NFL teams
Matt Bowen, ESPN Staff Writer 8y

Five rookies ready to pop in Year 2

NFL

During his rookie season, Tennessee Titans wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham caught 32 passes for 549 yards and four touchdowns. That's decent production for a rookie, but the expected development and second-year jump for Green-Beckham should lead to a major boost in production in 2016.

For many rookies, the first year in the league is a total experiment. The speed of the game is lightning fast compared to college. The demands of the playbook are much greater, and these young cats come into camp straight off combine training. Their bodies are leaner, and they aren't in pure football shape to battle with veteran pros just yet. This is grown-man stuff now.

However, once these players get an entire offseason to train and the game begins to slow down mentally, we start to see real signs of their talent and development. Let's break down Green-Beckham and four other players who should be in position to make big strides as second-year pros.

Dorial Green-Beckham, WR, Tennessee Titans

Beckham has beastly measurables when you break down his testing results from the 2015 combine. At 6-foot-5, 237 pounds, the wide receiver has the ideal frame to handle DBs at the line and the catch radius to go snag the rock. Speed? He ran the 40 in 4.49 seconds and even posted a sub-seven-second three-cone drill (6.89) to showcase some lateral movement and explosive quickness.

Remember the tape from Green-Beckham's days at Missouri? This guy made highlight catches, but he also ran a pretty limited route tree from a spread offense: the fade, curl, slant and dig. To compound the problem, Green-Beckham hadn't faced real game action in the SEC since 2013. Despite all that, he averaged 17.2 yards per catch in 2015 -- 2.3 yards more than the second-best rookie (Amari Cooper) -- while working with rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota.

Yes, he's still raw in terms of route-running ability, and that showed up on his rookie tape. But given Green-Beckham's freakish skill set and the fact that Mariota will continue to develop in Year 2, the wide receiver could be a true matchup weapon for the Titans in 2016. He has the size to post up defensive backs in the red zone and the long speed to challenge secondaries over the top. Throw him the ball.

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