{"id":837865,"date":"2026-08-01T13:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T13:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/837865\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T13:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T13:42:15","slug":"7-nfl-rookies-who-could-earn-starting-jobs-during-the-preseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/837865\/","title":{"rendered":"7 NFL Rookies Who Could Earn Starting Jobs During the Preseason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may start a new inside linebacker tandem in the upcoming season. Last year, Lavonte David and SirVocea Dennis manned those positions. The former retired, and the latter has competition for the other spot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">The Buccaneers signed linebacker Alex Anzalone to a two-year, $17 million deal. He&#8217;ll likely start. The club selected Josiah Trotter in the second round of the draft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Of course, Trotter has pro linebacker bloodlines. He&#8217;s the son of 12-year linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, though the 21-year-old made a name for himself on the collegiate level.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Over the last two years at West Virginia and Missouri, Trotter recorded 97 tackles (17 for loss), three pass breakups, 2.5 sacks and an interception. If he&#8217;s able to showcase his ability to handle coverage assignments, the rookie will push Dennis and beat out free-agent acquisition Christian Rozeboom for a starting role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Rozeboom turned 29 in January and may be best suited for a backup role. Dennis struggled in coverage last season, <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong mui-mlpnpn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DennSi00.htm#all_adv_defense\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">allowing<\/a> three touchdowns and a 122 passer rating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may start a new inside linebacker tandem in the upcoming season. Last year, Lavonte&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-837865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}