When it comes to Fantasy Football, we have our sites set so high to watch games and scout out our players that we tend to go crazy over everything we see. Bad plays, turnovers, dropped passes, fumbles by starting running backs and the like tend to send us through the proverbial roof when it comes to looking for possible break out stars and how we should put together our rankings as we prepare for our draft.
Football is great, but therein lies the tough part of the game. With so few games to go on, the sample size is small when trying to make a determination on how well a player is playing. Add in the fact that pre-season is only 4 games, making the sample size even smaller, ups the challenge. Throw in the fact that the starters only play a series or two in the first and probably the last pre-season game (some don't play at all in game 4) then you cut down that sample size even more. Add in the issue of injuries, meaning that there were a lot of guys that didn't play game one over the weekend because of injuries, some of which would probably not be grave enough to keep them out if it were a regular season game, and you have some challenges when doing your 'research'.
My point is that you have to keep an even keel about players when looking at them over the pre-season. Some guys had great first games, like EJ Manuel for the Bills, Arizona QB's Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton against the Packers, and Jacksonville's Denard Robinson (who was used all over the place.)
Others had down games. It's all part of a chaotic process called NFL Pre-season. You have a number of starters held out for minor injuries. You have second tier guys going against other second tier guys, which isn't altogether realistic when the regular season rolls around. It can make for some great games and terrible games. The idea is to put that in context with the rest of pre-season, reports out of the respective team training camps to see how the player is doing each day in camp and also take into consideration the team that he is on as well.
Some guys will start jumping on or jumping off of the bandwagon depending on what kind of a game a certain player has in pre-season. Take it easy. Take a breath. It's only pre-season. Yes, it's nice to see a player having a big game at QB, but know that a lot of the guys he's playing against will be selling insurance come the middle of September and not be on an NFL football team. A great place to do some extra research is not simply the hot places online, but also look at the individual team's local newspaper. Sometimes, these can be a great resource to find some related articles to either encourage you to put the player in question on your draft board or to put him down lower on your list.
Use multiple sources and different areas of context (games PLUS camp PLUS team) when making any definitive decisions on guys. It will make you a better fantasy owner come draft day.
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