RISING STARS

IN AN EVER-EVOLVING GAME, THESE FOUR UP-AND-COMERS HAVE THE TALENT AND THE TENACITY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHANGES AND BECOME THE BEST AT THEIR POSITIONS

DEANDRE HOPKINS

Wide Receiver

Houston Texans

WHEN DEANDRE HOPKINS faced off against Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman as a rookie in 2013, the encounter was forgettable in many ways.

Andre Johnson was still the primary receiver for the Texans, so Sherman lined up across from Hopkins only a handful of times. Hopkins caught just two passes for 27 yards, and neither came against the corner, who was in the midst of three straight All-Pro seasons.

But Sherman saw enough that afternoon—the stutter-and-go route that left him stumbling and burned; the precise out cut that forced Sherman to grab Hopkins's shoulder pads to stay close; another stutter-and-go, after which Sherman had to put both arms out to slow Hopkins down—that he pulled the 21-year-old aside after Seattle's overtime win.

"He was open more times than he got the ball, I would definitely say that," Sherman says, the matchup still fresh in his mind. "You could just feel him as you're playing the game: his intensity, his aggression, his athleticism, his explosiveness. I was like, Dang, he's right on the verge of being one of the best in this league—if they target him enough, give him his shots, he's going to be a monster. I told him that after the game. I remember telling him, 'Just keep pressing and keep working, and you'll get everything you deserve.'"

Now Hopkins, the No. 27 pick out of Clemson, is ready to fulfill Sherman's prophecy. He announced his presence in 2015 with 111 receptions for 1,521 yards (both third in the league) and 11 touchdowns (tied for seventh), and he was named second-team All-Pro. If Hopkins catches 104 passes this season, he'll have the most receptions by any player in his first four seasons.

Compared with some of his contemporaries, Hopkins has succeeded despite having—to be kind—journeymen at quarterback: Matt Schaub, Case Keenum, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mallett, Tom Savage, Brian Hoyer, T.J. Yates and Brandon Weeden. With Nate Washington and Cecil Shorts as his running mates last season, Hopkins became the only receiver in NFL history to have 100-yard games with four different quarterbacks. In fact, he might be the only quarterback-proof wideout in the game.

"A lot of guys, I don't want to say names, their starting quarterback isn't in there, and they fall off," says Hopkins. "To me, a true receiver wants to get the job done no matter who's in there. I think I'm the best receiver in the league. That's the mentality I will always have, because I know what I'm capable of. Say I'm not. Honestly. I'm the only guy to have 100 yards with four different quarterbacks. I don't know if that will happen again."

Despite the fantasy-football-fueled rules changes to help passing games, this is not an easy time to be a dominant receiver. The field is flooded with more defensive backs than ever, and even the top defensive minds, such as Bill Belichick and Dick LeBeau, have largely surrendered their favored zones for man-to-man coverage on the outside. Quarterbacks and receivers are more accurate (teams completed 63.0% of their passes last season, setting a record for the third year in a row) because they are throwing more in the college ranks. If your philosophy on D is to sit back and wait for the quarterback to make a mistake, you're in for a long season.

Beating man coverage is a little easier if you're on the preferred quadrant of the size-speed chart—think Dez Bryant, A.J. Green, Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones and Brandon Marshall—or if you're a jitterbug like Odell Beckham Jr., Antonio Brown and Julian Edelman. A 6'1" 207-pounder who ran 4.57 in the 40, Hopkins doesn't have those sorts of gifts, but he may be the toughest to blanket one-on-one. He took Darrelle Revis, still known as the league's best cover corner, to the cleaners last season: four catches for 98 yards, including a 61-yard touchdown, and he was open but overthrown twice more. At Jets training camp last month, when Brandon Marshall reminded Revis of his poor performance against Hopkins, Revis slapped Marshall, and teammates had to break up the ensuing scuffle.

"He does have good size, and he has excellent playing strength," says Texans coach Bill O'Brien of Hopkins. "On top of all that, his catch radius is ridiculous. He's got great hands. He can make a one-handed catch, he can make the jump ball, pick it off the top of another guys' head. Even if you're double-teaming him, unless the second guy really is tight to him, he's still going to have a chance to make a play because his body control is exceptional."

Hopkins does have unusually long arms (33 3/8 inches) and 10-inch hands, and he has extra space between the metacarpals in his palm and the proximal bones at the base of his fingers. You could say he was put on Earth to catch footballs.

