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Here is the Training Camp Report for Wednesday August 9th:
Football Is Back!!
For the first Sunday since Russell Wilson’s ill-fated and illogical goal line interception in Super Bowl 49 we have an NFL game to watch and react to tonight. Granted, the Hall of Fame game isn’t going to give us much insight into the 2015 NFL regular season but it will still be good to have something for us football fanatics to fawn over.
Keep in mind that we are not going to see much if anything from either Vikings or Steelers star players tonight. The Steelers have made no secret of their plan to rest all of their starters including QB Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown. The Vikings will use Teddy Bridgewater for one or two series at max in this first preseason tilt.
In the coming days and weeks we will see plenty of fantasy worthy players and it will be important to understand what these performances mean. Remember that coordinators do not give any true looks to their playbook in the preseason. Most teams run very standard schemes in the preseason games in order to avoid opposing coaching staffs to have tape on them for the regular season. Thus, we won’t know the true nature of most offenses in the preseason. But I am a big believer in the eye test. If you can plainly see a player popping off the screen during a preseason game in a vanilla system, chances are that player is one to watch closely as the summer and regular season moves along.
Isn’t Everybody?
I am getting a big kick out of all of the reports of Bengals TE Tyler Eifert being “uncoverable” during training camp so far. If I seriously had a quarter for every player I have heard this about over the years who has never amounted to anything in the regular season I would be rich.
This is not to say that Eifert isn’t a big time talent because he is. I absolutely loved him while he played for my beloved golden domers in South Bend and felt that he landed in a great situation in Cincinnati originally. But Eifert was a fantasy disappointment in 2013 and after missing most of the 2014 season with a dislocated elbow, I have no choice but to cap my expectations.
The Bengals offense as a whole will be better off this season assuming their weapons in A.J. Green, Marvin Jones and Eifert all stay healthy. But when you consider the high expectations for the Bengals running game behind Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard, A.J. Green be among the league leaders in most receiving categories and the Jones/Mohamed Sanu impact what is going to be left over for Tyler Eifert?
The highest I can possibly move Eifert up in my TE rankings is to the #15-18 spot. I am far more confident in players like Owen Daniels, Dwayne Allen and Jordan Cameron. Further, I like the upside of Josh Hill, Antonio Gates and Kyle Rudolph more than that of Tyler Eifert.
Beware Of Chemistry
There has been a lot of talk around Chicago Bears camp about the chemistry between QB Jay Cutler and WR Eddie Royal. While the two have hooked up for some key plays early one there are obviously some problems with this story line. First, these are inter-squad scrimmages and mean nothing. Secondly, most of these big plays are simple routes run inside the red zone that have led to touchdowns.
I know that I must seem like the biggest wet blanket in fantasy sports right now, crushing every training camp superstar and all but it is for good reason. You need to know when these headlines actually mean something and when they are simply recycled tidbits we’ve heard year after year for decades.
In the case of Cutler and Royal, I think there is some merit to the pair having a great working relationship. You should remember that these two played together in Denver back in 2008 which was Royal’s rookie season. They connected for 91 receptions, 980 yards and five TD’s that season. This has been to date the best season for Royal by far. So it is not unreasonable to think that Royal will see an increase in targets and receptions while working with Cutler once again.
But you have to remember that the Bears are going to throw the ball a lot less this season than they have in the previous two. The Bears are going to run the ball more and have a lot of options in their passing game in Alshon Jeffery, Marquess Wilson, Martellus Bennett and Matt Forte already. They also are waiting on first round pick Kevin White to get healthy and I would assume they will give him plenty of opportunities as well. Thus, there just won’t be a lot of balls to go around to make Royal anything greater than a semi-regular FLEX option at the very most this season.
Moving Up
As many of you know I am not a big fan of Jaguars TE’s. Even with Julius Thomas signing in Jacksonville I have not been even remotely excited about his fantasy prospects for 2015. After all, the Jaguars offense simply has not chance to match the volume provided by Payton Manning and the Broncos over the past two seasons. Thomas flourished in Denver but simply won’t have the same opportunities that he did in Denver.
Having said that, it should be noted that the Jaguars have a new offensive coordinator this year in Greg Olsen who is a former TE coach himself. Those who have watched a lot of Jaguars camp already are surprised at just how much they are using two TE sets in their base offensive package. Both Thomas and Marcedes Lewis have been on the field together the majority of the time which is a big departure of what the Jags have been doing over the past two seasons.
Obviously an abundance of two TE sets will help the fantasy production of both players and especially the “move” TE which in this case would certainly be Julius Thomas. So that is good news for Thomas’ fantasy outlook this year and gives us maybe a sliver of hope that Lewis could improve upon his numbers as well. But what this also means is that the Jags will be using just two WR’s a lot of the time which is bad news for either Marqise Lee or Allen Hurns. It appears as though the Jaguars will give QB Blake Bortles more help along the line and some quick, easy to manage routes in the middle as opposed to having him force the ball upfield into higher risk situations.