It's that time of year again folks. Time to start predicting the unpredictable. Will any of the Denver Broncos running backs get enough carries to warrant a spot on your roster? Can Michael Turner replicate last season's performance and warrant the second overall pick in your draft? What will Terrell Owens's numbers look like now that he is in Buffalo? And how does that impact Trent Edwards value as the Bills' QB? Who am I taking if I get the first pick? What if I get stuck at the end of the first round? Do I snatch up two running backs? Or should I go one running back and also nab a top tier receiver?
These are the questions that run through all of our minds at this time of year, as we are gameplanning, strategizing, keeping our sleepers and our busts to ourselves as we try to throw our friends, or should I say our opponents, off our scents. It is just a game, after all, but for those of us not blessed enough to be playing for, coaching, or managing a professional sports team, it is our outlet. Since we will never be able to swindle the Vikings GM into giving up Adrian Peterson for a tight end and a 4th string wide receiver, we settle for trying to swindle our buddy Gus, who thinks that any trade is a good trade. And we are forced into difficult gameday decisions. Peyton Manning against the 3rd ranked pass defense, or Carson Palmer against the 24th? LT is questionable on Sunday morning. Do you stick him on your bench or hope he plays, and plays well enough to justify giving him a starting spot?
All of these questions lead back to the point that it is all a crapshoot. It's an unpredictable mess that can be one of the most frustrating things in the world. You start the wrong guy, your top pick tears his ACL and is out for the season, or you run into the last place team in the league when Kyle Orton and Felix Jones decide to have career days and serve you a loss.
But we keep coming back. We get together with the same knuckleheads year after year and put ourselves through the agony, the frustration, the mind games, all in hopes of coming out victorious in the end. All in hopes that this year is the year that we will catch a few lucky breaks, make a couple key pickups and earn bragging rights over our opponents. Or should I say friends.