There's one other way in which Hopkins excels, and it will enable him to continue his rise. "Man, he's a dawg, he's a competitor, and he's been that way ever since I played him," says Sherman. "You can't measure a man's dawg by his size, speed, his measurables. It takes the ability to overcome adversity, it takes the ability to get knocked down, taste your own blood, get back up and keep fighting. He has all that. He has the things you can't coach, the things you can't teach. If you give him a great quarterback, a consistent quarterback, I think the sky is the limit."

AARON DONALD

Defensive Tackle

Los Angeles Rams

IF YOU were to draw up a prototypical NFL defensive tackle, he would look a lot like Gerald McCoy of the Buccaneers. At 6'4" and 300 pounds he's got it all: size, strength, length and explosiveness. But McCoy is also smart. He watches the rest of the league and looks for trends, and lately he's been feeling a little jealous.

"I'm the traditional guy, and that's fine, but the truth is, mutants are taking over," says McCoy. "Maybe the No. 1 mutant is Aaron Donald. You shouldn't be that small, pack that much punch and be that fast. What did he run at the combine, a 4.6? [It was 4.68, to be exact.] It's not fair."

The same things will be said about the 25-year-old Donald in the meeting rooms of every offensive line that will face the Rams this season. Despite being 6'1" and 285 pounds, Donald has flourished. The 2014 Defensive Rookie of the Year, he has gone to two straight Pro Bowls and was named first-team All-Pro in '15. Over the past two seasons he has 20 sacks—three more than McCoy, and a total surpassed only by J.J. Watt's 38 among interior linemen. According to Pro Football Focus, Donald had 26 quarterback hits, 42 hurries and 79 pressures in 2015 and was so dominating even without standout end Robert Quinn (who missed the season's last seven games because of various injuries) that Donald, not Watt, should have been named Defensive Player of the Year.

"Everybody wanted me to compare him to somebody else, but I didn't do it the first year because he's got to pay his dues in this league," says Los Angeles defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. "Last year I didn't do it either. Why? Because I think people are going to start comparing other people to him now, because he's that good a player."

As recently as the 2010 season there's no way a player Donald's size could be anything other than a situational pass rusher, because the running game was about brute physical strength: huge offensive linemen, fullbacks as battering rams through the holes, backside guards and tackles pulling and trapping. With offenses spreading the field and the rise of zone-blocking schemes, rushing attacks are more horizontal.

Good luck trying to stop Donald with one blocker. "How many teams line up with two backs and pound you to death?" asks Williams. "That's not what the game is about. It's about spreading you out. Now, all of a sudden, we have a dynamic, athletic, explosive pass rusher lined up against offensive guards that usually struggle the most with pass protections. Offenses don't know what to do with him."

There are plenty of light and quick rushers in the league, though, and they aren't nearly as effective as Donald. He has the arms (32 5/8 inches) and hands (9 7/8 inches) of a larger player, and that allows him to separate from linemen. During one-on-one pass-rushing drills in training camp those massive mitts were a flurry of motion, thwarting a blocker's punch and setting up a quick spin move that had him by the lineman in a blink. It's dizzying to watch and far harder to handle.

In the fourth quarter of a Week 14 game against the Lions last year, Donald was lined up on the outside shoulder of left guard Laken Tomlinson. At the snap he bolted straight upfield, slanted inside for two steps to get Tomlinson moving and then did a spin move back to the outside to take down Matthew Stafford for a sack. He executed all that in just 3.25 seconds. Most linemen would need a second or two longer.

"It's hard for those big guys to bend down for a guy that's under 6'1"," says Donald, who had a career-high three sacks against Detroit. "Plus, with the strength, quickness and speed that I've got, I like to change it up. I'll bull-rush you once, then come with the finesse. Sometimes they'll be blocking air."

Part of it is instinct, but preparation also plays a huge role. The Rams have discussed giving Donald his own laptop loaded with film for use in the facility because he screws up everyone else's. "He does all kinds of studies," says Williams. "We have to reprogram the computers every day before we can show our own film. He's a study-aholic. As soon as the schedule came out, he made me give him a computer loaded with all the film for our opponents. He never stops."

When told of this, McCoy sighed deeply. The mutants are inheriting his Earth.

"It's O.K. because he can really play the game," says McCoy. "We got to sit down and talk a lot at the Pro Bowl. He doesn't just play football, he's not just more talented than anybody—he's really smart and knows what he's going to get. That's why he's always ahead of the game and makes a million plays. He's making us all look bad, but I'm O.K. with it because I love watching him too."

TRAI TURNER

Guard

Carolina Panthers

RAY BROWN, the Panthers' offensive line coach, was sitting at home in Charlotte, enjoying the off-season, when his cellphone rang. He saw that the call was from Trai Turner, his 23-year-old right guard. It's rare for Brown to hear from any of his troops in the off-season, so he wondered: Was something wrong? Was Trai in some sort of trouble? Could Brown even answer it with all the rules limiting coach-player contact when practices were not in session?

