Why Minicamps Aren’t Mini in Fantasy Football

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This is the time of year when minicamps are opening up. All NFL teams convene once again, working out, getting back in shape and in the mood for the game. It’s also time for fantasy owners to get their intelligence gathering going. Why are minicamps that important, you ask?

For one, many fantasy drafts take place pretty early, and your only information on how a player might do this season comes from these camps. Many interesting things take place, and it’s not just about slight improvements from a single player.

Position battles determine who gets snaps, carries and receptions. Consider, for example, the Atlanta Falcons. They added a proven starter in Warrick Dunn, but they also drafted TJ Duckett. Dunn is used to playing in a running back by committee situation, but that was on another team. Atlanta had a feature back in Jamal Anderson and it wouldn’t be surprising if they handed someone that role again. And it might not be Dunn, but the rookie.

That decision will most likely be made in one of these minicamps, as a result of what the coaching staff sees. Watch out for other position battles such as the one in Tampa Bay, where Mike Alstott now has Michael Pittman to compete against.

Also, players coming back from injuries are very important to watch in camps as they’ll try to make good impressions on coaches to get their playing time back. Thanks to guys like Jamal Anderson and Terrell Davis we know by now that a torn ACL takes two years of recovery time at least. But minor injuries or improved offseason conditioning can also be major hints for the upcoming season. Keep a close eye on players like Edgerin James or Jamal Lewis.

Then of course there are the rookies. Last year an unheralded rookie made a good impression and team officials said they were happily surprised by his performance. It turned out that this relative unknown, Chris Chambers, would become a top receiver who easily cracks the top 100 players overall for the season. It doesn’t take a highly touted player to make a great impact – by following the camps, you’ll have potential breakout players, like Chambers was a year ago, on your radar screen well before most of your competition.

The game at the pro level is very different from the college game, and coaches can learn a lot about draftees by watching them get their first taste of NFL speed in minicamps. Fantasy owners should listen carefully to any hints given out by coaching staffs in interviews.

Rookie QBs are especially interesting to watch closely, as their grasp of the playbook should already start to show well before they’re handed the starter’s job. And this year, there’s a very interesting crop of young QBs that could start in Game One. David Carr, Joey Harrington or sophomores such as Michael Vick have lots of question marks surrounding them as we head toward the 2002 season. Minicamps won’t provide answers to all those questions, but the information they will provide could prove to be the edge you need to come out of your draft ahead of the pack.