EBF your are a relentless pimp.
That's one way to look at it. Really, I just have opinions. Sometimes those opinions don't align with what other people believe. If you've been intrigued by Michael since before the draft, I don't see why you should suddenly be downgrading him. This is one of the things that I find very interesting about his recent drop in the consensus dynasty rankings. I'd ask this question: What has changed from this time last season to warrant a downgrade?
I would argue that not much has really changed. He still hasn't beaten out Lynch, but that was never going to happen. You could argue that he's still behind Turbin, but he was "behind" him in his rookie year and last preseason too. He's a year older, but that alone probably doesn't warrant a massive drop in the rankings. Not when he still has a significant portion of his prime remaining. So why exactly did people suddenly decide to downgrade him? He actually got
more playing time and had a
higher YPC last season than in his rookie year.
If you are someone who has been a pretty stable believer in his skills, it looks strange and unwarranted to see this sudden drop. It basically looks as though people lost patience, got bored, and arbitrarily decided to move him down. Certainly there was no widespread expectation last year that he was going to beat out Lynch and carve out a big role in the offense, so I don't know what people were hoping to see from him that he didn't provide.
I'd also point out that, despite the particulars of the depth chart, Seattle has made a point to get him snaps with Russell Wilson under center in each of the past two preseasons. This doesn't jive with the idea that they've given up on him, but instead suggests that they have some active interest in developing a chemistry between the two so that Michael is ready to step in with the first team offense if needed.
If he eventually gets an opportunity to start (whether in Seattle or elsewhere) and performs pretty well then hindsight will suggest that I wasn't a stubborn fool in denial, but rather that I made a pretty decent initial assessment on him and stuck with it when others were abandoning ship for dubious reasons. On that note, after seeing that shocking RB50 ranking on DLF I went out and offered random future 2nds for Michael in two of my leagues. Both owners (who tend to do well and are also FF writers on the side) turned me down, so I know I'm not on an island here. A lot of other people are just sitting back and patiently waiting for his chance, thinking that he has a good chance to seize it when the moment arrives.