Most of the time, a breakout season for a specific player feels imminent. A strong sophomore season in the NFL generates massive hype entering Year 3.
In rare instances, players break out seemingly out of nowhere. They had minimal opportunities early in their pro careers, and maybe even performed well, but there wasn't enough volume to alert the masses of an impending breakout.
Who could those players be this season? Here is the 2024 "Out of Nowhere" Breakout Team:
Broncos RB Javonte Williams
Remember the hype surrounding Williams a few years ago? This was a monstrously sudden, vicious, tackle-breaking machine at North Carolina with outstanding elusiveness in space that made him the 35th overall selection in the 2021 NFL Draft.
His rookie season in the NFL hinted at future superstardom, when he forced the second-most missed tackles in football (63) that year on the 18th-most carries. In his second season, Williams suffered a significant knee injury that featured tears to multiple ligaments. It was a borderline miracle that he returned to football last year, but after a season in which he averaged just 3.6 yards per carry and his advanced statistics dipped at a position with the shortest shelf life in the game, the hype entering the 2022 season for Williams was all but fully dissipated. He's averaged being selected as the RB31 in CBS Sports fantasy drafts to date.
I still have faith. Williams was one of the most electric runners with serious NFL size I've ever scouted, and soon he'll be two years removed from the devastating injury that curtailed his 2022 season. The Broncos haven't technically drafted a runner they believe will be the immediate RB1 this season, although I adored the on-paper thunder-and-lightning combination of Audric Estime and Jaleel McLaughlin.
This is the year Williams runs as efficiently as we all expected him to earlier in his career. He's too talented -- and now fully healthy -- to not play at a high level in the NFL.
Jaguars TE Brenton Strange
Strange is directly behind 114-catch man Evan Engram in the tight end room. But let's not forget, Eagles coach Doug Pederson has history deploying two tight ends as focal points of the offense. In Philadelphia, under Pederson's watch, Dallas Goedert blossomed into the borderline elite player he is today after Zach Ertz set the record for most receptions in a single season by a tight end in NFL history with 116.
In short, there's room for Strange in the Jaguars offense, even with newcomers at receiver like first-round pick Brian Thomas Jr. and Gabe Davis.
And, like Engram, Strange is a freaky athletic specimen. At nearly 6-4 and 253 pounds, the former Penn State star ran 4.7 and had a vertical and broad jump in the 82nd and 91st percentile at the tight end position. The receiving chops are there too. Strange caught 52 passes for 587 yards with eight touchdowns in his final two seasons with the Nittany Lions.
In what could amount to a make-or-break year for Pedersen, I'm looking forward to seeing Strange as a contributing TE2 in this Jacksonville offense.
Steelers CB Cory Trice
Trice is such a unique cornerback. At the 2023 combine, he measured in at a legitimate 6-3 and 206 pounds with nearly 33-inch arms. In today's NFL that's nearly linebacker size. He ran 4.47 with an 11-foot broad jump, the latter testing in the 93rd percentile at the cornerback position.
What I loved about Trice as a prospect is that he wasn't simply a big, tall, linear athlete. He had five interceptions and 15 pass breakups in five seasons at Purdue, and two of his picks and 10 of those knocked away passes occurred in his final season with the Boilermakers. He played with immense energy on every snap and in 2022 was suffocating at the catch point in the Big Ten.
And it was Trice, not necessarily Joey Porter Jr., in his rookie-year training camp, who early on looked like favorite to play on the boundary in 2023. Then an ACL tear hit, and Trice missed his entire first season in the NFL. Now, Trice has reportedly earned Pittsburgh's first-time "dimebacker" role, as a box defender with coverage skill who comes onto the field when the Steelers trot out their dime package to combat three and four-plus receiver looks.
Trice has the coverage instincts, length, and athleticism to become a critical contributor to what should be a stingy Steelers defense in 2024.
Eagles DT Moro Ojomo
No club develops defensive linemen like the Eagles. They get out what they put in, and building the defensive line has always been a team-building emphasis for GM Howie Roseman. I had a second-round grade on Ojomo in the 2023 class, and the Eagles snagged him in Round 7 after picking Jalen Carter in Round 1 following a first-round selection of Jordan Davis the year before.
Along with Milton Williams and the inside-out rushing capabilities of Jordan Sweat, Ojomo found himself in an absolutely loaded interior defensive line room in Philadelphia as a rookie. A summer concussion also slowed his maturation to the NFL. He didn't play until Week 5 in 2023 and only played double-digit snaps in the Eagles final two regular-season contests.
At Texas, Ojomo was a classic one-gap penetrator for the Longhorns who did a marvelous job with run-gap integrity. He wasn't a specialist. He made as much of an impact on first and second down as he did in clear-cut passing scenarios. Across four seasons he generated a pressure on 8.8% of his rushes -- and 10% is tremendous for a defensive tackle.
The cherry on top -- Ojomo is a fine athlete at nearly 6-3 and 292 pounds. His 5.04 time in the 40-yard dash ranked in the 60th percentile while his vertical and broad jump ranked in the 88th and 85th percentile respectively. The Eagles could use quality depth along the defensive front in 2024, and Ojomo with his 34.5-inch arms and acceleration off the snap, will become that plus contributor when the Georgia alums need a rest.
Rams EDGE Nick Hampton
The Rams have low-key become a haven for defensive linemen of every type. And that's not just because of the first-ballot Hall of Fame career of the now-retired Aaron Donald.
GM Les Snead and Co. have attempted to reloaded up front, and in a vital situational role, I'm most pumped for Hampton in Year 2. This is a former Appalachian State star, who at his best, generated 52 pressures on a mere 268 pass-rushing snaps, which equates to a huge 19.4% pressure-generation rate.
The concern with Hampton translating to the NFL was size and pro-caliber strength. He was 6-foot-2 and 236 pounds at the 2023 combine. But now he's had a full year as a professional and an entire offseason to add bulk and power to his game. In college, Hampton won with sheer explosion off the snap, tremendous bendiness around the corner, a devastating inside crossover, and an advanced collection of pass-rush moves. Now, presumably, he can move offensive tackles backward with a speed-to-power rush.
With first-round pick Jared Verse, the overachieved Michael Hoecht, and fellow classmate Byron Young part of the Rams edge-rushing unit, Hampton won't be an every-down player, but I expect him to quietly become an efficient outside rusher who can beat blockers en route to the quarterback in a multitude of ways. He needed a year to get "NFL strong."
