At what point was Ryan Grant taken in your fantasy draft last year? How about Derek Anderson? Or Earnest Graham? Or Wes Welker?

Weird things happen in the NFL. Players come out of nowhere to have big seasons. Teams go from doormats to divison winners. It's mid-August, and the delicious aroma of possibility is in the air.

This is the time of year when fantasy owners should open their minds to unique possibilities. That's not to say you should take Chargers WR Buster Davis in the fourth round of your draft based on the mere possibilty that he'll suddenly blossom into a good pro receiver. But is it possible that Chargers WR Vincent Jackson is a perennial sleeper who'll remain asleep, and that Davis could benefit from Jackson's continued non-development?

Here are three possibilities that seem like longshots now but could conceivably happen. I'm not saying they will happen, but there's reason to believe they could happen.

1. Jon Kitna continues to be a good fantasy quarterback

Conventional wisdom holds that Kitna's numbers will plummet now that he's no longer running Mike Martz's wide-open offense, and that Kitna is a mere placeholder for Drew Stanton, Dan Orlovsky or whichever quarterback the Lions might draft in 2009. But consider the possibility that Kitna could actually be better off without Martz.

In 2003, Kitna started 16 games for the Bengals while Carson Palmer was serving a rookie apprenticeship on the sideline and threw for 3,591 yards. Yes, Kitna is coming off consecutive 4,000-yard seasons and won't reach that yardage total in 2008, but a 3,500-yard season is doable. And in 2003, Kitna threw a career-high 26 TD passes, compared with 18 TDs last year. Kitna was playing in a fairly conventional (read: non-Martz) offense with the Bengals, so why should we assume that he won't be effective in a more conventional Lions offense? And since Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson could form one of the best WR tandems in the league (certainly a clear notch above the Chad Johnson-Peter Warrick tandem that Cincinnati featured in '03), maybe, just maybe, the Detroit wideouts help Kitna post a new career high in TD passes.

As for the notion that the Lions are looking ahead to life after Kitna, who's to say the Lions can't contend for -- or dare I say win -- the NFC North title this year? The Vikings are the darlings of preseason prognosticators, but they couldn't pass or stop the pass last season, and Jared Allen alone won't turn a bad pass defense into a good one. The Packers must adjust to life after Brett Favre. The Bears' offense is in shambles. If the Lions are fighting for the division title, they obviously aren't going to bench Kitna for Stanton or Orlovsky.

 2. Jeremy Shockey outperforms Antonio Gates

Gates has rung up at least 900 receiving yards and nine TD catches in each of the last four years, but he's recovering slowly from toe surgery. He says he'll be ready to play in the season-opener, but a slight decline in production this season is a distinct possibility.

In 2005, Shockey's best statistical season, he had 891 receiving yards and a career-high seven TD catches for the Giants. The Giants totaled 3,578 passing yards that year, so Shockey accounted for almost 25 percent of the team's receiving yardage (and better than a quarter of the team's 24 receiving TDs). The Saints passed for 4,314 yards last season and a league-high 4,503 yards the season before that. Let's say they come down between those two numbers this year and finish with 4,400 passing yards. If Shockey can claim just 20 percent of that yardage, he'll finish with 880 yards. The Saints have averaged 27.5 passing TDs over the last couple of years, and it isn't a stretch to think that in a more prolific passing attack, Shockey could set a new career high in TDs.

3. Willis McGahee loses his job to Ray Rice

McGahee reported to training camp out of shape and had arthroscopic knee surgery On Aug. 11. The Ravens say he'll be ready for the season-opener, but we probably shouldn't expect to see McGahee have 25-carry games in the first couple of weeks. Rice, a rookie from Rutgers drafted in the second round, will help pick up the slack, and his early-season performance might be an audition for a larger role.

McGahee has a reputation as being an aloof, enigmatic, possibly selfish guy. The Ravens were hardly pleased that McGahee made himself scarce while new offensive coordinator Cam Cameron was installing his system in team minicamps, and now the scoped knee has scubbed McGahee's preseason.

Rice, on the other hand, is known as a hardworking, self-motivated player. He's small, but he's also quick, physical and extremely durable. He carried the ball 380 times last year at Rutgers, averaging more than 29 carries a game and logging 30 or more carries in eight of Rutgers' 13 games. Rice reportedly had a terrific training camp with the Ravens, and scouting reports have compared him to Emmitt Smith and Maurice Jones-Drew.

Some people were surprised to see the Ravens draft a running back in the second round, but the move speaks volumes. Not only did the Ravens draft a running back, they drafted a running back who's a proven workhorse and who, unlike McGahee, has a reputation of being a consummate team player.

Hmmmm ...