookie of the Year. In fact, two will — offense and defense.
Immediately after last year’s draft, I stacked my personal board for both awards, with the eventual winners falling to fourth (Tetairoa McMillan) and sixth (Carson Schwesinger) on my lists. I’m pretty happy with those outcomes for early May guesstimates, as we don’t even have training camp depth charts or preseason injury news yet. Both awards follow fairly consistent bumper rails for voters, and as such, we can define favorites and (reasonable) sleepers from long distance.
Here are my way-too-early rankings for Rookies of the Year candidates, split by offense and defense. I’ll go through the possibilities and then give my final list …Read More HERE