Brown picked up the call, and Turner got right to the point. "What does a third-year, Pro Bowl player have to do to get better?" Turner asked.

Brown, who played 19 years in the NFL with four teams and won a Super Bowl with the Redskins, let out a sigh of relief. "The fact that you called and asked," he replied, "means you're already on the right page."

A third-round pick from LSU, Turner has allowed just one sack in his first two seasons, and he has lofty ambitions for his career. "I would love to make my All-Pro debut this season," he says. "I would love, at the end of my career, to put on a [Hall of Fame] gold jacket. That is one of my goals, to be the best."

Brown's boss, running game coordinator John Matsko, has worked in the league for 25 years, and he gives praise sparingly. So when the man who has watched former pupils Orlando Pace, Willie Roaf and Will Shields don those gold jackets was asked about Turner's lofty career aspirations, he grumbled a bit but couldn't hold back.

"He can definitely do it," says Matsko. "He's got the makeup. He's got what Pace had, what Willie Roaf had, and what [Carolina center Ryan] Kalil and [tight end Greg] Olsen have now: There's a desire, a fire that you can feel from those guys. When they show up at practice, you can feel it. Turner's got it. He's only going to get better."

Right now, the consensus best guard in the league is Marshal Yanda of the Ravens. Turner is borderline obsessed with Yanda. He's constantly asking Panthers left tackle Michael Oher, who played right tackle next to Yanda in Baltimore, how Yanda became so good. "He wants to know how he practiced, lifted, watched films, his workouts in the off-season," says Oher. "Trai's a big fan of Marshal's, and I told [Marshal] that. He liked that. I see a lot of similarities."

In many ways Yanda, 31, is the present at the guard position and Turner is the future. Both are 6'3" and were drafted in the same round. Yanda (305 pounds) has exceptional short-area quickness and playing strength, and he uses that to dominate in the running game and perform difficult reach blocks. When pass-blocking, he simply does not give way. While Turner (310 pounds) doesn't quite have Yanda's polish in the first two areas (that comes with time), he has a higher ceiling because he's a better athlete: Turner ran a hand-timed 4.84 in the 40 at the combine, while Yanda ran a 5.15.

Yanda's skills are ideal for the Ravens' traditional offense, but he'd be hard-pressed to excel with the Panthers, who have the most diverse attack in the league. On one play they can run the read option, requiring Turner to quickly jump to the second level and pick off a linebacker, and on the next run a version of the trap perfected by Don Shula's Dolphins, in which Turner has to pull and slam an unblocked lineman.

"He's a scheme fit for just about anything," says Carolina general manager Dave Gettleman. "You can run the power game inside, and he can pull and trap and do all those kinds of things. He's got everything you're looking for."

Turner showed off his elite athleticism in the second quarter of a Week 13 game at New Orleans when he pulled outside to the right of running back Jonathan Stewart. By the time Stewart gained his 22 yards, Turner had put one Saints safety on his back (Kenny Vaccaro) and another out-of-bounds (Jairus Byrd) while on the run.

Turner's pass blocking isn't too shabby either—just ask three-time Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt of the Texans. With 11:29 remaining in the second quarter in a Week 2 matchup last year, Panthers quarterback Cam Newton threw a perfect 25-yard touchdown pass to Tedd Ginn Jr. in the left corner of the end zone. Turner's block was better. Watt's bull rush knocked Turner back three feet, but then he stuck his left foot in the ground, got his shoulder into Watt's right armpit, lifted him up and body-slammed him into the ground for a pancake block.

If Turner keeps making blocks like that, he might just realize all his goals, including a gold jacket of his own.

RISING STARS

MIKE DANIELS

Defensive End

Green Bay Packers

WHEN THE Packers traveled to Canton, Ohio, for the Hall of Fame Game against the Cowboys in early August, Mike Daniels got a chance to see inductee Orlando Pace, a seven-time Pro Bowl left tackle for the Rams who retired in 2009—all 6'7" and 300-plus pounds of him.

"He was humongous!" says Daniels, seated in a dark leather chair deep inside Lambeau Field. "You don't really see any tackles that size anymore. I'm very glad for that."

If there's a poster child for how much the NFL's trenches have changed since behemoths like Pace protected the edge, it's Daniels. The position that he plays—defensive end in a 3--4 Steelers-style, zone-blitz scheme—was stocked with massive, menacing men. In 2005, when Green Bay's current defensive coordinator, Dom Capers, was in his final season coaching the Texans, he started Robaire Smith (6'4", 315 pounds) and Gary Walker (6'3", 324) at that spot.

