Preseason SuperStars

Robert Meachem is going to be a star in the NFL. How do I know this, the former 1st round draft pick torched the Cardinals 3rd string in last nights preseason game. The injuries and poor work habits are behind him, the one year wonder label attached to him in the draft has been ripped away. Once he lines up across from Colston and with Shockey in the line-up the Saints will be unstoppable.

Wow, that paragraph looks pretty ridicules when you read it doesn’t it. But it isn’t that far off from the kind of thing you are going to read and here in the coming weeks as the NFL preseason hits full stride.

This morning on the Sirius Blitz, Brickinthebox whipping boys Adam Schein and Solomon Wilcots expressed how they knew this kind of breakout was coming based on what they had learned from talking to Saints players and staff this off-season. Never mind a week ago when Wilcots was at Saints training camp he made a point of not mentioning Meachem when discussing the Saints outstanding depth at WR.

Meachem wasn’t the only player to gain the attention of the media and fans last night. In the New England / Baltimore game Lamont Jordan had a good night for him. Leading the aforementioned windbags to transition from their Meachem praise to talking about what a great fit Lamont is in New England. Lets remember one thing before we hand Lamont the comeback player of the year award, you give a RB that you are sure of the rock almost 20 times in a preseason game.

And while we are on the subject of the Pats / Ravens game, a couple Raiders sites I frequent are abuzz with the performance of Fabian Washington in that game. He came away with two picks. Before you get your dander up over the Raiders letting Washington get away, look at whom he did this against. It wasn’t Brady, Moss and Welker. It was Matt Cassel and Gutierrez. With the kind of pressure the Ravens bring, Washington better look good against these scrubs.

Which brings me to the point of this posting. As we watch these preseason games, you need to take everything with a grain of salt. Next to no game planning goes into the 1st two games. The Raiders haven’t put in special protections for the Niner’s 3-4. The Raiders defense hasn’t spent time studying the Martz offense. Sure they practiced against each other a couple days ago, so they have a better feel for the opponent then most teams do going into the 1st game of the preseason. But it is going to be base offense and defense calls.

So enjoy finally getting to watch you team this weekend, it has been Seven long months since we could enjoy any form of NFL football. But don’t put much stock into how a player looks this week, especially if they are playing after the 1st two series. Look for solid fundamentals, and pray for no injuries. At this point that is all that can truly be taken from these games. Wins and losses don’t matter and stat lines are meaningless. You are getting to see players take a mid-term exam during the learning season. Finals won’t be for a few weeks.