Shea Patterson is active. We finally know this to be true after the NCAA did the right thing and made him eligible for the 2018 season.

It is a great development and now it assures everyone that Michigan is not going to be able to ask “what if?” in a scenario where they perhaps did not have the season they wanted this year and he was not eligible. He is. He is going to play, or at least compete.

This has fired up the Michigan fanbase on social media, who have craved something to be excited for all offseason long. Optimism has not been all that high, but Patterson being unleashed has “no excuses” cries and expectations of running the table back in the rotation of things that Wolverine fans are screaming from the mountaintops.

Heck, there are already 2019 mock drafts out there saying Patterson could be a first round pick, or potentially even the No. 1 overall pick next year.

Stop it. Do not do this to yourselves.

A quiet offseason, which has been in large part what this program has had since the Outback Bowl defeat, has actually been what the doctor ordered. It seems like it has been a productive few months in Ann Arbor behind the scenes and everyone is looking itself in the mirror. Changes to the staff, a new strength program and the new quarterback are all reasons to be optimistic, but still provide zero reason to be chauvinistic.

Do not make the same mistakes that we have seen before in hyping a single player up.

Remember when Derrick Green was going to save the running game?

Remember when Brady Hoke found his quarterback recruit and Shane Morris was the face of the future?

Remember when Jabrill Peppers was supposed to win the Heisman and be the next Charles Woodson?

Remember when Brandon Peters was the next Andrew Luck?

Please, do not do this to Patterson.

The mock draft projections and season expectations are based on what happens if things go 100 percent idea and are based on potential. Sure, he has the potential to be special and so does this team, but there are so many other variables up in the air.

Michigan fans have this way about them of setting the bar so damn high that it is nearly impossible for someone to ever reach, and for what?

We can sit here all we want and say that Michigan should compete for national titles, but they have won it once since 1948.

How about get to Indianapolis first, or heck, even win a Big Ten Championship, which has not happened in going on 15 seasons.

What Patterson does for this program is raise the floor of what the potential of this quarterback group is. With him, Peters, Dylan McCaffrey and Joe Milton, it is not a stretch to comfortably say that in a scenario where their third quarterback gets thrown into action like 2017, the results should be a lot better.

Patterson is still very raw. He has not performed well in big games, and this schedule has a hell of a lot of them. The arm talent is there, the playmakers should be there and one would assume the coaching is there, even if people are still skeptical of Jim Harbaugh. For cripe’s sake, though, let it play out.

If Patterson gets beaten out for the job, it does not mean he sucked. It means someone like Peters took it back from him. It is amazing how quickly people gave up on him after a bad showing in the bowl game. That entire performance was a dumpster fire.

We do not have a whole lot of answers to the many questions about the 2018 team and without much of a spring to really look at, nobody is going to know what the hell this team is until they take the field against Notre Dame and probably even weeks after that. You will see the message board practice reports, the random anonymous Twitter guys who claim to have sources and other nuggets of info.

Be wary. It is okay to admit you have no idea what is going to happen.

Remember this: Michigan’s defense is going to be as good as they have been, they just need the offense to do its part. Just being average or above average could be huge for them. There’s no reason to sit out here and project that they will throw for 4,000 yards and 40 touchdowns next season.

There is still a lot of work to be done, and anything could happen. Do not let Michigan’s down season in 2017 create unreal expectations.

Patterson is a good player deserving of some excitement, but do not paint him into a corner where he has to be flawless in order to be placed on your made-up pedestal. Michigan has to be better than it was in 2017, and they know that. Telling them they have to win every single game or else it is time to clean house does not really accomplish a whole lot.

Let the process play itself out and we will see what the results are afterwards.