Evaluating non-skill players as a fan (drafted, draft, games, ESPN)

[jobaba]

I've watched football since I was a kid but I never played. So I understand the game but not the nuances.

One thing I've always found funny is how they rate non-skill players in the NFL.

In other sports like basketball and football, the stats and gameplay pretty much tell you how good that player is. It's pretty obvious why Jeremy Lin became a star. He scored a lot of points and won games.

But it's not that way in the NFL. I mean, it is for QBs and WRs and RBs a lot of the time. Even sometimes DEs and LBs.

But with the other guys, it's kind of arbitrary as a fan.

Like I'm a Jets fan. One day, one season, they start calling Darelle Revis the best corner in the game. And Nick Mangold is the best center in the game. As a fan, there's no way you can really tell that from watching the game. Some announcer and sports writer says that those two guys are the best and you just buy into it.

Especially, you see an article on ESPN and they say Richie Incognito is an average lineman, and so and so OT drafted in the first round is just average, or had a tremendous season.

I can never tell that as a fan. I just kind of rely on media to tell me who is good and who sucks. Some years, they cut players and I'm like, "I thought he was pretty good. He had that sack and forced fumble that game and has a lot of tackles."

I think NFL is pretty funny like that. Or maybe I just don't see the nuances of the game.

[Ghengis]

the best thing to do as an NFL fan/expert is to state your conviction (doesn't matter what it is) and accuse anybody that disputes it of drinking the ________ (other team/player) kool-aid and dismiss them with a wave of your hand, or one of these if you are on a forum, that will make you most right until you take on the next idiot that disagrees with you about something else.

[J.M.M]

It is more difficult, but you can definitely see the difference between elite linemen and average linemen if the nfl. Offensive linemen that are constantly creating a running lane or keeping their pass rusher at bay is not too difficult to see if you are really watching closely. It is probably something you will not catch in the highlights of the game though. This makes it difficult for most fans to know who the best linemen are. As you said, you either rely on what experts say, or somehow manage to watch every NFL game

[WyoNewk]

It makes it even more difficult to form an individual opinion of a player when you simply watch the game on TV, as most of us do. If you're actually at the game, you can watch that key lineman and see how he does, but on TV you can only watch what the camera shows you, and that's nearly always distorted due to long telephoto lenses.

Even those who do attend the games in person are limited by the perspective from their seat. Everyone wants that close (and low) seat on the 50 yard line, but the best perspective is often in the nosebleed section behind the end zone. We had such seats one year only because they were what we could find, but after watching a few games from the end zone I grew to like them. You could really see the running and passing lanes opening up. When the ball was at the other end of the field it was the pits, but when on your end of the field it was great!

I'm like you, Jobaba. As a fan, especially as a TV fan, I mostly watch the ball. But if you attend the games in person you see much more than what the TV camera catches.

[mco65]

I agree that it can be hard to tell when a lineman is great simply because you never hear his name much but when a lineman is bad or having a bad game, its obvious because the QB pressure comes from that linemans side.. TV will show a sack replay and you see the lineman getting beat constantly.