Most springtime news in the NFL is about free agent signings and draft picks: the new guys. It’s understandable to be hyper-focused on the recent additions. After all, we already saw what last year’s team can do.
Yet players may evolve in the blink of an eye in the NFL. Everyone preaches the value of “draft and develop,” but somehow the drafting steals all the headlines. Sometimes a team gets a large boost from incoming rookies, like last year’s Saints, buoyed by the arrivals of running back Alvin Kamara and cornerback Marshon Lattimore. But just as often a team improves by having a player already on the roster leap into a new tier of production.