It was a rather ugly week for the rookies of the NFC South last week. In a weekend that saw three of the divisions teams lose, including blowouts of Carolina and Tampa Bay there wasn't much room for the rookies to stand out, regardless lets take a look at how they did.
Cam Newton
For the first time this season Newton looked like a true rookie against the Tennessee Titans. It was a sobering experience for Panthers' fans as he was chased all over the field, never had time to make plays and was inaccurate with his passes. Full credit needs to go to Tennessee here too who dropped eight players in coverage for much of the game to take away Cam's big play ability, ultimately this worked.
It doesn't get much easier for Newton this week as they head to Detroit to face the Lions. Going against the best defensive line in the NFL is no easy feat, and if there's ever a chance for back-to-back mediocrity, this is it.
Julio Jones
Injuries have derailed a stellar start to Jones' career in rather dramatic fashion. When he's healthy and on the field Julio looks as dominant as any WR in the NFL, but he's been held back far too much this season. Despite carrying his foot injury into the combine he wasn't an oft injured player at Alabama, but that has changed at the next level. Clearly bothered by his ongoing hamstring injury he only managed to get 9 yards on two receptions against New Orleans.
This week it appears Jones will be sitting again, hopefully this season is the exception and not the rule.
Adrian Clayborn
It's been an up and down season for Clayborn who at times looks dominant, and at others he looks lost on the field. This last week was a little of both as he totaled 4 tackles against Houston, but failed to be disruptive in the backfield. He has three sacks on the season which is hardly good enough yet, but perhaps he'll be able to turn it around in the back stretch.
This week the Bucs play Green Bay, and it seems like it will be an impossibly hard week to get results. Aaron Rodgers is near unflappable in the pocket, and his OL protect him well.
Cameron Jordan
The Saints draft class is reeling a little bit with mediocrity. Jordan gets tackles, but shows almost no ability to penetrate into the backfield with regularity which is astounding due to his size.
Playing the NY Giants this week that wont get much easier and we'll probably see another mediocre day.
Mark Ingram
Ingram is the surprise of the South right now because of how much he's struggled this season. If there was a player thought to make the transition easily in the off-season it was Ingram. With his 8 carry, 11 yard performance he now has 6 games on the season where he hasn't managed to get more than 4.0 yards per carry.
This week will be another tough one as the Giants tee off against him. I don't think he's poised to have a good week.