Each week we dive into each team’s rookie class and compare how they stack up against each other. (Grades for each player are the overall offensive or defensive grade handed out by PFF.com)
Dallas Cowboys
Tyler Booker (OG)
First Round
If you were building a rookie guard in a lab, you’d wind up with a lot of Tyler Booker. He’s been nasty on double-teams, light on mistakes, and very much a blue collar right guard. Through three games, PFF’s dashboard paints him exactly that way being strong in the run game (75.9 run-block grade, sixth-best of 93 guards) and a solid overall profile (65.0, 25th) for a first-year starter finding his NFL sea legs this is a great start.
The gut punch here is Booker has been diagnosed with a high-ankle sprain that will sideline him for four-to-six weeks, per multiple reports, with IR under consideration. The timeline is lousy for Dallas and the add-on sting is that he got hurt after grinding through the Chicago Bears game where he played effectively, but the team disappointed in an embarrassing loss.
Grade: 65.0
Donovan Ezeiraku (DE)
Second Round
Donovan Ezeiruaku looks spring-loaded at the snap with a twitchy first step, hula-hoop bend, and a motor without an off switch. Three games in, the tape keeps winking with some splash flashes, rotational snaps, and clear trust from the staff, while the box score hustles to catch up. He’s been part of the main edge cast since Week 1, logging grown-man snaps and forcing protections to circle his number.
On the grading ledger, Ezeiruaku is sitting at 62.0 as a pass rusher and 55.4 versus the run, which tracks perfectly for a rookie built to hunt quarterbacks first and tidy the run fits in time. The box score is shy so far with zero sacks, mostly because quarterbacks have been getting it out quick and Dallas hasn’t finished the rush plan as a unit. That’s not a knock on the Ezeiruaku, it’s a reminder that sacks are usually a group project with one lucky recipient. In short, he’s showing to be a classic high-tools rookie and that this stage the traits are slowly showing up, the splash plays will soon follow.
Grade: 59.9
Shavon Revel Jr. (CB)
Third Round
Currently on Non-Football injury list (NFI)
Jaydon Blue (RB)
Fifth Round
Still waiting patiently to get his name called and he remains inactive. According to coaches he’s still working on the playbook and working toward to playing with more consistency before getting his chance to play.
Grade: N/A
Shemar James (LB)
Fifth Round
Another inactive player with potential, waiting for the call.
Grade: N/A
Ajani Cornelius (OT)
Sixth Round
Inactive
Grade: N/A
Jay Toia (DT)
Seventh Round
Toia was inactive last week and there’s a chance that happens again this week as he works on his block-shedding technique and being more refined as a two-gap defender. Watch for the inactive list on Sunday.
Grade: 30.2
Phil Mafah (RB)
Seventh Round
Inactive
Grade: N/A
Green Bay Packers
Matthew Golden (WR)
First Round
Matthew Golden looks like he was built perfectly for Jordan Love’s quick rhythm game. He plays with good separation, slick feet, and YAC pop that’s extremely dangerous if cornerbacks give him chance. The rookie’s eased in with six grabs for 68 yards (11.3 per reception) through three games, flashing short-area burst on slants and outs, even if the occasional press jam and contested ball still remind you he’s undersized for the position.
Now comes his ideal launchpad, a Cowboys secondary patched together with duct tape and hope, surrendering a 73.9% completion rate (which ranks fourth-most), 9.8 yards per attempt (worst in the league), and a 125.3 passer rating (second-worst in the league). Expect Green Bay to feed Golden on quick hitters, glance RPOs, and the occasional double-move. All routes tailor-made to turn Dallas’s coverage voids into wide-open acreage.
Grade: 59.1
Anthony Belton (OT)
Second Round
Packers starting right tackle, Zach Tom, had an oblique issue he’d been working through since Week 1. He suited up last week, took one snap, and tapped out so the Packers slid the keys to Anthony Belton, and the rookie didn’t stall. In Week 2, Belton posted 51 snaps with zero pressures and zero sacks on 28 pass-blocks, the lone blemish a flag that erased a touchdown. When Tom’s brief Week 3 appearance fizzled, Belton jumped straight back in as Green Bay played musical chairs up front. Against a tough Cleveland Browns defense, he didn’t fare as well.
What Belton brings is brute elegance with his size and is a road-grader combining heavy hands and enough foot quickness to keep Jordan Love’s timing clean. Week 2 was a positive, but in Week 3 against the Browns he had a PFF grade of 41.6 as the entire line struggled.
Grade: 51.0
Savion Williams (WR)
Third Round
Savion Williams is Green Bay’s jumbo Swiss-army wideout. At 6’4”, 222 lbs and with catcher-mitt hands, he can happily body-check corners at the stem and go. His rookie stats are weird yet useful as he’s registered a 16-yard jet sweep, 23 rushing yards total, and 147 kickoff return yards, while the pass game slow-drips with only one catch for one yard. Translation for this week, some quick motion, glance routes, and goal-line boxing matches to stress leverage.
The college tape screams a short-area assassin so expect “easy” chain-movers that turn into bruising YAC plays and set up Jordan Love’s deep shots elsewhere on the field. Give him cushion and he’ll bully the sticks, press him and you’ve booked a ringside seat to a catch-point wrestling match.
Grade: 59.5
Nazir Stackhouse (DT)
UDFA
Nazir Stackhouse has been more of a situational piece for Green Bay so far, and his chances have come since Kenny Clark departed for Dallas. Nazir is built to clog lanes, and in limited snaps he’s flashed that space-eating strength with a couple of run stops but has shown little impact as a pass rusher. If he sees the field against Dallas, expect him to be used mostly on early downs to anchor the middle and keep the Cowboys’ ground game from finding easy creases, something Javonte Williams has done with regularity this season so far.
Grade: 59.5
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