5 under-the-radar rookies to watch during training camp: Can Dillon Gabriel emerge as Browns QB1?
Keep an eye on these first-year players as camps open up across the NFL
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6 min read
The NFL has emerged from its summer hibernation, and training camps are sprouting up across the country. While teams are merely taking their first steps towards the regular season, it'll be here before you know it. Of course, we are staring at the clock and waiting for Week 1 to arrive, but this is a pivotal period on the calendar for each of these franchises. It's now when they begin laying the foundation for what they hope will be a successful campaign in 2025. It's also when they get some of their first glimpses of the pieces coming together after an offseason of roster construction.
One of those avenues for roster building came back in the spring during the 2025 NFL Draft. Naturally, all eyes will be on various high-profile rookies like No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward and dual-threat weapon Travis Hunter throughout training camp to see how they're settling in.
While those figures will certainly be worth keeping an eye on, loads of other rookies are also looking to make their mark during camp and build momentum towards the regular season. Below, we're going to highlight five under-the-radar rookies -- not selected in the first round -- to keep an eye on throughout camp.
New England's wide receiver room is crowded as it opens up camp. Even if it kept six or seven players at the position on the opening 53-man roster, it'd mean cutting bait with a handful of notable names. One figure that is among the locks to make the team, however, is Kyle Williams, who the Patriots selected in the third round out of Washington State.
Williams comes to Foxborough looking to buck the trend of New England being unable to draft an impact wide receiver over the last decade-plus. Judging from his college production, he has the talent to be an explosive piece if it all comes together. And that would be a welcome development for a Patriots offense that ranked last in the NFL with a 9.5% explosive pass play rate.
WR Kyle Williams separating vertically from Travis Hunter is impressive pic.twitter.com/4iiJfIeR6B
— Edgar Salmingo, Jr. ✌🏽 (@PanthersAnalyst) March 24, 2025
Williams, who ran a 4.4-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, has the ability to work as a speed threat as an X receiver as well as play in the slot and pick up yards after the catch. His speed was already on display during spring workouts, and if he can carry that over into training camp while building up a rapport with Drake Maye, it could result in him bursting onto the scene in Year 1.
With Najee Harris departing this offseason to join the Los Angeles Chargers, folks probably look at the Steelers backfield and think of veteran Jaylen Warren as the next man up. While he should figure into the equation a bit more, don't sleep on third-round pick Kaleb Johnson. Johnson and Warren will likely duke it out over the course of camp to earn the lion's share of touches.
Johnson is physically a more imposing back, standing at 6-foot-1 and weighing in at 224 pounds, while Warren is 5-foot-8 and 215 pounds. Coming from Iowa, Johnson ran a lot of outside zone, which jives with how Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith has primarily operated, so he is a good system fit.
As highlighted by Steelers Depot, Johnson rushed for 401 yards and four touchdowns on 94 attempts out of an outside zone scheme at Iowa in 2024. On inside zone runs (the second-most used scheme by the Steelers last season), Johnson rushed for 330 yards and six touchdowns on just 57 attempts.
All of that seems to suggest that Johnson could be the early-down back for Pittsburgh with Warren adopting his familiar passing-down role. And if Johnson can impress with his pass-protection skills throughout camp, it could give him even more opportunities to see the field.
Headlining the Jets offseason were the departures of Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams, but the club also saw starting tight end Tyler Conklin ink a deal with the Chargers in free agency.
Over the last three seasons with New York, Conklin had averaged 82 targets per year, and that workload could now fall on the shoulders of second-round pick Mason Taylor. The LSU product comes to the NFL as a fascinating pass-catching prospect at the position. During his final collegiate season, Taylor hauled in 55 catches and 546 yards, which were both career highs. He possesses good size at 6-foot-5, 251 pounds and has Hall of Fame genes as the son of legendary pass rusher Jason Taylor.
Currently, Taylor doesn't have much competition for the starting tight end job, and he could even look to rival for the second-most targets on the team after wideout Garrett Wilson. The Jets are quite thin at the receiver position after Wilson with the likes Josh Reynolds and Allen Lazard making up the next few spots on the depth chart, which sets the stage for Taylor to be a go-to target for Justin Fields, who has favored throwing to tight ends like Cole Kmet and Pat Freiermuth over his last two spots with Chicago and Pittsburgh, respectively.
The Chargers struck gold last season by trading up to select Ladd McConkey in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft. The wideout went on to have a tremendous rookie season, topping a 1,000 yards receiving to go along with 80-plus receptions and seven touchdowns.
Now they're hoping lightning strikes twice after they selected Tre Harris in the second round this past spring out of Ole Miss.
It was abundantly clear during Los Angeles' playoff loss last year that the franchise desperately needs another pass-catcher for Justin Herbert. That 32-12 loss to the Texans is most remembered for Herbert's four interceptions, but it was also a complete no-show from pass-catchers not named Ladd McConkey, who exploded for 197 yards on 14 targets. While McConkey took over, the club got nothing beyond that with the next most productive pass-catcher being tight end Will Dissly, who logged two catches for 16 yards on five targets.
big play tre pic.twitter.com/jzR6REto0C
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) July 18, 2025
With Mike Williams retiring before training camp and Quentin Johnston having not yet lived up to his first-round status from 2023, it presents a great opportunity for Harris to emerge as that WR2 in this offense. At Ole Miss, Harris led the FBS in receiving yards per game with 128.9 last season. In all, he totaled 1,030 yards receiving in just eight games. That yards per game average was also the fifth-most in a season in SEC history, which is quite notable given the star wideouts who come out of the conference.
If Harris continues to lay the groundwork during training camp, he could be the latest Chargers receiver to take the NFL by storm.
The old saying is that if you have multiple quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks, and that certainly may be the case here with the Browns. With Deshaun Watson sidelined with an Achilles rupture, they enter training camp with a slew of signal-callers on the roster. Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett are the two veteran faces, while Cleveland doubled-dipped at the position in the NFL draft, bringing in Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.
Despite being the lower-picked player, Sanders has garnered most of the attention in this looming quarterback slugfest given his stature at the collegiate level at Colorado under his father Deion Sanders. However, let's not forget that Cleveland chose Gabriel over Sanders when it plucked the Oregon star in the third round. Judging by that decision, it's not going too far out on a limb to say that the Browns feel Gabriel is a better fit for their organization, and that should be a key note when trying to decipher who'll be QB1 to begin the season.
If the Browns are focused on finding their best long-term option under center, a 40-year-old Joe Flacco doesn't do them any good. Gabriel, while an older rookie at 24 years old, provides the upside of being someone Cleveland could build around for the foreseeable future. However, that doesn't happen unless he impresses over these next few weeks during training camp to move ahead of the pack.
