Thursday night’s offensive explosion between the Broncos and Ravens represents the abrupt transition from the cozy pace of play in August to the all-out chaos of a regular season NFL game. One of the side effects of the new CBA that reduces both the intensity of practice and amount of time spent on the field in training camp is that the vast majority of players are not even close to being in game shape.
We saw this first hand on Thursday night. At first, it looked like the Ravens were poised to hold their own against this star studded group, but all it took was a couple of plays for Manning to put the Ravens on their heels, and from there he torched the Ravens defense to the tune of seven touchdowns. The lack of conditioning, coupled with the altitude of Mile High Stadium, gave the Ravens little chance against the Denver-based juggernaut.
Surely, if the Ravens played the Broncos when the weather began to cool down and their defensive unit had gelled, the result could have been different. Coaches will likely never admit it, but the timing of who you play and when you play them could play a critical role in the team’s fortunes that season. The same goes for your fantasy team.
Each week this season, our own Ross Miles, Jeff Ratcliffe, and Nate Hodges will unveil their IDP rankings given their prior performance and future prospects. At this point, I’ll dissect their rankings and pick out a handful of players per position that may be under or overrated based on trends.
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