Recently an awesome story about Keanu Reeves and how awesome of a guy he is, both on and off production sets came out. For those who don’t know, Keanu Reeves is KILLING 2019 with the newest John Wick movie and a role as Duke Kaboom in Toy Story 4. But here is Keanu talking about his love for movies…

 

THAT is how I feel about training camp. I LOVE training camp. I love it. Can’t get enough of it. If it was done my way, training camp would start in early July. The NFLPA would hate it, but I’d be tuned in every day. It’s great to see generational talents, legendary coaches, and players interacting with fans at the cost of nothing. Personally, that’s why I love training camp. It matters to me, which is subjective. But for fantasy football, training camp also holds some weight. 

 

Football Is Back

You just have to quiet down and take it in. From the beginning of February, until the end of July we all beg for football to come back. It’s part of our identity. The NFL tries to dominate the entire calendar. They own ratings from August-to-February and get more attention with the Draft Combine in March, then free agency around the same time, then the draft in April, and then OTAs and minicamp in May and June. But Training Camp is when football feels back. Thank God for HBO’s programming providing an open door to training camp as we all get to understand and know a team on a more personal level. 

As much as you may scoff at the NFL Hall of Fame game, most people will tune in for trashy football no matter who is playing. Even the AAF had decent ratings during its short run. The Hall of Fame Game features players that may not make a dent on the season, but it just signals that the season is nigh, even though you have no idea who is playing. So what? Training camps open with about 2,800 players and about half of them get cut prior to the season starting, and you still don’t know a vast majority of the players that crack the 53-man roster. 

 

New Players and Schemes

Year in and year out there are always a large number of players changing teams and coaches being fired. Training camp allows us to take a look at how players look in new schemes or how a new player may fit with a new team. There’s some optimism this year with Antonio Brown entering his first season with the Oakland Raiders. Perhaps a change of scenery will do him some good. There’s no doubt he’ll be fed targets, he’s one of the premiere wide receivers in the game. But, how will he fit in with Derek Carr after a very public and somewhat ugly breakup with Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers? Similar questions could apply to Le’Veon Bell with the New York Jets. That’s another scenario worth keeping an eye on because the Jets have a new head coach in Adam Gase who allegedly didn’t even want Bell! 

A lot of eyes will be on Kyler Murray and Kliff Kingsbury down in Arizona. How will Murray, who is undersized for his position, play at the NFL level? There’s no doubt he’s a quick and elusive player, but the speed in the NFL is much different than college. Will Kingsbury be the next Sean McVay? Can he get David Johnson back to where he was a couple years ago as one of the most dominant running backs in the game? Training camp is the time to get an all access look at these situations and how certain players are developing and mixing in with a new team.

To refresh here’s a breakdown of all the new head coaches to keep an eye on:

  • Freddie Kitchens – Cleveland Browns

  • Bruce Arians – Tampa Bay Buccaneers

  • Matt LaFleur – Green Bay Packers

  • Brian Flores – Miami Dolphins

  • Vic Fangio – Denver Broncos

  • Adam Gase – New York Jets

  • Zac Taylor – Cincinnati Bengals

  • Kliff Kingsbury – Arizona Cardinals

The Freddie Kitchens and Matt LaFleur hirings are also pretty interesting. Kitchens was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach after the debacle that was Hue Jackson’s coaching era. The Browns have a ton of talent on offense now, but how can Kitchens handle all the personalities and high expectations bestowed upon the Browns? How will Matt LaFleur work with Aaron Rodgers ? Rodgers no doubt is one of the best quarterbacks in the game and clearly didn’t agree with some of Mike McCarthy’s decisions on offense. Will LaFleur be able to get Rodgers on the same page to get the Packers back to the playoffs? Another thing worth watching is how effective LaFleur will be on the sideline as he tore his achilles a few weeks back and just recently had surgery on it. Training camp is where we start to get answers to all these questions.

 

The Elephant in the Room: Injuries

This is probably the biggest argument against training camp and the preseason. Like any sport injuries are a part of the game. They can happen at any point, but football is already one of the more grueling contact sports and injuries tend to pile up. But when a player goes down in August it just feels like a massive sucker punch. Four preseason games may seem a bit excessive and for the most part the first and fourth games don’t feature too many players you’ll watch in week one. So while there’s never a convenient time to incur an injury, they do present an opportunity for other players to get a chance to showcase what they can do. 

