Year 3 is huge for an NFL player. It helps solidify star status if high-level production is there. It can set the stage for a lucrative contract extension. If breakouts don’t occur by that seminal third season, at best, journeyman status is not far away.
These are the third-year pros primed to break out in 2025. I didn’t include those who I deemed to have already emerged as stars as rookies. And this list features deeper selections, not just Year 3 pros who were really good as rookies but didn’t see major playing time. For most picks, I’m trusting my evaluation process/system for when all of these players were draft prospects.
Earlier this week, I ran this same piece for NFL sophomores, if NFL sophomores were such a thing.
I’m calling a play-action deep shot on first down, in the opening series of the season with this selection. Trice has played 194 snaps across two seasons after being a seventh-round pick by the Steelers in the 2023 draft. He tore his ACL before his rookie campaign and was placed on IR after those near 200 snaps last season with a hamstring injury.
When the former suffocating press-man corner from Purdue has been available, he has a pick and two pass breakups. On 34 coverage snaps on Christmas last season against the Chiefs, Trice allowed two catches for 12 yards on three targets. OK, so Trice hasn’t been ridiculously productive in less than 200 career professional snaps. His play’s been encouraging, and I vividly recollect how intimidating his ball skills were in the Big Ten as a cornerback standing 6-foot-3 with nearly 33-inch arms. In his final season with the Boilermakers, Trice had two picks, 10 pass breakups and allowed fewer than 48% of targets to be caught in his coverage vicinity.
If he can stay off the injury report, Trice has the towering presence to pair nicely with Joey Porter Jr. in the Steelers’ secondary, which is a dire need for this club.
Ranking top 25 NFL players 25 and under: Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase headlines 2025 list; four Lions crack top 10
Cody Benjamin
Since his rookie season, Matt Milano has been a splash-play creator for the Bills. At his peak, he was an All-Pro linebacker, and arguably the best coverage player at his position in the NFL. Since 2023, Milano has gone through the injury gamut, and while his loyalty to the Bills organization is commendable and part of his sterling reputation in Buffalo, he’s turning 31 in July and has an energetic, twitchy, no-nonsense defender waiting to be his replacement.
Williams is that dude, and as the other linebacker starter next to Terrel Bernard while Milano nursed a biceps injury, Williams, playing a grand total of 58% of the defensive snaps, tallied 117 tackles, five tackles for loss, and a forced fumble. This hulking specimen has sub 4.5 speed and has learned the nuances of Sean McDermott’s complex defense. Milano will likely begin the season as Buffalo’s starting outside linebacker. Williams should mosey his way into increased time on the field as the season progresses in Year 3.
Another huge swing here. I can’t resist. After all Washington nearly tripled his reception total from his rookie season to Year 2. Granted, he went from seven receptions to 19, it’s still nearly triple.
This gargantuan tight end from Georgia is a block-first monster, and he’s already one of the league’s best young people-movers at the position. He doesn’t have to be just that. With the Bulldogs, Washington genuinely flashed as a receiver. He simply doesn’t move in the same manner of today’s uber-slippery athletes at the position — he was just under 6-7 and 264 pounds at the combine. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s playing in the 270s now.
On those 19 receptions a season ago, Washington forced five missed tackles as a brute force to bring to the turf. With Aaron Rodgers under center, I envision this third-year tight end becoming a Marcedes Lewis-type security blanket for the veteran quarterback and catching 40-plus passes while making his presence felt in the red zone too.
Strange has the physical goods to emerge as one of the most dynamic young tight ends in football. At right around 6-4 and 255-ish pounds, the former Penn State prospect ran 4.70 at the combine with a broad jump and vertical in the 82nd and 91st percentiles at the position.
Last year, Strange moved into a more central role within the Jaguars offense post-Evan Engram’s departure. Now he has an young, offensive-minded coach calling the plays and defenses focusing on stopping Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter.
Strange forced nine missed tackles on his 40 grabs in 2024, which indicates serious tackle-breaking/avoiding capabilities. We’ll all consider his former second-round pick as one of the up-and-coming youthful tight ends in football after the 2025 campaign.
Go to Source
Author: Chris Trapasso
June 26, 2025 | 10:00 am