Now Daniels, a fourth-round pick out of Iowa in 2012, is the best player on Capers's Packers unit—and he's 6 feet and 291 pounds. "Historically, when you look at the 3--4 defense, yes, that body type doesn't fit," says Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy. "But the fact of the matter is, it's a sub [or subpackage] league now, and he's perfect for that."

Subpackage defenses are on the rise because with each passing year NFL offenses more closely mirror their college counterparts, spreading the defense horizontally by using multiple receivers detached from the line. That creates not only more space in the passing game but also more creases for the running game. Defenses combat this with extra DBs, speedier linebackers and smaller linemen, such as Daniels, who has thrived. In 2015 the Packers lined up in their base defense on just 18% of snaps. (The league average is 33%.) And that's not a one-year aberration. McCarthy can't recall the last time his team was over 20%.

"People talk about a defensive lineman being too short—but that's [less of an issue] today," says Lions guard Larry Warford, who sees Daniels twice a season. "Shorter guys are hard to pass-block and run against; it's hard to get that leverage on them. Daniels is a game-changer."

While Daniels represents the latest evolutionary step of the incredible shrinking defensive lineman, he's every bit as fierce as his predecessors. One play from Week 9 last season encapsulates all that he brings. Midway through the first quarter against the Panthers he lined up on the outside shoulder of left guard Amini Silatolu, facing an old-school, two-back alignment. On the snap Daniels backed up Silatolu a few steps by staying low and leveraging beneath Silatolu's pads. Then he used his brute strength, tossing the 6'4", 320-pound Silatolu to the ground, and quickly flushed Cam Newton out of the pocket for an incomplete pass. "The difference between Mike and other short guys is that he's just absolutely strong," says Warford. "He can throw you off balance easy and attack."

"I've had quite a few plays where I've just dominated the guy across from me," Daniels, 27, says matter-of-factly. "A lot of these defensive linemen, they're real whirling dervishes—they do all these fancy moves. I like to line up, punch a guy in his face, in his mouth, in his chest, then disengage, locate the ball, throw [my defender] and make a tackle. If you can do that consistently, you'll always have a job."

Says Packers right guard T.J. Lang, who faces Daniels regularly in one-on-one pass-rush drills, "He plays low and with his hands really tight.... It's hard to get control." In late August, before he was cut by the Packers, left guard Josh Sitton added, "I would hate to have to block him over an entire game. He's relentless. He's a pain in the ass." Sitton, who signed a three-year deal with the Bears on Monday, now has to face Daniels twice a year.

Daniels wasn't always so fearsome and willful. Small, skinny and admittedly nice to a fault, he was bullied in elementary school in Blackwood, N.J. Around the time he was seven, he came home crying. His father, Mike Sr., said it was time Mike learned to defend himself. And so he began a routine: 60 push-ups, 60 sit-ups and 60 squats every day. "I really wanted to be the biggest, baddest guy—not to mess with anybody, just so nobody would mess with me," says Daniels.

In 2013, when Daniels was still a reserve, the Packers saw a stream of offensive players get knocked out of games with injuries. When tight end Ryan Taylor took an illegal hit to the head from linebacker DeAndre Levy during a 40--10 road loss to the Lions on Thanksgiving Day, Daniels finally snapped, telling a reporter that his teammates "need to get tougher, choke people, punch them in their throat."

"Obviously I wasn't being serious," he clarifies. "I was just saying, We need to be tougher. Look at the old Packers—those guys were mean. Reggie White would say, 'Here comes Jesus,' and then he'd club you into next week. But when I got here, to see us get pushed around by the Lions, I was like, When are we going to lay a bone-crushing hit? When are we going to send a message?"

Suffice it to say, the message has since been delivered by the subcompact, subpackage lineman whose stated desire is to "run through" an opponent, not around him. It's an attitude that has helped make Daniels the baddest man on one of the NFL's finest defenses.

HOPKINS HAS SUCCEEDED DESPITE HAVING JOURNEYMEN AT QUARTERBACK.

"YOU SHOULDN'T BE THAT SMALL, PACK THAT MUCH PUNCH AND BE THAT FAST," SAYS MCCOY.

"I LIKE TO LINE UP, PUNCH A GUY IN HIS FACE AND MAKE A TACKLE," SAYS DANIELS.

SI.COM

Want to know more about how Mike Daniels and DeAndre Hopkins are changing the NFL? Watch the videos at SI.com/risingstars