NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Predictions & Best Bets
The 2026 NFL regular season will be here before we know it in the form of Patriots vs. Seahawks on Wednesday, September 9, and our experts have you covered with NFL Futures content to get you ready for the upcoming campaign. In addition to projecting which teams are going to find success in ‘26, we are also making NFL predictions on the individual awards market. With that, it’s time to discuss the NFL odds and the NFL best bets to make for Defensive Rookie of the Year ahead of the 2026 regular season.
Find out our expert NFL futures picks for EVERY MAJOR MARKET, including Super Bowl winner, MVP, every player award and every division winner!
2026 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year odds
Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing.
- Rueben Bain Jr. (+500)
- David Bailey (+500)
- Sonny Styles (+750)
- Caleb Downs (+750)
- Arvell Reese (+750)
- Mansoor Delane (+900)
- Akheem Mesidor (+1300)
- Jacob Rodriguez (+1600)
- Malachi Lawrence (+1800)
- CJ Allen (+2000)
- Dillon Thieneman (+2000)
- Keldric Faulk (+3000)
Bain was not selected until the 15th pick of the draft – not before he watched 5 other defensive players fly off the board. However, that is not stopping the Miami product from going off as the co-favorite, along with Bailey, for DROY honors. Don’t forget about a couple of secondary players, too, in Downs and Delane.
NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year best bet: Jacob Rodriguez, LB, MIA (+1600)
The relatively short odds on Bain, Bailey, Styles, Downs and Reese are not particularly appealing. Instead, I’ll try my luck with Rodriguez at more than double those prices. It’s worth noting that 13 of the last 23 Defensive Rookie of the Year winners have come from the linebacker position. Yes, that is more than half. There is no reason why Rodriguez cannot continue that trend.
At 23 years old, Rodriguez gained plenty of valuable experience in college and is certainly NFL-ready. The Texas Tech product enters into a favorable situation (well, not in terms of wins and losses), too, as he figures to play a massive role in an otherwise unexciting Miami defense. Rodriguez is coming off a dominant season for the Red Raiders in which he compiled 11 tackles for loss, 4 interceptions and a ridiculous 7 forced fumbles.
NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year longshot pick: Cashius Howell, DE, CIN (+3500)
This is quite a good market to involve yourself in a longshot play. After all, there is no dominant player at the top of the heap that is any kind of lock to win the award. It’s also much harder to project defensive players’ statistics than it is on the offensive side of the ball. What’s to say that a 2nd-round pick can’t rack up the most impressive numbers? Heck, Carson Schwesinger earned DROY honors last year after being selected by Cleveland with the #33 overall pick.
As for Howell (a second-round pick of the Bengals), he recorded 11.5 sacks at Texas A&M in 2025. Twice, he delivered 3 sacks in a single game, including on 3 consecutive plays at one point. When Howell gets hot, he can really go off. He will have a golden chance to produce right away in Cincinnati given that Trey Hendrickson has taken his talents to Baltimore.
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