It's too bad they don't start the NFL season in July. According to coaches and team representatives, this is the time of the year when everyone seems to be at their peak. Free agent signings are really picking up the offense, rookies are turning heads and older players have a new spring in their step. Injured guys feel 100 percent, heavier guys have shed weight to get faster and smaller guys have packed on muscle to get stronger. Chris Johnson is even talking about 2,000 yards again! It's like all the players have their stats maxed out in a video game.
And, like a video game, none of it is real.
As you get ready for another fantasy season, the information you filter out is just as important as the information you take in. Everybody has questions, and there are plenty of answers. It's just that most of them are guesses or outright lies. Here are the biggest summertime culprits of misinformation:
Agents. If you want to hear about a healthy, hard-working football player, talk to their agent while they try to drum up interest in free agency. And if you hear the phrase "best shape of his life," go ahead and cross him off your draft list. Never trust what an agent says to the press. Trust the scouts working for 32 teams. Their lack of interest speaks volumes.
Coaches. Coaches used to ignore the press whenever possible. Now they simply use it for their own purposes. They'll pump up a player who needs a morale boost, and call out a guy they want to motivate. Gently, of course, but that's really all they're doing. If coaches had something interesting to say about their players, do you think they'd let everyone in the league know about it? Of course not. Tight-lipped coaches during the season don't become chatty over the summer. Ignore what they say.
Players. The players are either trying to avoid getting cut, trying to keep a starting spot or trying to take one. They don't care about your fantasy team in June, July or any other month on the calendar. What they're saying at OTAs and minicamps aren't for your ears. They're just trying to say the right things and stay on the good side of reporters who will cover them during the season.
Depth charts. The depth chart is the biggest lie of all, because it's the product of several liars. General managers, coaches, players and even owners can weigh in on a meaningless hierarchy in June and July. They might keep a veteran player as the "starter" out of respect, or to motivate him, or to motivate his competition, or bump him to motivate him, or bump him to motivate his competition -- or something else entirely. It doesn't mean anything with regard to fake football in August or real football in September. It doesn't mean anything now, either. It's just something they have to put out there.
By the way, sometimes coaches will admit the depth chart doesn't mean anything. That's one of the rare times you can believe them. So what can you trust? You can trust injuries. Knowshon Moreno had surgery on his left knee. That's going to affect his ability to gel with the Dolphins and be effective. You can trust contracts. The Buccaneers aren't paying Josh McCown $5 million a year to compete with Mike Glennon. You can also trust the draft, to a degree. The Bengals don't keep selecting running backs to keep BenJarvis Green-Ellis company at meetings.
But at this point in the year, you can get a general feel for each team and where they stand, and use last year's statistics as a nice recap. You can also get a consensus from fantasy businesses regarding what they think at this point. And, not surprisingly, that's exactly what Ian does in the magazine. Anything else involves a healthy amount of misinformation, and you're better off spending your fantasy prep time doing other things. What other things? We'll cover that in future columns. Welcome back.
You can reach Michael Murillo at vivamurillo@gmail.com, or on Twitter: @vivamurillo.