NFL1000: Fixing This Year's Rookie 'Busts'

Things don't always work out in an NFL player's first season.

The pressure is on for every young player to have a positive effect on his first professional team, and among high draft picks, that pressure intensifies. Rookies can be labeled "busts" quickly—sometimes one or two bad games can get that ball rolling—but success is dependent on a number of factors.

First, there's team and scheme fit. Is a team trying to retrofit a player to do things he's never done before and may not be capable of doing? Second, there's mentorship. Is this young player being led by a strong locker room so that he can understand the team culture, or is he left to figure things out on his own?

Sometimes, teams expect…