Welcome to Student U’s Hot or Not NFL recap. This isn’t your grandfather’s NFL recap or your father’s either for that matter.
Rather than focusing on the NFL stars, we focus on former college stars, and how they did. So if you’re looking for some Tom Brady, Antonio Brown and JJ Watt coverage you can go right ahead and hop of….. Or don’t, who knows, maybe you’ll like it.
Hot:
Derrius Guice’s 2019 Rookie of the Year campaign
T’s and P’s to Derrius Guice who went down with a torn ACL on his third carry, but according to the Ben Simmons Rule, he’s now the frontrunner for the 2019 Rookie of the Year so place your bets now. It seems that every year now we lose a top player and this one is just sad. After sliding in the draft, Guice was finally picked up by the Redskins, and he looked good through training camp, it’s a shame the rookie of the year now loses a top 5 contender.
Chad Kelly
Your favorite Ole Miss bad boy got his first NFL minutes for the Denver Broncos against the Vikings. On a night that Paxton Lynch stunk it up, Kelly finished 14-21 for 177 yards and two touchdowns.
Cleveland’s rookies
After a rough Hard Knocks debut featuring tense relations between Hue Jackson and his polar opposite coordinators, the Browns needed some good news. They didn’t get it from Antonio Callaway off the field, but the sure did get it from him on the field. Callaway finished with three catches for 87 yards and a touchdown. He seems to have developed a good connection with fellow rookie Baker Mayfield, who didn’t do so bad himself. The Number One pick went 11/20 with 212 yards and two touchdowns.
Mayfield will probably sit at least a couple games behind Tyrod Taylor, but a solid debut was all he needed for the Browns coaches to see if maybe Mayfield is ready to start from Day 1.
Shaquem Griffin
Former UCF edge-backer was nothing but outstanding in his debut for the Seahawks. In four straight snaps. In limited snaps, he had four solo tackles and finished the game with 9 total tackles and one for a loss.
Griffin’s speed and ball awareness makes up for his lack of a hand. He manages to make plays all over the field and in Seattle’s rebuilding defense, he’s in a perfect situation to grow into a star. Seattle can play him in Kam Chancellor’s spot as a roaming safety, also known as a Death Backer, which is a dope ass name, or, they can play him off the edge, where he thrived at UCF.
The NFC West lacks many headlines aside from who Jimmy G takes out to dinner and Sean McVay’s Rams, who should run away with the division title. If Griffin and his brother continue to ball out, Seattle could give the Rams a lot of headaches.
Not
JT Barrett
I for one feel bad for J.T Barrett, yes he is a millennial who wants everything handed to him (cough *First down versus Michigan in double overtime in 2016* cough) but he was never a “bad” quarterback, and I was dumbfounded when he ended up going undrafted in the 2018 Draft. He ended up with the New Orleans Saints where he gets to learn from the best undersized QB of all time in Drew Brees. Barrett didn’t play much in his first preseason game, and only got in during garbage time. I’m not afraid to give credit where credit is due, he did a solid job handing the ball of to the running back, but he also took a sack on his only drop-back of the game. Overall, bad debut for Barrett, but I hope we see more of him throughout the preseason.
Kevin White
The year is 2099, “this is it,” NFL pundits whisper, “Kevin White is going to break out this year.”
That’s right folks, Kevin White is healthy and made his much awaited preseason debut andddddd, he was targeted twice and had no catches. Stay tuned to see if White can stay off the Injury Reserve list, and hopefully, turn his career around.