Who will be named 2022 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year?

With the 2022 NFL season finally about to kick off, it's time to analyze which top players will shine. One of the most prestigious individual awards for rookie players is the Defensive Rookie of the Year (DROY). Last season, the award went to linebacker Micah Parsons of the Dallas Cowboys. In an incredible debut campaign, he recorded 13 sacks, 20 tackles for loss, 84 tackles and three forced fumbles.

Predicting how rookies will adapt to the NFL is tough but enjoyable. With so many factors to analyze and so many great new talents, it wasn't easy to reduce the list to three.

Here are my top three candidates to take home Defensive Rookie of the Year honors this upcoming season:

#1. Aidan Hutchinson, Detroit Lions

NFL Preseason - Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson

There are a few things that need to be mentioned about this choice. I don’t believe Travon Walker is at a point that you’d like a number one overall pick to be. My top prospect Kayvon Thibodeaux is set to miss some time with a knee injury from that much-scrutinized play on a cut-block. We then had two corners drafted with the remaining two picks from the top-five (corners rarely win this award), before we saw seven straight offensive players selected.

Aidan Hutchinson may seem like a chalk pick, but he’s the only one near the top that came to mind for me here. With the Michigan standout staying home in Detroit for a team that needed a star on defense, the script is already right there for him to get DROY.

While I didn’t look at him as a truly elite prospect maybe, he is absolutely pro-ready. Especially when you look at his ability to set up and string together moves throughout the game in order to beat tackles. Last season in college, he led all draft-eligible edge rushers with a pressure rate of 17.3%. We've already seen him create negative plays against the run in his very limited preseason action, while being a guy who plays with his hair on fire. The Detroit Lions have got themselves a very interesting prospect that will almost certainly shine in the NFL.

#2. Drake Jackson, San Francisco 49ers

NFL Preseason - San Francisco 49ers defensive end Drake Jackson

Now let’s get to a less obvious pick here. The San Francisco 49ers selected Drake Jackson late in the second round of the NFL draft. Jackson was considered a potential top-ten pick ahead of the 2021 college football season and he didn’t dominate as consistently as you would have liked. However, there were several eye-popping moments and stretches on tape, while his athletic tool-box should have pushed them him up the board.

His explosion off the ball combined with the ability to bend around the corner and be almost horizontal to the ground could give tackles nightmares. Once again, he probably won’t start for San Francisco right away because of the names they already have there. I think he’ll play the majority of the passing downs, come in fresh on those and be really tough to deal with in those wide-nine alignments the Niners run so heavily. Jackson could feast across from Nick Bosa as part of a terrorizing D-line. He could well be a standout in the NFL this season.

#3. Lewis Cine, Minnesota Vikings

NFL Preseason - Minnesota Vikings safety Lewis Cine

Number three here was pretty challenging because there are several choices that make sense. But considering the guys who typically win this award and who were drafted highly (and are healthy), none really stuck out for me.

So I went with one of my favorite safeties from the NFL draft, even though those guys rarely get votes. The Minnesota Vikings made Lewis Cine the final pick of the first round before they picked up another DB in Clemson’s Andrew Booth Jr. ten picks later. This made a lot of sense because they desperately needed to infuse young talent into the secondary.

I had Booth ranked higher on my big board (both were number three at their respective positions for me), but I love how Cine projects into that new Vikings defense. With Ed Donatell taking over play-calling duties and working under most recently Los Angeles Rams OC Kevin O’Connell, we should see a lot of split-safety principles, where they can take advantage of the Georgia product’s versatility to rotate into the deep post, drive on routes from depth and absolutely fly up the alley against the run. Let’s see if that brings the numbers needed for this campaign.

If you enjoyed this breakdown, please make sure to check out the original piece, where I also predict all the other awards and the playoff picture, leading up to Super Bowl LVII.