So your fantasy season
didn’t go as planned. Your lineup took more sacks than Brett Favre and
understandably you’re upset. It’s been a tumultuous season. Up is down. Left is
right. Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!
But don’t just sit there
sharpening your punji sticks and mumbling to yourself in an alcohol induced
haze because you didn’t make the playoffs. Now is not the time to surrender to
indifference. This is the time to start scouting for next year. Now is the time
to make mental notes, or ink them in the blood of your enemies in your
flesh-bound manifesto. Whatever your preference.
Every year there’s going
to be some flashy new rookie you’re going to be tempted to draft but rookies
are risky. That’s why they’re so sexy. Dez Bryant, Ryan Matthews, and Jahvid
Best were all poised to have a phenomenal season but none of them really broke
out and each one was sidelined with injury. A better use of your draft picks
would have been Arian Foster, Peyton Hillis, and Matt Cassel. None of them had
the shiny new toy appeal that the rookies did and most were overlooked in
drafts; but each one of them had a limited amount of on-the-field NFL
experience, and each one shined. This is the time of year when coaches take a
chance on somebody new. When injury and opportunity allow some undrafted second
year man to show flashes of what can do, and quite possibly earn a starter’s
role the following season.
If you were watching the
final two games of last season you would have had Arian Foster on your radar.
Or a few years ago, before Michael Turner left San Diego you could have watched
him chew up garbage time late in the season. Miles Austin was in the league
four years before he suddenly became a number one wide receiver. My point being
that these guys are out there right now. You just don’t see them yet.
Plunk your ass down in
front of that high-def window into awesomeness with your favorite cookie and do
your homework. Somebody is going to start showing their talent. All you have to
do is take notice. Then, next year, watch the preseason, watch the talent on
the roster, and look for opportunity. When you’re deep in your draft and the
obvious starters are gone you’re going to be the one who reaps the benefits.
And won’t you feel smug as you cha-cha into the playoffs on the broken dreams
of your rivals. How sweet it is.
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