There was at least some reason to be skeptical.
Was Jacory Croskey-Merritt for real? This seventh-round rookie whose hype seemed to come out of absolutely nowhere for the Washington Commanders? What if it was all a mirage?
Croskey-Merritt, who goes by Bill, answered a lot of the questions on Sunday in the Commanders' Week 1 win over the New York Giants.
The simple on-paper stats were great: 10 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown.
He had four carries of 10-plus yards in addition to the TD, and it's those five totes that caught the eye of ESPN's Bill Barnwell.
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Barnwell wrote Monday morning that those five plays (the touchdown and the four long runs) came on five different run concepts.
"(That) speaks to how diverse and difficult the Commanders' run game can be to stop," Barnwell wrote. "He was clearly comfortable working out of the pistol and shotgun run game, which wasn't always the case for Brian Robinson Jr., who was more efficient under center over his three years with Washington. Installed in Robinson's role as part of a timeshare with Austin Ekeler, Croskey-Merritt looked entirely comfortable and capable of immediately stepping in as an above-average back."
Turns out, the believers were right: JCM can play.
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He got a good sign 90 minutes before kickoff when Chris Rodriguez Jr. was a healthy scratch. That essentially signaled that Croskey-Merritt would get a chance to show what he could do, and he certainly showed it.
It'll be a quick turnaround. The Commanders play on Thursday night against the Green Bay Packers, who were impressive Week 1 winners over the Detroit Lions. It'll be a national stage for JCM to try and prove, again, that he's for real.