10 Breakout Players to Watch For in the 2026 NFL Season

Training camp is where optimism in NFL buildings abounds, driven by players showing up in the best shape of their lives and the sting of losses seven months in the past. It’s also where many players take legitimate strides forward, either because of new systems or independent offseason work.

But read most breakout player lists, and you’ll leave with the same collection of 10-12 names, many of whom have arguably already established themselves as capable or even good NFL players. Either that, or it’s a former top pick who has disappointed to this point but showed back up to the team facility in July with a new mindset.

Wide Left takes a different approach, limiting breakout players to second-year players drafted outside the top 50 with fewer than 500 snaps on their side of the ball in their rookie season. So you won’t see Bears wide receiver Luther Burden III, the headliner of most similar exercises, on this list.

Players who could be better than they were as rookies but already started last season, like Saints safety Jonas Sanker or Patriots center Jared Wilson, are also out. I even cut Seahawks wide receiver Tory Horton, who technically qualifies, because his snaps for the eventual Super Bowl winner were so good that he would’ve unquestionably made himself ineligible for contention had he not gotten injured.

We’re left with 10 players who could stamp themselves as bona fide pros in 2026, ordered by their 2025 draft selection order.

This is probably one you’ve seen before, but Las Vegas’ mismanagement of Bech’s role as a rookie was egregious enough to include him with new head coach Klint Kubiak and new quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza coming in.

The Raiders under Pete Carroll wanted Bech to play X last season, but his lack of top-end speed and burst prevents him from consistently stacking corners on the outside. As a prospect, I thought Bech would be a much more effective player from the slot, where he could more effectively leverage his strength to be more of a possession player and fight for additional yardage.

Under Kubiak, Bech is not suddenly going to turn into Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but he can do some of the same things that Cooper Kupp did for the Seahawks offense last season. Ignore the name value Kupp carries and the comparison doesn’t seem that lofty — Kupp had 47 catches for 593 yards and 2 touchdowns last season, but his tenacity as a run blocker and 26 first-down receptions kept the offense on schedule and freed up room for explosive plays from both Smith-Njigba and running back Kenneth Walker III.

With tight end Brock Bowers taking a similar share of the offense as Smith-Njigba did in 2025 and talented running back Ashton Jeanty behind a remade offensive line, Bech could spring the offense to a new level with a chance to use his skill set appropriately.

Bech seems aware of this role, or at least of his skills, considering he told reporters earlier in camp that his plan to earn a starting role in the offense is “being a physical blocker in the run game, catching balls over the middle, and making contested plays”. His stiffest competition seems to be sixth-round rookie Malik Benson, who has had a quick start to camp and may end up pushing 2025 fourth-rounder Dont’e Thornton Jr. off the team entirely.

The Colts have to have some hope that Walley will break out this year, considering he’s the expected starter at nickel after Indianapolis released Kenny Moore II in May. The third-round pick missed his entire rookie year with an ACL tear, part of Indianapolis’ woes at corner that led to them trading for Sauce Gardner at the deadline last season to try to preserve a playoff push.

Gardner promptly got hurt too, but he, Walley, and Charvarius Ward all came into camp healthy and have been the starting trio on the back end for the Colts thus far.

It’s easy to argue that the Colts cut Moore because he requested a trade, Indianapolis couldn’t find one (Moore is still a free agent), and then he asked for a fresh start. But most teams would simply hang on to a disgruntled player and hope that he changes his mind if they weren’t confident they had a replacement lined up.

Considering Walley was drafted to be Moore’s eventual replacement anyway, Indianapolis is merely moving the timeline up by moving on this offseason, which they need to do anyway with GM Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen’s jobs on the line this season.

Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo has said that Walley picked up where he left off as a rookie before the injury and pointed out that he’s a big fan of the second-year corner. Walley has also had the benefit of spending training camp lined up against Josh Downs, the Colts’ unquestioned best receiver with Alec Pierce sidelined due to ankle surgery.

Downs has been one of the standout players in Indianapolis by all accounts, but Walley has held his own and made beat reporters forget he tore his ACL in the first place. Considering the Colts were an average pass defense — 15th in defensive pass DVOA — last season with a combined 11 games from their three 2026 starters at corner and now have the man coverage skillsets of Gardner and Walley to allow Anarumo to run his blitz-heavy packages on passing downs with more freedom, Walley’s continued ascension may be the difference between making and missing the playoffs this season.

I think there’s a legitimate argument that Williams was better than Jaylen Watson at times despite the third-rounder only playing 458 snaps as a rookie. With Watson off to Los Angeles on a big deal in free agency, Williams seems like a lock to start alongside first-rounder Mansoor Delane, considering he basically hasn’t missed a rep while Delane rehabs a shoulder injury and L’Jarius Sneed rotates in and out of the lineup and beat reporter Nate Taylor called him the best corner at camp through the first two days.

Like Walley in Indianapolis, Williams’ chops as a man corner may open up the playbook for defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who has always had the Chiefs near the top of the league in man coverage usage. Kansas City played 28.4 percent man in 2025, according to Fantasy Points, their lowest mark since Fantasy Points started tracking defensive coverages in 2022 (but still the 11th-highest rate in the league).

That 2025 rate corresponded with the Chiefs’ worst defensive DVOA ranking (16th) in that timespan. But Williams’ film as a rookie shows a physical corner who also has plus instincts in zone, likely a large reason why Kansas City was content to let Watson get paid elsewhere.

If Williams converts his strong start to training camp into high-end play once the season begins, Kansas City has the potential to improve at corner, at least in the ways they need to for Spagnuolo to be most successful, with Delane and Williams despite losing Watson and Trent McDuffie this offseason. Between Kader Kohou, rookie Jadon Canady, and a seemingly surging Chris Roland-Wallace, the Chiefs should also be able to find decent production from nickel, but they could also move Williams inside in some packages with Delane and Sneed on the outside to protect Williams’ average 4.5 speed.