Sportsnaut
During the 2025 NFL season, we saw players like quarterback Drake Maye and cornerback Quinyon Mitchell break out to earn All-Pro honors. As we look ahead to the fall, there are quite a few NFL sophomores who could take huge steps forward.
Let’s dive into our list of NFL second-year players who could break out in 2026.
A more popular pick for the breakout season among sophomore quarterbacks is probably Cam Ward. We’re just not sold on the environment around him right now. We love what the New Orleans Saints have surrounded Tyler Shough with. In his final eight games, he went 5-3 as the starter with a 69.7% completion rate and a 97.1 passer rating, averaging 7.7 yards per attempt and 281.5 total yards per game. We expect the Saints offensive line to be even better in 2026 and Shough now has a 1B receiver in Jordyn Tyson. It’s a situation primed for a breakout.
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Luther Burden‘s teammate, tight end Colston Loveland, warranted consideration here. However, the 2025 first-round pick did just put up 713 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns as a rookie and is already viewed as a top-8 player at his position. So, Burden it is. With DJ Moore gone, there are 85-plus targets up for grabs in Ben Johnson’s offense and the head coach has made it clear he needs to feed the football more to the second-year wideout in 2026. We think we could see four to six games with 100-plus scrimmage yards from Burden this fall.
Luther Burden is one of the most popular breakout picks among NFL sophomores for 2026, but don’t sleep on Matthew Golden. He was an afterthought for this Green Bay Packers offense in 2025, but it still speaks volumes about his talent that GM Brian Gutekunst used a first-round pick on him. Plus, with Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks gone, there are 130-plus targets up for grabs. Christian Watson will remain the deep threat, but don’t be shocked if Golden finishes second on the team in receptions and is top-three in receiving yards this fall, putting up at least 50 catches for 700-plus yards.
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New York Giants edge rusher Abdul Carter ‘only’ recorded 4 sacks in his rookie season. However, he also delivered 34 pressures, 23 QB hits and 12 hurries. Even more impressive than that is that he posted the fifth-best ESPN pass-rush win rate (21%), tied with DPOY winner Myles Garrett. Opponents also won’t have many opportunities to double-team Carter because of Brian Burns, Arvell Reese and Kayvon Thibodeaux. After recording 4 sacks as a rookie, we’re predicting that Carter triples that to pair with 40-plus pressures in his second season.
Might the Philadelphia Eagles have been...
