Six NFL players poised for a breakout 2022 season: Tua Tagovailoa among those ready to make a leap

These six emerging young players are set up for much bigger things in 2022

It's time for a public service announcement, the likes of which I feel obligated to issue every year around this time: Beware of reports about how great any football player looks in May, especially those who have yet to fulfill their promise to this point.

We are about to enter peak OTA periods. And with no real football going on, far too much will be made in many instances about faux football. Legions of players, we will come to find, are in the best shape of their life. They have put the past behind them. They look primed for a big step forward. The buzz is almost palpable.

Of course, this is difficult enough to discern in July and August, when full-padded practices and exhibition games can often end up looking like fool's gold when it comes to breakthrough players. Players going from busts to bursts. Rotational players about to win prominent starting positions. All of that good stuff. Yes, there are certainly situations around the league of some individuals who have shed extra weight, transformed their bodies, and who might be trending upward, but when it comes to actual production and projections and making determinations about who might be on the come, we are so far removed from anything resembling actual football that I find myself cringing about some receiver who caught 10 passes in a glorified walkthrough, or which running back looked more elusive than ever dancing through defenses that can't touch him if they tried.