2026 Post-Draft NFL Rookie of the Year Predictions

Now that the draft is behind us (and I’ve graded your favorite team), it’s time to look forward. What better way to do that than to look at the players just selected and try to guess which of them will take home hardware at the next NFL Honors? I’m going to do my best to make 2026 NFL rookie of the year predictions on both offense and defense. To do so, I’m going to consider their likelihood of quickly acclimating to the pro game, the situations they find themselves in, and their odds of generating strong counting stats. I’ll also provide a couple of sleeper picks for each category.

Offensive Rookie of the Year: RB Jadarian Price, Seattle Seahawks

For the second straight year, there’s no obvious QB candidate for this award. This class is bad at that position, and even the #1 pick is expected to sit and learn for a while. An OL or TE could break out, but OROY never goes to any of those guys. That leaves us with a WR or an RB. Most of the Love is going to a particular Notre Dame rusher, but readers of this site know I’ve long preferred the other Irish back. Jadarian Price enters an excellent situation in Seattle, where carries are available for the taking. Zach Charbonnet will likely miss the season’s start as he recovers from a torn ACL, and Kenneth Walker is gone.

What Price can do with his opportunities excites me. I love his running style. He has fantastic vision and change-of-direction-skills. If you ask an RB expert, they’ll tell you that a back’s eyes and feet are his most important attributes. Those are both strengths of Price’s, along with strong burst. His output at ND was modest because of his imbalanced backfield timeshare. Extrapolating his numbers to a full workload portends an impressive result. He’ll have a chance to stake his claim to a permanent role while Charbonnet is out. Should he perform well, he could take Walker’s RB1 role for himself.

OROY winners are often taken in the first half of round 1, but this class isn’t good enough to rule out a slightly later selection. As the #32 pick, Price was still a rare first-round RB, and he’s going to a great situation. Seattle’s line improved greatly in 2025, and the passing game is enough of a threat to draw attention. This year, any rookie who puts up volume stats is a strong award candidate. Price is walking into a great chance to do just that. Voters also love splash plays, which Price is known to provide. Combine that with a high profile because he’s playing for the champs, and you’ve got a recipe for an award winner.

Sleepers: QB Fernando Mendoza, Raiders (I can’t eliminate a QB who gets taken #1 overall); RB Jeremiyah Love, Cardinals (Any time an RB is drafted in the top 5, expect him to get a ton of touches); WR Carnell Tate, Titans (The draft’s first WR to be drafted is going to see a large number of targets, and he may be Tennessee’s WR1)

Defensive Rookie of the Year: LB Sonny Styles, Commanders

As usual, projecting the DPOY winner is very tough. Unlike in 2025, where there weren’t really any star rookie defenders to hang your hat on, we have a surplus of great candidates this season. A few offensive guys went way too early, but make no mistake: the top of this draft specialized in defensive talent. Heck, 3 Ohio State players alone were top-10 draft pick options for me here. That made my decision come down to who I believed could best hit the ground running. With that in mind, I (unconfidently) settled on Sonny Styles. His athleticism is simply too spectacular to ignore, but other factors work in his favor as well.

To address the athletic ability first, Styles tested off the charts. He has a DB past and the smoothness that comes with that. However, his size is that of an LB, with all of the accompanying power. The mix results in a uniquely gifted LB who can excel in all 3 possible linebacker tasks: run stopping, pass rushing, and coverage. I expect Styles to produce stats even better than those Carson Schwesinger (last year’s winner) posted as a rookie. Fair or not, eye-popping numbers speak to the voters. I understand that I’m expecting a lot out of Styles. My next point explains why I’m so bullish on his immediately potential.

The man Styles will be replacing is Bobby Wagner, a future hall of famer. Prime Wagner and Styles have similar profiles and styles of play. The DC that developed Wagner as a youngster in Seattle? None other than Dan Quinn, the current HC of the Commanders. It would be great if Wagner came back to mentor Styles as well, but he’s in capable hands regardless. Quinn didn’t just make magic out of one guy. He also spearheaded Frankie Luvu’s improvement, along with numerous others in Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta, and Washington. Great physical tools and strong coaching make Styles the safe pick in a crowded group of rookie defenders.

Sleepers: DE David Bailey, Jets (The draft’s best pure pass rusher can win if he racks up a big sack total); CB Mansoor Delane, Chiefs (Delane is the new CB1 for an extremely visible team, so a strong performance will count for a lot); LB CJ Allen, Colts (A great tackler, Allen could produce strong numbers and great run stuffing grades)