Two Rooks of the Year on One Team

After a magnificent Sunday night win for the Arizona Cardinals over the Atlanta Falcons, it’s hard not to realize the impacts of two overwhelming rookies. According to GameCenter, sixth-round tailback out of Clemson Andre Ellington leads all rookie tailbacks with total yards from scrimmage. 

AZCardinals.com

Playing in flex roles under Head Coach Bruce Arians, Ellington catches deep passes and also takes the load off of starter Mendenhall in the run game. On the other side of the ball, a third round rookie from Louisiana State University, FS Tyrann Mathieu has overcome his destructive college marijuana addiction that booted him from LSU to dominate in all aspects every week for the Cardinals. 

AZCardinals.com

During Sunday’s win, Ellington had a beautiful 80-yard TD run, good enough for third best in franchise history, on his way to 154 total rush yards with a 10.3 yards/rush mark. Mathieu, though, continues to make the big-time tackles in run support as well as picking off the ball on passes. Can they be the first two of the same team to win the AP Rookie of the Year awards in the same season?

-Isaiah Addair