Which 2016 NFL Draft picks won’t contribute early?

Who knows, maybe I’m wrong and these picks will find a way to contribute to the teams that drafted them early but right now it looks rather unlikely.
Carson Wentz, QB Philadelphia Eagles. With Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel under contract and very well paid, in order for Wentz to see the field much in 2016 would require injuries to the guys in front of him or the Eagles eliminated from playoff contention relatively early. Even then, the odds are that Wentz would sit and learn.

The early word on Wentz is basically what the consensus was of him during the draft build up: he has raw talent but needs a lot of work and teaching.

William Jackson III, DB Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals were hoping that WJ3 would man a starting corner spot for them, only he reportedly tore a pec muscle in training camp and will miss a significant amount of time(probably until midseason at a minimum). This scrambles the Bengals’ plans for their defense and probably means the return of Leon Hall.

If they bring him back, then the Bengals probably are expecting nothing from WJ3 this season. Which is probably fair.

Josh Doctson, WR Washington. Doctson picked up a nagging toe/Achilles injury during OTAs and just hasn’t been able to shake it. For a player who’s talent is based on his ability to run and cut, it’s could be awhile before he’ll be back on the field, much less at 100%. And since the Redskins’ WR corps goes 4 deep with contributors, so there won’t be much pressure on him to hurry back.

Barring some miracle recovery, this is likely essentially a redshirt season for Doctson. Which might be the best for both him and the team, but they passed on filling a lot of immediate holes to take a redshirting wideout.

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Shaq Lawson, DL Buffalo Bills. Lawson hurt his shoulder(which some teams had flagged as a medical issue) during OTAs and at a minimum will miss everything up until week 5. Week 8-10 of the regular season is probably far more realistic a target for his return.

So this is a redshirt season for Lawson as well, only the coaching staff that drafted him might not being around when he’s back to 100%.

Robert Nkemdiche, DL Arizona Cardinals. Nkemdiche sprained an ankle and will miss 2-3 weeks, but the Cards weren’t expecting him to be a starter in 2016. Unless their plan has changed seeing the preseason action, they plan to use Nkemdiche sparingly until he shows he can mentally handle the load of a complicated defensive scheme.

Laremy Tunsil, OT Miami Dolphins. It’s early but the Dolphins have listed Dallas Thomas(who’s terrible) as their starting left guard, not Tunsil. This could be a motivational ploy with Tunsil to get him to earn the job, but one would think that they just wouldn’t have named any starter as to not cause any potential drama.

But if Tunsil is still not working with the 1s by week 3 of the preseason, then the expectation should be that he’s going to wait until Albert leaves.

Leonard Floyd, LB/EDGE Chicago Bears. The Bears took Floyd for his potential. Fangio saw in him a potential Aldon Smith who could anchor a defense as an edge rusher and force opposing offenses to account for him on every play. But the Bears, I hope, knew that they were getting an extremely raw and unready player.

That they just gave Willie Young a new contract strongly hints that they do realize how raw Floyd is and that their expectation for him for 2016 is to mostly learn the NFL and his position. In short, Bears fans shouldn’t expect 10 sacks from Floyd before 2018.

Vernon Butler, DL Carolina Panthers. Butler is stuck behind two of the best defensive tackles in the league and two good backups in Kyle Love and Paul Soliai. This might be the best scenario for Butler. He didn’t play high level college football and by all accounts need a lot of work on the finer points of playing defensive tackle.

Which is fine, if and when Kawann Short leaves then Butler could slot in to replace him. Until then, Butler will be worked into the rotation to keep bodies fresher.