Can Matt Forte Be Underrated & Overrated?

Is it possible there could be this much disagreement on a player who has only one year under his belt?

Matt Forte was a second round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft, 44 overall pick.

In his rookie season he carried the ball 316 for 1,238 yard averaging 3.91 yards a carry while catching the ball 63 times for 477 yards while getting into the endzone 8 times on and group and four times through the air.

These numbers having people in Chicago dreaming of the next Walter Payton or Gale Sayers. Picking him as the second pick in fantasy football drafts behind Peterson. And now pairing Forte with a quarterback like Cutler, fans are drooling over what his numbers may look like during his sophmore season.

This is how players become overated. They get so talked up by the local fan base that expections are set that may be well above their ceiling.

I worry that this may already be happening to Forte. Remember Anthony Thomas, the A-Train, who won rookie of year back in 2001. He put up very similar numbers to Forte his rookie season, playing in 14 games while starting 10 he carried the ball 278 times for 1,183 yards averaging 4.3 yards a carry while knocking in 7 TD's while catching 22 balls for 178 yards averaging 8.1 yards per catch. Anthomy Thomas failed to reach 4,000 rushing yards during his 7 year career.

Forte plays the postion with the shortest lifespan. Look at Gale Sayers, what injuries did to him and how they shortened his career.

But that is in Chicago. Nationally Forte might actually be getting over looked.

Due to what turned out to be a great draft class Forte didn't receive a lot of national attention. With the quarterbacks, Ryan & Flaco, leading their teams to the playoffs and the other running backs putting up huge numbers such as Slaton and Chris Johnson. And let's not forget the other running backs who were drafted who went in the first round that didn't put up big stats due to injury like the Razorback duo of Jones & McFadden. McFadden and Jones should both rebound this season now being fully recovered from injury and expect to again steal some of the spotlight while Johnson and Slaton will probably both go into the season as starters this year instead of the timeshares they entered their rookies season with.

Due to all these great players who came out of the 2008 draft class and with the Bears getting Cutler, Forte again will probably be the overlooked guy.

It will be a very interesting season for Matt Forte this year. He may prove to be the underrated like some feel or he may prove to be a one year wonder who will cost the Bears as well as a lot of fantasy football owners their seasons.