Week six of the 2023 National Football League regular season is now complete. Here are the top five performances by rookies on winning teams.
5) Michael Mayer
The tight end from Independence, Kentucky was the Las Vegas Raiders second round pick, 35th overall, out of Notre Dame. In the Raiders’s 21-17 win over the New England Patriots on Sunday. Mayer had five catches for 75 receiving yards (career highs in receptions and yards).
4) Brenton Strange
In continuing with the tight end theme, this tight end from Parkersburg, West Virginia, was the Jacksonville Jaguars’s second round pick, 61st overall, out of Penn State. In the Jaguars’s 37-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Strange had two catches for 27 receiving yards and one touchdown. Strange’s touchdown came from a 10 yard catch from Trevor Lawrence with three minutes and 51 seconds left in the third quarter. At the time, the Jaguars went up 31-6.
3) Jordan Addison
With the loss of Justin Jefferson for a while with a hamstring injury, Jordan Addison of Frederick, Maryland has the potential to see a lot of looks in the Minnesota Vikings’s offense. The wide receiver from USC was the Vikings’s first round pick, 23rd overall, in the 2023 NFL Draft. On Sunday, he had three catches for 28 receiving yards and one touchdown in a 19-13 Vikings win over the Chicago Bears. Addison’s touchdown catch was for 10 yards and put the Vikings up 12-6 with 12 seconds left in the first half.
2) Zay Flowers
The rookie wide receiver from Fort Lauderdale, Florida was the Baltimore Ravens’s first round pick, 22nd overall, out of Boston College. On Sunday, Flowers had six catches for 50 receiving yards and one touchdown in a 24-16 Ravens win over the Tennessee Titans in London. Flowers’s touchdown was a 10 yard catch from Lamar Jackson with three minutes and 28 seconds left in the first half and put the Ravens up 15-3 at the time.
1) C.J. Stroud
The rookie quarterback for the Houston Texans continues to sizzle. On Sunday, Stroud of Rancho Cucamonga, California, completed 13 of 27 passes for 199 passing yards, two touchdowns and one interception, along with two rushing yards against a very good New Orleans Saints defense in a 20-13 Texans win. Stroud’s touchdowns were one yard to tight end Dalton Schultz, and six yards to Robert Woods. Stroud, who was the second overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft out of Ohio State, has won three of his first six NFL starts.
