It's that time of year when the hype of young players rolls out with ferocity.
Here at Around The NFL we have our Making the Leap list, which looks forward to potential breakout young guns.
NFL players have their own checklist of teammates they believe will bust out in the upcoming season.
Arizona Cardinals corner Patrick Peterson told NBC Sports Radio on Wednesday he sees second-year receiver J.J. Nelson having a big 2016.
"I believe J.J. Nelson's going to have a great year," Peterson said. "He had a great, great spring, showed some flashes. I can't wait to see what he's going to do here if he can keep that momentum going into summer camp because I've seen it happen a number of times."
It's not the first praise of Nelson we've heard this offseason. Coach Bruce Arians has cooed about the speedster as well.
Nelson played well in a limited role last season, compiling 299 yards on just 11 receptions (27.2 yards per catch) and two touchdowns. The knock on Nelson is he's petite at 5-foot-10, 160 pounds. He's the perfect candidate to flash in padless spring practices.
"Guys have great springs but once they get in front of a couple of fans and the crowd, the lights come on, you get a different player," Peterson said. "So J.J. is definitely one of them that had a great spring."
Not only must Nelson carry over his spring performances once the pads come on, he'll need to leap someone on the depth chart, or force Arians into four receiver sets often.
The Cards boast one of the top receiver groups in the NFL. Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and John Brown are all ahead of Nelson in the pecking order.
Floyd is on the last year of his contract and Fitzgerald enters the twilight of his career. Nelson might have to wait a year to earn a ton of snaps, but Peterson (and others) believes he'll prove more than capable when called upon.
- All eight one-hour episodes of "All or Nothing: A Season with the Arizona Cardinals" will be available for Amazon Prime members as part of their membership, and to all Amazon customers starting July 1 via the Amazon Video app for TVs, connected devices including Fire TV, mobile devices and online at Amazon.com/allornothing. For a list of all Amazon Video compatible devices, visit www.amazon.com/howtostream.*
