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FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast

Top 5 NFL Rookies to Know for 2026 (Ep. 2023)

FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast

iHeartPodcasts

Sports, Fantasy Sports

4.710.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Join Joe Pisapia, Andrew Erickson, and Derek Brown as they break down the top five rookies that you need to know before the 2026 NFL season kicks off!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is an I-Heart podcast.

0:02.6

Guaranteed Human.

0:05.4

Park it right here, everybody.

0:06.9

It's time for the tailgate.

0:08.2

It's me, Joey P. Jopia, with me, my two best friends.

0:11.1

Derek Brown, D. Bro, the King of Bros.

0:13.5

And Andrew Erickson, the newest puppy dad.

0:16.0

That's right.

0:16.5

You've got a puppy running the house now, which feels like a good time to talk about new things, including

0:22.3

rookies. That's right. Andrew Erickson, how's the latest rookie holding up in the Erickson home these

0:27.2

days? Well, he's keeping his dad away. Can't you tell by the bags underneath my eyes that I haven't

0:31.7

slept that much of the last couple days? But hey, a day over 33. Well, it'll be 32 at the end of May

0:37.3

for those keeping track at home. So I have dropped some hints here and there where my birthday is. So we'll see if the listeners have been paying attention. So, no, it's been good. It's been fun. The puppy, it's a delight of joy when he's sleeping, when he's having fun, he's behaving. And then he's an absolute menace. I'm not sure I want to call him the Prince of Terror, the Prince of Darkness. Just there are times when, and he's a land shark. He's trying to bite everything that moves. So don't love that. My feet. My hands have been bleeding a little bit. They're dry. He keeps biting them. So, but we're improving every day. Very good. See, Debrough and I have had children already, so we know that that's why they make them

1:13.6

all cute because of the fact that they poop and pee on everything.

1:17.6

They bite too.

1:18.6

Break things and bite and everything else they do.

1:21.6

So sometimes you've got to break in some rookies, but the good news is sometimes those new things can have huge impacts.

1:27.9

So we're going to talk about what a transition that was. We're going to talk about five rookies here on different sides of the football that we think are going to make some big impacts in the NFL this year. And we're going to start here on the defensive side. Because you know on fantasy pros, when you listen, everybody's always talking about the offensive side of the ball. That's what fantasy is all about.

1:44.8

We do have a little bit of IDP here and there, but not that much, not as much as we're used to in these streets anymore. But I want to talk about Sunny Stiles because I want to talk about real football here. So Sunny Stiles, linebacker is now Washington Commander. And I've seen some of the early OTA stuff, watching some of the clips, which again, it's just kind of fun stuff.

2:01.3

You don't want to take too much out of it. But he's been called a quote unquote stat stuffer, right? He's a guy that Dan Quinn, I think, is going to want to put it in the middle of that field and use him in different ways. And he's a little bit taller, too, for the position that you see at linebacker, which I think is also kind of intriguing. And, Deeb, I'm going to start with you on this one, too, because Sunny Stiles was a player when we started the draft process.

2:20.4

I remember Bogman and I were talking about like, this dude feels really safe. He feels like a guy is going to go in there, have a 10-year career in the NFL. And if there's one thing the commanders really lacked, I think, defensively was kind of just somebody solid that you can kind of build around.

2:34.5

It just didn't feel like they had that dude.

...

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