The Flag Plant
One rookie a year. Called on film and instinct before the season starts, published on the record, graded honestly afterward.
Everything else on this site runs on data. This does not. Every year since 2017 I have picked one rookie — usually a running back — based on something I saw on film that the consensus had not priced in. Situation matters and prospect profile matters, but the call itself is a gut read.
It is published before the season, it is never edited, and it gets graded when the year is over. Some of these look good. Some do not. That is the point of writing them down.
The numbers tell you what is happening now. The film tells you what is coming.
2026
Jadarian Price, Seattle. A first-round pick starting Week 1 for the champions, going as the 26th running back off the board. The case, the risks, and the film read are in the article.
The record
Nine calls over nine seasons. By my own grading, five hits, three pushes, one incomplete. The full accounting — what happened to each one and what the misses taught me — is here.