The NFL season is nearly a quarter complete, and several teams are already receiving good value on draft selections made in April. The first round represents roughly 12.5% of the selections made in the 2026 NFL Draft, and while they are considered the most likely to contribute early, teams fill out their roster with players selected in other rounds. Who are those non-first-round picks to take on an important role this season?
There are 18 (8 on offense, 10 on defense) who have played 150+ offensive or defensive snaps through four weeks. It's an arbitrary number, but one that serves as a governor for the exercise. Among that sample size, there are six second-round picks, six third-round picks, three fourth-round picks, two fifth-round picks and one undrafted free agent.
The undrafted free agent is Chiefs left tackle Kahlil Benson, whom I wrote about earlier this season. The Cowboys were an ideal landing spot for Barham because he had played both edge rusher and off-ball linebacker in college. New Dallas defensive coordinator Christian Parker studied under Vic Fangio with the Eagles.
Over the past few years, Philadelphia has had a number of those body types with cross-trained backgrounds, such as Zack Baun, Jihaad Campbell, Nolan Smith, etc. With Barham, the athleticism jumps off the page, but there are still some inconsistencies in the run game. He has been credited with three pressures by TruMedia, but has not done as well at utilizing his quickness and setting up pass-rush moves as he did at Michigan.
The production has been there early, but there is another level he can take his game when Parker grows more comfortable in his role. Over the past decade, Boston has had the seventh-most receiving yards by a rookie through the first four weeks of the season. Ja'Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson and Puka Nacua are some of the notable names with more receiving yards as rookies through the first four games.
TruMedia credits him with zero drops on the season. There have been a few that could have been categorized as such, but the defender was hanging all over him, and a penalty was not called. There were some missed connections with Deshaun Watson that could have manifested even better numbers.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
