While draft classes can’t be properly evaluated until roughly three years after the draft, it can provide some context to look at their immediate impacts. Some teams focus their draft capital on players who can contribute immediately, while others use their draft capital on players who they can develop into contributors farther down the road. 

Here are the 2024 rankings for each NFL rookie class in our player value stat, Total Points.

(learn more about this stat here)

2024 Total Points Leaders – NFL Rookie Classes

Though 7 of the top 10 teams in Total Points from rookies made the playoffs, there wasn’t necessarily a clear pattern. Of the teams in the bottom half in this stat, seven made the playoffs, including three pretty prominent teams in the bottom 10 (Chiefs, Lions, Vikings). It certainly helps to have great rookies, but it isn’t the end-all, be-all.  Playoff teams are spread throughout the rankings as are the teams who had a less-than-ideal year. 

Starting at the top, the Commanders’ numbers were carried greatly by Jayden Daniels who ranked 5th among all quarterbacks with 113 Total Points and was named our Offensive Rookie of the Year, but they also got double-digit Total Points from Brandon Coleman, Jer’Zhan Newton, and Mike Sainristil (who ranked in the Top 20 among cornerbacks with 34) for a well-rounded class. 

The Rams, who won our Rookie Class of the Year, didn’t have a single rookie earn 50 Total Points, but they did have seven players amass at least 10 Total Points; Jared Verse (who ranked 3rd among defensive ends and also earned an All-Pro nod from our staff), Jordan Whittington, Beaux Limmer, Braden Fiske, Omar Speights, Jaylen McCollough, and Kamren Kinchens. 

The Broncos, 49ers, and Buccaneers round out the Top 5. The Broncos were heavily carried by Bo Nix (who ranked 6th among quarterbacks overall), but did have one other player in double figures, Kris Abrams-Draine. The 49ers had their Total Points spread around with Dominick Puni, Evan Anderson, Renardo Green, and Malik Mustapha all finishing the season with at least 10 Total Points and Puni, Green, and Mustapha finishing with at least 30. In 5th place, the Buccaneers had Bucky Irving (who finished 3rd among all RBs in Total Points), Graham Barton, and Tykee Smith all finish with at least 25 Total Points for another balanced rookie class.

In total, eight teams finished with 100+ Total Points from their rookies and eight finished with fewer than 50 Total Points. The Jets and Lions tied for the 5th-fewest Total Points from their rookies, but had extremely different seasons. 

The Jets struggled this season, and they had very little help from their rookies with only Olu Fashanu and Leonard Taylor III getting more than 6 Total Points (each had 14). The Lions had one of their best seasons in team history despite Terrion Arnold being the only rookie with more than 2 Total Points (he had 34, which put him right around the Top 20 for cornerbacks overall).

The Dolphins and Falcons ranked 29th and 30th in Total Points from rookies, respectively. While Chop Robinson came on late in the season, he was the only Dolphins’ rookie to finish with at least 10 Total Points. Similarly, Michael Penix Jr. was the only Falcons’ rookie to do the same despite not starting until late in the season.

The Browns rookie class, which ranked next-to-last in Total Points, didn’t have any rookies generate double-digit Total Points, although with only 2 picks in the Top 150 of last year’s draft, not much was expected from this group. 

The same can’t be said for the Vikings who finish plum-last with a measly 20 Total Points generated from their rookie class this year. While their top draft pick was out for the season before it began, few rookies made any impact at all. Only two rookies finished with more than 1 Total Point, and their leaders were Dallas Turner with 10 and Will Reichard with 7.

As stated at the beginning, to properly evaluate a draft class, patience is needed as it usually takes three or so years to really sort through what happened. SIS does evaluations of draft classes three years afterwards (the 2021 draft class was evaluated last year), and this one could change wildly in the next couple of years, but as far as immediate returns go, there was a clear separation between the top teams and the bottom teams.