NFL All-Rookie team 2020

NFL All-Rookie team 2020 - Defense

Defensive line: EDGE Chase Young, IDL Derrick Brown, IDL Javon Kinlaw & EDGE D.J. Wonnum

Linebackers: Patrick Queen & Kenneth Murray

Cornerbacks: Jaylon Johnson & L’Jarius Sneed

Safeties: FS Julian Blackmon, SS Antoine Winfield & FLEX Jeremy Chinn

Let’s be real here – three of the four spots on the D-line should and probably are the same for everybody out there. Young was the second overall pick because he was a generational prospect and while he was banged up for a while, there was never much doubt that he would become a dominant player at the next level as well, leading all rookies in tackles for loss (10), sacks (7.5) and forced fumbles (four).

Wonnum off the other edge certainly doesn’t get as much recognition and I think there is certainly a big drop-off after Young, but he has been a valuable rotational pass-rusher for them (21 total pressures) and he got a strip-sack on Aaron Rodgers, as he was loading up for his signature Hail Mary attempt at the end of their second game, to secure the victory.

On the inside I’m going with the top two guys selected, which were really in a class of their own coming into the draft and after what I saw in year one from them. Brown was a monster in the middle of that Carolina defense and even though he got his only two sacks at Green Bay, he was impactful throughout the season, including eight TFLs. And then Kinlaw got his only 1.5 sacks at New Orleans, but he flashed in the backfield routinely, while being a problem to throw over (four passes batted down) and getting a pick-six in an upset win over the Rams.

It wasn’t necessarily a great year for rookie linebackers as a group, but I’m sticking with the duo at the top of my list behind Isaiah Simmons, who was more a freakishly athletic hybrid player anyway.

Queen filled the stat-sheet for Baltimore in a LB-friendly scheme, that heavily utilized him as a blitzer and kept him clean for the most part, when that D-line was healthy. He recorded over 100 total tackles, nine of them for loss, three sacks, an interception and a couple of fumbles forced and recovered each, including a touchdown. However, teams have taken advantage of him at times by manipulating his eyes and dictating where he’s going.

Murray also crossed triple-digits in terms of tackles, but he didn’t come up with any takeaways. Still, he has played 93 percent of the defensive snaps, giving that unit a true speed element on the second level to erase angles and he only missed eight tackles on the season, bringing ball-carriers down in space in a dependable fashion

I’m breaking secondary down into safeties and corners, which we’ll start with the former. And outside of Chase Young, these are arguably the top three defensive rookies of 2020. Blackmon has become what the Colts always hoped for that they’d get when they drafted Malik Hooker back in 2017, in terms of a true single-high free safety.

The Colts still use some of the cover-two shells that they relied on under DC Matt Eberflus, but Blackmon gives them somebody, who has the range to make plays on the ball from numbers to numbers, while showing tremendous pursuit to come downhill against the run, recording more plays on the ball (eight) than missed tackles (seven).

Winfield would be more of your typical strong safety in my scheme, having shown the ability to cover bodies in the slot and getting home as part of your blitz packages (three sacks), but the Bucs use a lot of quarters coverage to go with those man-looks when they send extra bodies, where Winfield does a tremendous job of driving on routes and knocking the ball out.

He forced three turnovers in the regular season and has made big plays in key moments all year. And then there’s Chinn – a ridiculous athlete at any position, who the Panthers used in more of a see-ball, get-ball role, where he constantly finds himself around the pigskin, leading all rookies with 117 total tackles, to go along with back-to-back fumble return TDs in the Vikings game and a couple of punt fake conversions.

On the outside, the choices are pretty easy for me as well, especially with Johnson, who immediately stepped in at corner on the right side of that Bears defense, which carried a horrendous offense for most of the season, and he has been asked to run a multitude of coverages – press and off man, quarters, three-deep, etc.

Despite being relied upon on that edge, he has missed single-digit tackles and only five players in the whole league have more than his 15 PBUs, despite missing three games, while you can find him at the back-end of a lot of crucial passes. Sneed opposite of him played in just nine games, but he was a revelation right off the bat. When the Chiefs were missing their two starting corners early on in the season, he came in and balled out right away.

Overall he picked off three passes, deflected seven more, holding opposing passers to a QB rating of just 54.2 and adding a couple of sacks to the mix.

Notable backups:

EDGE Alton Robinson, IDL DaVon Hamilton, LB Mykal Walker, CB Michael Ojemudia, S Jordan Fuller, FLEX Kamren Curl