Ranking and grading each Browns rookie from the 2021 NFL season

Ranking and grading the Cleveland Browns rookies from the 2021 season.

Each year the Cleveland Browns bring in a new crop of young players to help bolster the squad. It hasn’t always been an easy process, with past regimes holding the Browns back due to years of scouting mismanagement and poor drafts. So a good draft has become a bit of a white whale for the Browns, that’s why each year we look back at the class’ first year so we can properly gauge the future.

The first year of a rookie, whether they’re a first or seventh-round pick, sets the expectation of the player’s career. A rough rookie year may give one pause for their potential down the road. A solid rookie outing may have one thinking that player could be a Pro Bowler in the future.

That’s what we’re doing today, taking a look at those rookies from the past 2021 season for the Cleveland Browns and determining how their rookie year went. This is not a statement on their talent or their potential. Merely how they impacted the 2021 season. I don’t believe in grading on a curve, whether you’re a first-year or a fifth-year player, you’re a pro and will be evaluated as such.

Some rookies, like Michah Parsons, make an immediate impact. That’s the hope, that’s the goal. That’s the baseline for being an A-quality player. Making an impact as a rookie. So just because you may like a fourth-rounder, that doesn’t mean they had a good season. They might have better seasons, sure, but that doesn’t mean you have to turn a blind eye to their performance. Rookie or not.

So we’re looking at stats, PFF scores, and the like as we determine what a player is going to get for their rookie year. Again, this is not a final indication of them as a draft pick, only how they did this specific year.