The NFL preseason gets underway Thursday with the Hall of Fame Game, and that means the first real look at the 2026 rookie class is finally here. The Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals will open the road to Super Bowl LXI, but plenty of the attention over the opening weeks will land on first-year players trying to make an early impression.
This offseason brought plenty of movement, from the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh to a wave of notable free-agent signings. Still, the rookies are the fresh story. Some debuts carry more weight than others, and these five stand out as the ones worth circling right away.
Jeremiyah Love is near the top of that list. When the Cardinals took him, the surprise wasn’t that he belonged in the conversation - it was that Arizona had already committed fresh money to multiple running backs.
Even so, Love looks like a clear upgrade over the options already in place. The first preseason games will give the league its first look at a player who could turn into a future star, and he has the talent to become one of the league’s best running backs for years to come.
Fernando Mendoza enters the preseason with a very different kind of spotlight. Of all the draft picks, his landing with the Las Vegas Raiders was the least shocking.
His rise during the 2025 season ended with a national championship and pushed him all the way to No. 1 overall. For now, he sits behind Kirk Cousins on the depth chart, which should mean plenty of preseason snaps.
The big question hanging over Las Vegas is simple: Have the Raiders finally found long-term stability at quarterback?
Ty Simpson brings another layer of intrigue. The Rams raised eyebrows when they took him with the 13th overall pick, but the move was tied to planning for life after Matthew Stafford rather than stepping away from the present.
Los Angeles is still in win-now mode after trading for Myles Garrett to keep its Super Bowl push on track. Simpson’s preseason work will offer the first peek at the franchise’s future whenever Stafford decides to retire, and a strong start would go a long way toward quieting the doubters.
On the defensive side, David Bailey is set to draw plenty of attention for the Jets. New York moved quickly on draft night to grab the Texas Tech standout and boost its pass rush.
Bailey comes with a high ceiling and the kind of upside that could eventually make him one of the AFC’s premier EDGE defenders. For now, though, the preseason is where his transition begins, and it will be the first chance to see how his game plays against NFL competition.
Carson Beck rounds out the group, and his path to the field comes with its own set of questions. The Cardinals made him the first pick of the third round, betting on an intelligent quarterback with prototypical size even if he doesn’t bring elite physical traits.
He also turned heads at the NFL Combine, and now he gets a chance to build on that in front of fans. His training camp has been uneven, which is hardly unusual for a rookie quarterback, but preseason snaps will tell us more about how quickly he can settle in.
For rookies, the preseason is usually about first steps. For these five, it could be the first sign of something much bigger.
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Sean McVay came away encouraged by what he saw from Stafford, and the quarterback also sounded confident about where the group stands heading into the fall. With receivers and tight ends drawing strong reviews early in camp, Staffords return offered the kind of steady sign Rams fans were waiting for, even if the bigger picture still depends on how the team handles the rest of his preseason ramp-up. [Read more 🡒]
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Myles Garretts Rams Absence Has Fans Watching One Bigger Date
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The bigger focus now is the next practice block after a planned day off, when Garrett is expected to be back in the mix. For a Rams team trying to keep key players fresh, the decision to hold him out for now feels more like part of the long game than a setback, even if fans are watching every update closely. [Read more 🡒]