Injuries have Already Rewritten the 2017 Professional and College Football Season
/We are 2 weeks into the college football season and one week into the NFL season, and my 2 major picks, Heisman and MVP, are both done for the year.
My Heisman pick, Deondre Francois, the QB of FSU, tore his patellar tendon in the opening game of the season against Alabama. This could be a brutal blow to FSU's hopes of the College Football Playoff. Francois was/is one of the tougher QB's in college football. That kid got hit so many times last year as a true freshman, but he always got up. The same thing was happening in the opening game of the season, but late in the third quarter he got crushed, and when he didn't immediately hop up, I knew something was wrong. I'm not an FSU fan by any stretch of the imagination, but to lose your starting QB in the firsts game is pretty crummy. FSU can still rebound, possibly even be a major competitor in the ACC, they have a tremendous defense, but losing Francois will be brutal. I do not know how that offense will look, their second game of the year was cancelled due to Hurricane Irma. But, I imagine it will look a lot like what Clemson and Michigan are doing right now. They are going to try and run as much as possible, pass only when needed and rely on their other worldly defense. It is going to be an uphill battle for FSU, but they still have some decent talent. When you really think about it, relying on Cam Akers is not the end of the world in football terms.
I do have to say, my last 2 Heisman picks have been way off. Two years ago I picked Trevoyne Boykin, and while he had a decent season, he was not even a Heisman finalist. Last year I picked Deshaun Watson, and I still think he should have won, but Lamar Jackson won it last year. A couple weeks back, 2 days after the Francois injury I said that I was going with Derius Guice over Baker Mayfield, so I hope that I do not jinx any chance Guice may have of winning the award.
On to my pick for NFL MVP. I was completely on board with staking my claim to being one of the few people that was picking David Johnson for MVP. He had a breakout year last year, and he was the key to the Cardinals offense. I expected the Cardinals to surprise, possibly fight for a playoff spot and David Johnson was the main reason why. I had the number one overall pick in one of my fantasy football drafts, and like many other people with the number one overall pick I grabbed Johnson without hesitation. I fully bought into the David Johnson hype. He was the second coming, my generation's Marshall Faulk I called him. I bought all the David Johnson stock that I could.
Then week 1 happened. The Cardinals had an early afternoon game on Sunday, and I was at work, so I couldn't watch him play. But, I just assumed that he was going to put up big number against a subpar Lions defense. When I first went to check my numbers on my fantasy app, he had gotten me about 5 points, and it was only in the first quarter. I did the math and figured, at worst, he was going to get me between 15-20 points and that his MVP campaign was off to a great start. I waited about 20 or 30 minutes before I checked the scores again, and much to my shock, his numbers hadn't changed at all, and the game was going into halftime. I thought, no big deal, still on pace for double digit points. Then, as my work day was winding down, I hadn't checked my scores in about an hour at this point, I got a notification from my fantasy app. I heard the noise, stopped what I was doing for a moment and checked out what the update said. The app told me that David Johnson was questionable to return to the game with a wrist injury. My first thought was, oh no, my preseason MVP pick is already hurt. Then I thought about my fantasy team, and knew I was screwed. No good was going to come from this. I got home, watched some more football all day, and any new news on my preseason MVP got worse and worse. People were saying a sprained wrist and that he'd only miss a few weeks. Other people were reporting possible surgery, which would have him missing 6-8 weeks. Some people were saying that he was going to get a second opinion, and that is never, ever a good sign. Basically all news was bad news.
On Monday morning it was announced that David Johnson was being put on IR, and he was going to miss 2-3 months. Basically the entire season. My preseason MVP and number one overall pick in my fantasy draft was pretty much done for the year. As far as my fantasy team went, this is what happens sometimes. People get hurt and there is nothing I can do. I was upset, but not mad. I was mad about going out on a limb and picking him as the MVP. I expected so much from him, and it was a total bummer when he announced that he needed to get surgery. Not only did it wreck my MVP pick, but it wrecks the Cardinals season. I have no faith in the Cardinals as a playoff team anymore. They have to rely on Carson Palmer, who looks cooked, Larry Fitzgerald, who produces, but is old and they signed Chris Johnson, who hasn't been viable in about 4 years. Their defense is still good, but that offense is going to be a big time problem for them.
I guess I am bad news for any player that I pick to win preseason awards. I picked Cam to repeat as MVP last year, and he got illegally hit and hurt too much last year. Now this happens to David Johnson. I guess, if I have to pick someone else to win the NFL MVP now, I will go with Aaron Rodgers. I hate doing this, since he is the QB of my team, but there is no one else I can think of that is more valuable to his team. Just like with Guice, I hope this doesn't spell doom for Rodgers. We will see what both the college and NFL seasons have for us from here on out, but what a bummer for some big time players for the first 2 weeks. Major injuries are a big time bummer.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He did not to well in his first fantasy football game of the season. The Head Editor? He won his game behind a dominant performance of Sam Bradford. MVP of the whol year will be Bradford. Write it down.
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