I don't think we've seen so many rookies come in and make an instant impact like we just saw this past season. Players like Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson, Ryan Tannehill, Doug Martin, Luke Kuechly, Lavonte David, and Bobby Wagner all had incredible rookie seasons. Most of them helped their teams reach the playoffs or even gave them glimpse of a brighter future. However, in years past we have seen a lot rookies have great season, but then have a sophomore slump. Players like Sam Bradford, Vince Young, and Reggie Bush had amazing rookie seasons, but then the following year was a major drop-off in production. They're probably going to be a few of them this year since I don't expect all the rookies that I just mentioned to repeat what they just did. So let's take a look at the 5 players who will have a sophomore slump this upcoming season.
5. Alfred Morris
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y03-lYvJjE Don't get me wrong I loved the way Alfred Morris, a 6th round pick, came on the scene and dominated this season. He had 1,613 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns his rookie year and was named to the NFL All-Pro second team. He fit perfectly in Mike Shanahan's offense and he was actually selected with the pick the Redskins received from the Minnesota Vikings in the Donovan McNabb trade. He turned out to be a day one starter and a steal for the Redskins. Now the reason why I think he will have a sophomore slump has a lot to do with Robert Griffin III than it does with Morris. Morris was able to generate a lot of his yardage for the read option. Teams were so occupied with Griffin running the read option than they were with Morris. When running the read option, the quarterback reads the defensive end. If the end closes down on the running back then the quarterback keeps the ball, if the end stays home the quarterback hands the ball to the running back. So the defensive end doesn't need to be blocked on the read option. So Morris was able to get a lot of his yardage on this specific package. So now RG3 tears his ACL and LCL in the wild card game. So for the sake of RG3's future, I doubt the Redskins will use him in the read option as much as they did 2012. This doesn't mean that they can't run the read option anymore, but I doubt they will use it as often. I think this plays a major downgrade in performance by Morris, so don't look for him to run for 1,613 yards this season.