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Eight burning questions heading into the 2017 NFL season

Can Marshawn Lynch help lead his Raiders to the Super Bowl?

1. How will rookie quarterbacks perform?

Will Deshaun Watson start for the Texans as a rookie?

This past season saw Dak Prescott jump on to the scene as a mid-round pick. As a rookie, the former Mississippi State signal caller would first unseat an injured Tony Romo as the Dallas Cowboys’ starting quarterback before ultimately leading his team to a 13-win regular season and the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

Interestingly, both of the top-two picks struggled throughout their rookie campaigns. Jared Goff was a downright disaster for the Los Angeles Rams, putting up just five touchdowns en route to leading his team to a 0-7 record in seven starts. And after a strong start, No. 2 pick Carson Wentz faded out big time down the stretch for the Philadelphia Eagles.

In what has to be considered a weaker 2017 NFL Draft class at quarterback, it will be interesting to see how rookies perform this upcoming season. It will also be interesting to see how many of them get actual real-time regular season action.

Deshaun Watson would be a good starting-off point. Houston did not yield a first-round pick next year to move up with Cleveland on Day 1 of the draft to select Watson with the idea of sitting him as a rookie.

The most pro-ready quarterback in this class, it would not be a huge surprise to see Watson start out of the gate. He’s also surrounded by a solid running back, a deep receiver group and a defense that led the Texans to the AFC South title last season despite horrendous quarterback play.

In reality, there’s no reason to believe Watson can’t have immediate success out of the gate in the same manner as Prescott last season. Though, it might be in more of a game-manager role.

Outside of that, there’s not a lot of questions here. Even after yielding a bounty to move up one spot for Mitch Trubisky, the Chicago Bears expect to sit the former North Carolina standout as a rookie. Should Trubisky and his one year of college starting experience see the field, there will be questions about his ability to succeed and Mike Glennon’s future with the team.

The same can be said about Pat Mahomes in Kansas City. Much like Trubisky, he will likely be brought along slowly. Unlike Chicago, the Chiefs are contenders. This gives Mahomes an ability to succeed should Alex Smith go down to injury. The only question here is whether Kansas City will move on from its veteran sooner rather than later, which doesn’t seem to be the case right now.

A bit further down on the pecking order, San Francisco surprised the masses by selecting Iowa signal caller C.J. Beathard in the third round. Despite the president believing he is the next coming of Tom Brady, there wasn’t a lot of hype surrounding the former Hawkeye.

With Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley ahead of him on San Francisco’s depth chart, could Beathard potentially act as this year’s Dak Prescott? However unlikely that might be, new 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan could have something to say to the skeptics.

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