Everything that happens during the NFL season evolves from what happens during training camp. It’s more than just jobs that are won and lost or roles that are defined. Training camp is where the playbook is installed. It is where the players learn the game and how to play together as a unit. Training camp is where Tiki Barber learned to stop fumbling, it’s where Kurt Warner showed he could run an offense and where Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison learned one another’s tendencies.
More recently, this is where players like Joique Bell and Alshon Jeffery proved they were worthy of expanded roles in their offenses. This led to breakout regular seasons that translated into immense fantasy values. Training camp is so much more than just where teams come together and players get into shape.
It has been this way throughout time. For those of you who have played fantasy football or just been NFL fans for a while, we can go back and uncover previous fantasy breakouts. If you had paid attention to training camp in 2010, you would have seen Victor Cruz grab everyone’s attention with some highlight reel catches a year before he broke out in the regular season. In 2003, a little known former college quarterback named Anquan Boldin worked his way into the Arizona Cardinals starting lineup during camp. Just two seasons ago, we saw a fourth-string running back named Alfred Morris in Washington work his way up the depth chart to become the Redskins starter and a workhorse.
Just last year, we watched as a little known tight end named Travis Kelce lit it up to the tune of 11-193-2 in the preseason for the Chiefs. I wrote about Kelce and his developing rapport with Alex Smith four times between July 28th and August 10th last year. So, if you were paying attention, you landed a pretty solid tight end that few had heard of late in your draft.
You may hear other fantasy analysts downplay the impact of training camp. For the life of me I don’t know why they do it but I hear it every year. Maybe they don’t believe that jobs are really at stake? Maybe they think it’s easy to learn an NFL playbook? Or maybe they think that training camp is just a bunch of guys running around getting in shape. As I often say, it could be that few fantasy analysts have been through a training camp before. They haven’t participated in them and haven’t covered them which is why they don’t understand all that comes out of training camp.
As someone who has been to and covered many NFL training camps over the past decade, I can assure you that everybody in the NFL wins their job during training camp. Those players who don’t realize their job is on the line are usually the ones who are stunned to be cut at the beginning of September. Tell a player like Dri Archer that it is easy to learn an NFL playbook. Why didn’t Archer get more touches in 2014? Because he couldn’t learn the playbook and got blown up in pass protection during training camp. That is game over for young players regardless of their draft status.
The coaching staff has a pretty good idea of what they have on their team and where they fit after organized team activities and minicamps conclude in mid-June. But training camp is where it all comes together. Sometimes a veteran player shows that he has lost a step. Sometimes a young player shows that he can’t adhere to the curfew rules the team establishes for them. Then, sometimes an undrafted free agent like Arian Foster trots onto the field and shows he can execute a cut back running system as well as anyone in the game of football. All of this and more is learned during training camp.