Essendon hopes its top-10 draft picks Darcy Parish and Aaron Francis will be ready to feature early next season, but will not be placing any extra pressure on the pair to immediately make an impact in 2016.

The Bombers selected Parish (pick five) and Francis (pick six) at last week's NAB AFL Draft, and they arrived at the club on Friday.

So far they have taken part in a limited number of training drills as they are introduced to Essendon's pre-season program.

Assistant coach Mark Harvey said the talented duo, who were both named as under-18 All Australians this season, would carry "a little bit of extra expectation" into their debut season as early picks but that there was room for them to break into Essendon's line-up.

"If you have a look at the way first-year players are going, depending on where the team's at, they certainly can get inducted quite quickly into senior football," Harvey said.

"We've still got a fairly mature group, but we have got some issues in our team we need to rectify and I'd say some of these kids qualify for pressing for selection.

"It will be a progression for both of those guys, but we have high hopes and high standards that these guys can hopefully set.

"It's not to say those two will be the first pressing for selection next year, because we know a lot of players who are further down in the draft can come up and surprise you. It will just matter what the team needs and how good we're going early."

Parish and Francis were among seven draftees for the Bombers at the national intake, alongside fellow top-30 selections Alex Morgan and Mason Redman.

Harvey was involved in some of the meetings before Essendon's recruiters settled on Parish and Francis, and said he was impressed with the pair's ability to shape games.

"They're completely different players. Darcy's energetic and lively and likes to be involved in the game as a midfielder. He's always thinking about the move ahead," Harvey said.

"Aaron is probably different, he sits back and waits for the game as a key defender at under-18 level, but he can play forward as well. He's got a lot of power in his body that we need to expose over coming months."

Essendon's youth will play an important role in the club's push back up the ladder after the Bombers' bottom-four finish in 2015.

The club's younger players have been back training for nearly a month and Harvey nominated Zach Merrett as a player to watch as he enters his third season in the AFL.

"Zach Merrett's had a stress fracture late last year so he's had time to recover. The way he's running would suggest he's really going to go to another level," Harvey said.

"By March, once we've played those NAB Challenge games, we'll certainly know who's going to be carrying the team in a more prominent role."