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The John Brown hype train seems to be completely out of control. The third round rookie was the star of offseason workouts, he has been uncoverable in training camp and then, in the team's first preseason game, he looked like the best player on the field.
You would think that the team would want to slow the talk a bit, but even general manager Steve Keim can't help but keep driving the talk forward.
Grantland's John Mays tweeted a Keim quote about Brown that carries a bit of weight. He said, "I haven't seen a rookie come in and do what he's done - and it's early still - since Anquan Boldin."
Whoa.
Boldin's rookie year was special. He caught 101 passes for almost 1400 yards and eight touchdowns. And his debut made some noise. In his NFL debut, he caught 10 passes for 217 yards and two scores.
Brown will probably be hard pressed to reach those numbers, but at this point you can't rule it out.
Of course, he is still considered the fourth receiver on the team behind Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and Ted Ginn. But as we saw against Houston on Saturday, it doesn't look like defenses can cover him right now.
Is all this talk fair to a kid out of Pittsburg State?
With everything that has been said, what will be the expected production? Will 700 yards be enough? Will 500? Will fans be disappointed if he is the third most productive receiver on the team...which is what he very likely will be?
Or will he be that guy like Boldin to come in and make his mark on the league immediately?
That would make for an incredible story.