At this point though most teams are privy to injuries and established veterans have a say in how much they want to play. Some star players may sit out most preseason games while still getting work in during camp. For example, Todd Gurley is going to go in the first two-to-three rounds depending on the size of your league. Training camp means nothing to Gurley whether he’s healthy or not. Understandably so, most owners are frustrated with Gurley because 2017 was a phenomenal season for the star running back, but now after being limited to 48 total yards of offense in the NFC Championship and Super Bowl, there are serious questions regarding his knee. But Gurley won’t play in the preseason. And it’s not because he’s hurt (even though he probably is), it’s just he doesn’t need to play in the preseason. Gurley hasn’t played in the preseason since the Rams second preseason game in 2017 and even then he was limited. Gurley, like most star athletes, doesn’t need the preseason to justify their ADP. In an ideal world we all would love to see Gurley play in August to see how the knee looks and if he can hold up. Gurley has a long history of knee injuries dating back to his days at the University of Georgia. But it’s highly unlikely we get a look at Gurley before drafting. It’s an adage old as time, “The first three rounds won’t win you your league, but they can lose you your league.” Star players will be limited in the preseason, but preseason matters because of the value you might be able to find later in the draft from players that are getting reps and work.

 

Training Camp Battles

You can find numerous position battles across the vast landscape of NFL training camp. And anything can happen during training camp and a presumed starter could easily lose his job. Back on January 1, 2012 the Green Bay Packers sat Aaron Rodgers for the final game of the season and gave the start to Matt Flynn against the Detroit Lions. Flynn would go on to throw for 480 yards and six touchdowns in one of the greatest single-game performances for a quarterback. The big game would earn Flynn a three-year contract from the Seattle Seahawks and heading into training camp it seemed like a forgone conclusion he would be the Seahawks starting quarterback. However, a rookie quarterback for Seattle had a different agenda. A little over a month after signing Flynn, the Seahawks would draft Russell Wilson in the third round of the NFL Draft and the rest was history. While Flynn entered training camp as the starting quarterback, Wilson came out of nowhere with an impressive showing in camp and the preseason games to win the starting job. Keep an eye out for training camp battles this season. As always Fantasy Alarm will keep you covered with the most notable battles that could impact your fantasy football team.

 

Fantasy Football Draft Prep

Training camp won’t have any impact on your first few picks in fantasy football, but it’ll open your eyes to players you could draft later on. Heading into training camp last season nobody knew who Phillip Lindsay was. In fact, coming out of training most people still had no idea who Phillip Lindsay was. However, reading between the lines were some telling numbers that may have tipped fantasy football players into seeing the Broncos liked their undrafted rookie running back. To be fair, Royce Freeman was getting all the rub this time one year ago. Freeman was the hot hand in training camp and was heavily drafted over Lindsay in most drafts. Freeman managed to score a touchdown in each of the three preseason games he appeared in, but he wasn’t that active in the passing game. But Lindsay quietly produced more all-purpose yards than Freeman 128-to-90, while both guys averaged over five yards per carry in the preseason. But not too many people were championing for Lindsay over Freeman. After all Freeman was the one drafted in the third round by the Broncos while Lindsay was signed as an undrafted free agent. But in fantasy football, running back is a position of great importance and Lindsay was worth a late round flyer and for those who drafted him he paid off handsomely with over 1,000 rushing yards in his first year in the NFL.

Marlon Mack had virtually no competition for the starting running back job heading into last year. The Colts seemed interested in a running back by committee plan, but Mack was clearly the best option, but a hamstring injury in the first preseason game forced him to miss the remainder of the preseason and three of the first four games for the Colts. Now how does this pertain to training camp if he was sitting out? Because the remaining running backs didn’t take advantage of Mack’s absence. Nyheim Hines showed some promise as more of a pass catcher and Jordan Wilkins got some work, but neither really grabbed the reigns and ran away with the opportunity. The general consensus was that Mack was the best option in the Colts backfield and he was being drafted in the mid-rounds. Yes, a top 20 running back could be had in the middle rounds. Mack would go on to finish with over 900 rushing yards in 12 games.

Training camp is pretty vital to fantasy football draft prep. It’s a great time to follow beat writers from every team to see who is running with the first team and how the rep distribution is going. There is always value to be found in the later rounds and if you put in the effort to monitor training camp and the preseason you’ll be able to dominate your draft