Falcons’ Drake London, Packers’ Devonte Wyatt among five Year 3 players primed to break out in 2024 NFL season

It wasn’t long ago when we, as NFL fans, understood and willingly accepted that it would take a full two years for the vast majority of players to get used to the intensified speed and power of the NFL. Now? Society doesn’t like waiting for anything, much less for players to develop slowly but surely.

However, this does not mean that Year 3 disruptions cease to exist. They happen. And a Year 3 breakout typically leads to a nice, lucrative contract extension.

These are the third-year professionals prepared to debut in 2024.

We know what Kirk Cousins ​​is good for on the field. From 2020 to 2022 at Minnesota, he finished with somewhere between 4,200 and 4,550 passing yards on about a 67% completion rate with nearly 30 touchdowns and close to 10 interceptions. And their new offensive coordinator, Zac Robinson, represents a branch of the excellent Sean McVay tree, which has some staples, some better known than others.

In the McVay system, there is typically a true No. 1 who gets football every week. More recently, in Los Angeles, think of the gaudy numbers that Cooper Kupp and, in his absence, Puka Nacua put up. Alongside Kirk was Justin Jefferson with the Vikings putting together a legendary start to his pro career.

Now it’s London’s turn to step into that well-defined, boundary-pushing “X” receiver role, with the newest bud on the tree McVay and Cousins ​​throwing passes to him in Atlanta. While London probably hasn’t lived up to the expectations that naturally come with being a top-10 receiver selection, he has nearly 1,000 yards in 2023 with questionable quarterback play at best. To date, London’s yards per rush in the NFL is 1.96, with 2.00 being a single-season benchmark for high-level efficiency.

We’ve had about 300 Georgia defensive players enter the NFL in the last three or four years, with apparently half of them going in the first round, and Wyatt might be one of the most overlooked of the bunch because he’s not huge like Jordan Davis and wasn’t productive like Jalen Carter.

But it wasn’t that long ago that Wyatt was the most useful outfielder on the Bulldogs’ championship-winning group. An injury early in his career with the Packers halted much of his college enthusiasm and led to just over 110 defensive snaps as a rookie in Green Bay in 2022.

Alongside fellow 2023 first-round defensive linemen Rashan Gary, Kenny Clark and Lukas Van Ness, Wyatt played more like Georgia’s version of himself. He generated a sizable 45 pressures on just 305 pass rush chances and finished the regular season with a respectable 5.5 sacks. Wyatt was an older player just entering the NFL and is now 26 years old. He must be in excellent physical shape – especially as he has not logged significant mileage in his first two seasons as a professional. I expect a monstrous, almost Gary-esque leap forward within an organization that has proven it knows exactly how to develop players in the trenches.

Listed as a fullback but, in the film, a linebacker, Bell was one of the best players on the Cowboys’ defense in 2023. He went from just playing as a late-round rookie in 2022 to 94 tackles, three tackles for loss and four breakups of passes from his hybrid box defender role in Year 2.

If listed as a linebacker on Mockdraftable, Bell’s 40-yard dash (4.41) is in the 98th percentile at the position, and his verticals are in the 81st percentile – the former Florida A&M Rattler exudes explosiveness on the football and there is no hesitation in his game. Plus, at 6-foot-3 and about 200 pounds, he’s not really “undersized” by current standards for the position.

Then there’s his natural ability in coverage as a former safety. In his zone coverage a season ago, Bell allowed just 328 yards on 35 receptions. And he’s a stellar, hard-hitting linebacker who has missed just six tackles in 649 snaps.

Following the retirement of Leighton Vander Esch, the Cowboys need someone to step into the off-ball linebacker position, and they should feel good about Bell doing so as he rises to stardom in Dallas this season.

The former second-round pick from Auburn, who was a true – and only – challenge to Ja’Marr Chase at LSU, slowly made his way out of the NFL’s gates in his rookie season. He allowed a 113.8 passer rating on throws in the vicinity of his coverage, which included a whopping seven touchdowns.

Year 2 was a different story, it was easy to lose because the Titans finished 18th in defensive DVOA and failed to make the playoffs for the second year in a row. But the pesky inside-outside corner didn’t allow a touchdown in his second pro campaign and threw down six total throws. He also had his first two NFL sacks and forced seven tackles for loss, up from two as a rookie.

I’m excited for him to play in Dennard Wilson’s scheme, as the Titans’ new defensive coordinator is the first branch on Mike Macdonald’s super successful tree that was originally planted in Baltimore. What McCreary lacks in size and length, he counters with supreme instincts and contorts to stay with receivers at all three levels.

Bonitto has been high on the radar for some time after being drafted on Day 2 in 2022 following an illustrious career at Oklahoma despite less-than-ideal size for the edge rusher position. The fact that he’s proven he can be an overachiever as a pro lends credence to the idea that he can legitimately break out in his third season in Denver.

As a rookie, Bonitto came to quarterback with a decent but unspectacular 10.1% of 188 pass rushes. Without many other options in the post-Bradley Chubb era, the Broncos gave Bonitto more opportunities in his second season, and he was able to generate pressure more efficiently. His pressure rate shot up to 17% on 276 quick passes. Now, the league’s best edge rushers typically get about 400 or 500 of these reps during the regular season. We’ll see if Bonitto can continue with such an effective game at a higher volume. I think he can. At Oklahoma, he demonstrated a wide variety of methods for beating edge protectors, and by year three he is expected to be “NFL strong,” so the bull rush is added to his arsenal.