You see a lot of derision and complaining about preseason football games. Right on this very site, in fact; Michael Murillo advises you pass on it. And I understand, because the games are usually pretty far removed from real NFL games.
Part of the hostility for these games is the NFL's fault, since they charge season ticket holders as much for tickets for August games as they do for regular-season contests. Then teams barely play their stars in the games because they don't want them to get hurt.
This is without even getting into the unavoidable negatives of these games: players get hurt, third- and fourth-stringers who will be cut next month put up the best numbers, and the level of play usually isn't very good. And we quickly begin seeing signs that our Fantasy Index Open entries are going to be torpedoed by coaches unwilling to feature their best players -- so much for C.J. Spiller being a top-20 running back.
But I think all the complaints about the exhibitions miss the real positives of these games. (Except for the ticket prices, a complaint I agree with, and have a solution for. I think the way to address it is for season tickets holders to simply not show up, and see what the NFL thinks of playing games before empty stadiums -- THAT would change policies in a hurry.)
Statistics, although we love them here, are only part of the story. YouTube highlights, with rookies, are only part of the story. Both tell you what players did in the past. They can't tell you what players are doing right now. They don't always indicate what players will do.
Most of us who saw Randy Moss in his breakout exhibition performance remember it. Chris Johnson stood out in the preseason. Giovani Bernard, Christine Michael, Eddie Lacy -- college tape only tells you so much about players. That first preseason game can sometimes tell you if it's a player you want to target, or let someone else waste a pick on.
Obviously, there's not always that kind of wow moment. Some rookies don't play much in the preseason, some are slow picking up the playbook, some are hurt. Sometimes you get a negative impression of a player who ends up being a breakout star.
But I'm a firm believer that what you see is more important than what you read or hear. I trust what Ian Allan says about a player and like to read what a respected beat reporter says about a player. But I put the most faith in what my eyes tell me. When I see a guy zipping through defenders like he's the fastest and most motivated player on the field, I believe. When I see a guy dancing around in the backfield, dropping passes, or turning the wrong way and letting a ball bounce off his facemask, I doubt.
Thursday night there are six preseason games. I'll be watching. Friday, six more. Saturday, four more. I want to see as much as I can.
The games don't count, the numbers don't matter. But the performances do. The way players look to me do. Sometimes I'll be misled, sometimes I'll be wrong. But at least I can say I made my decisions based on what I saw. Not what somebody else saw.