Player: Isaiah Oliver, CB, Colorado

Game: home vs. USC (#15), 3:00 PM CT

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via GIPHY

What They’re Saying

• From Luke Easterling at USA Today: “This 6-1, 195 pounder was tested early in the year, and opposing quarterbacks learned their lesson rather quickly. With 10 pass breakups and two interceptions through eight games in 2017, Oliver has shown off the length, physicality and athleticism NFL teams need from their top corners on the outside. He should be creeping into the first-round conversations slowly but surely.”
• From Chris Trapasso at CBSSports.com, projecting Oliver to Pittsburgh with the 29th pick: “The Steelers like what they’ve gotten out of Joe Haden thus far in 2017 yet realize he’s not a long-term solution at the cornerback spot. Oliver can be. He’s a smooth athlete and has the track speed to stay with wideouts down the field. He has three interceptions and 22 pass breakups in his Colorado career.”
• From Kyle Fredrickson in the Denver Post: “I don’t see all the other corners all over the country and the way that people evaluate them, but I definitely think (Oliver) is a special talent, no doubt,” MacIntyre said. “He’s extremely bright, a great family, a sharp young man. To me, he’s the full package.”

I Think

I love this player. And Ryan Pace, who looks for athleticism above all other things, will get a kick out of seeing Oliver compete in the decathlon. Kid is an athletic freak and one hell of a corner.

Why Watch This Week

Because Oliver is facing USC’s Sam Darnold. Darnold is turning the ball over way too much in 2017 (11 picks) but he’s also completing passes at a 63.6% clip, with nearly 3,000 yards and 22 touchdowns already. This is going to be a prime opportunity to evaluate Oliver against a solid professional prospect who gives defensive backs a chance to make plays on the football.

These things are called duckies.

When a city boy is going whitewater rafting in the Rocky Mountains he expects to be in a large raft with several other individuals and have minimal influence on the proceedings. Sure he’s happy to drop a well-timed refrain of Pocahontas’ Just Around the River Bend or lightly tap somebody on the ass with his oar. But he really doesn’t want a major role in the maneuvering of the watercraft.

Not in a ducky. A ducky, pictured above, is more an inflatable kayak. I piloted one of these devices, if you’d like to call what I did piloting, down the Roaring Fork Valley. Because I was terrible at this and managed to hit every rock available for contact, I spent much of my journey with the kayaked guide at the rear of the field. (If this were a race I would have been the guy receiving thunderous applause for merely finishing.) The guide, called Ryan because everybody in the Aspen area seemed to be named Ryan, was a die hard Denver Broncos fan. We had time to speak.

The Denver Broncos broke offensive records a year ago. They were the most exciting team in the sport by a significant margin. They won the AFC seemingly uncontested. Then they botched a snap in front of the world’s largest television audience and the happiness kite drifted from the young child’s hand into the cloud-lined sky, never to be seen again. To hear this shaggy marijuana machine in a kayak talk of his beloved team’s 2013 campaign, you’d think they shamed the state of Colorado and all members of the Elway family with a 3-13 record.

They finished second in the NFL. Better than thirty other franchises. Only worse than one. And that’s the harsh reality of the NFL. Only one team, only one city, only one fan base leaves the season firmly satisfied. Nobody derides the club that loses the World Series or Stanley Cup Finals or NBA Finals (unless LeBron James is on that team). They give large trophies to the runners-up at golf and tennis major championships and grand slams. Supporters of the English Premiere League’s second-place side don’t pout in kayaks.

The loneliest loser in all of professional sports is the team failing on Super Bowl Sunday. So how does one set fair expectations for an NFL season?

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