Plenty of young former Clemson Tigers had a big impact on NFL teams this season, so I'm here to recap it now that Dwayne Allen and his Colts were knocked out of the playoffs yesterday.
DeAndre Hopkins, WR Texans
Nuk had a break out year for the Texans. He took over as the leading receiver for the team and is one of the bright spots that has Houston thinking it can make the playoffs next year. He also had quite possibly the best game of any receiver this year when he went off for 9 catches and 238 yards and 2 TDs against Tennessee. Nuk is an alternate receiver for the pro bowl. The Texans went 9-7 and just missed the playoffs.
Season Stats:
76 catches
1,210 yards
6 TDs
15.9 yards per catch
57 first downs
Sammy Watkins, WR Bills
Sammy was the leading receiver for the Bills in his rookie season, and if he had an adequate quarterback throwing him the ball, then he would have had a pro bowl campaign. The Bills also went 9-7, just missing the playoffs.
Season Stats:
65 catches
982 yards
6 TDs
15.1 yards per catch
47 first downs
Martavis Bryant, WR Steelers
Martavis didn't play until week 7 for the Steelers, but once he did he was an immediate impact. He became a touchdown machine, and was one of the best deep threats in the NFL the last few weeks. The Steelers went 11-5, won the AFC North and lost in the Wild Card round to the rival Ravens.
Season Stats (10 games):
26 catches
549 yards
8 TDs
21.1 yards per catch
16 first downs
Playoff Stats (1 game):
5 catches
61 yards
1 TD
12.2 yards per catch
3 first downs
Dwayne Allen, TE Colts
Despite battling some injuries, Dwayne Allen had a pretty productive season. He's a big redzone target for Andrew Luck, and he made some solid contributions to an 11-5 Colts team that won the AFC South yet again. The Colts also won their first two games of the playoffs against the Bengals and Broncos before getting trounced by the Patriots.
Season Stats (13 games):
29 catches
395 yards
8 TDs
13.6 yards per catch
24 first downs
Playoff Stats (3 games):
11 catches
90 yards
1 TD
8.2 yards per catch
6 first downs
Chandler Catanzaro, K Cardinals
Chandler Catanzaro had a great rookie year for the Cardinals, winning over the kicker job in preseason as an undrafted free agent. When the Cardinals offense started to struggle, Catanzaro picked them up with his clutch kicking. He went 4-4 in a 12-6 win over the Rams late in the season. The Cards went 11-5 but took their third string quarterback into Carolina for the Wild Card game against the Panthers and lost.
Season Stats:
29/33 on field goals (87.9%)
51 yard long
27/27 on extra points
114 points
Playoff Stats (1 game):
No field goal attempts
2/2 on extra points
2 points
I've previously written about Andre Ellington, Bashaud Breeland, CJ Spiller, Charlie Whitehurst, and Jaron Brown but Ellington and Spiller got injured, Breeland hasn't done much since I last wrote, and Whitehurst and Brown had very minimal roles on their teams. Click on their names to see their stats courtesy of ESPN Stats.
I'm hoping to see some more guys making big impacts for their teams next year, including some rookies from this year's STACKED defense that was number one in the country. Vic Beasley at #30 to the Packers?? Would be pretty badass.
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