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Breakout Player of the Year

Jets HB Joe Mixon

Injured and playing behind the veteran Selvin Young his rookie season, Mixon produced a couple hundred yards and a pair of TDs in 10 games and 2 starts. With HBs notoriously slow to develop into efficient and effective ones, it appeared as if the Jets were going to have to be patient to see if their former #8 overall pick was the long-term answer. Instead they found out in just his second season as he finished 8th in the league in rushing (1589 yards), 8th in rushing YPC (4.2 YPC), and led all players with 15 offensive TDs as led a Jets offense en route to an 8-8 season in spite of QB Deshaun Watson's ghastly 55.8 passer rating.

Bengals WR Josh Briscoe

A tantelizing talent who was originally brought up to be the slot receiver when the Bears were in Richmond and had Javon Walker and Jerry Porter manning the starting jobs, he ended up starting 91 games with the Bears franchise. Due to injuries and lackluster QB play though, he never stood out statistically. His best season was last season when he had 60 rec, 725 yards, and 6 TDs in 13 games. After being traded to the Bengals on an offense featuring three other new starters themselves, the 33-year-old Briscoe found himself a nice home to end his career with as he set personal highs with 79 receptions, 1003 yards, and 8 TDs as he played in all 16 games and helped lead the Bengals to the #1 offense in the league.

Buccaneers RG Arie Kouandjio

A former 5th round pick by the Cowboys in S11, he played only six games in relief in his three seasons with Dallas before spending the following two as a free agent. When the Bucs decided to purge most of their underperforming and overpaid interior OL, they went bargain hunting to fill the holes. A trio of sub-80 Gs were in battle for the RG spot, but Kouandjio won, and boy did he deserve it. He put in a spectacular 63 blocks vs 6 sacks allowed, an almost unheard of ratio for an interior OL of his caliber, as helped the Buccaneers soar to 3rd in the league in rushing and compete for a playoff spot until almost the end of season after the team had been one of the league's worst the previous two seasons.

Broncos MLB Ben Heeney

Like Mixon, Heeney was a first round pick last season, but on a defense that has largely been led by the DL and secondary, he didn't stand out much in spite of being a Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate. He made a massive leap in year two as he doubled his tackle (66 to 135), sack (3 to 8), INT (2 to 4), and increased his FF+FR total from 3 to 5 as he put the defense on his back en route to a sizzling hot final third of the season for the Broncos as they cut their defensive ranking by more than half (27th to 13th).

Falcons RE Frank Clark

Our third first round pick from last season, Clark had the the most invisible rookie season of the three with just 8 tackles in 16 games and a start. He was part of the Falcons draft class last season where the team punted the S16 draft and pinned their hopes on the likes of Clark and others. It was a disaster of a season, putting the pressure on players like Clark to take big steps forward, and did he ever. The DL and Defensive Player of the Year candidate produced 37 tackles, 12 sacks (tied for 9th in league), 4 FFs (tied for 2nd), and a FR as the Falcons went from 5 to 9 wins and just barely missing out on the playoffs.