Injuries of any kind are bad for the NFL. They weaken rosters and consequently the quality of the product on the field.
The number of injuries to key players this season is alarming. The number of severe injuries is even more alarming. And it makes you wonder why they seem to be happening so much more regularly.
Most NFL players take some downtime following a season to rest, convalesce, travel and spend some time with their families. Then they begin to train, many with certified professionals who can accelerate targeted gains so that these athletes can achieve their innate physical potential.
There are no jobs to interfere with the training regimen.
The training alone becomes the job.
Teams host their own voluntary offseason conditioning programs. Many receive workout bonuses if they choose to participate. Then there are OTA’s to get players into the flow of football, followed by mandatory mini-camp, training camp and the preseason.
You would think that with all of the physiological knowledge acquired by teams and the methods practiced by teams to promote player safety (courtesy of the new CBA) that somehow, someway there would be fewer injuries.
But that’s hardly the case and it begs the question, “Are players overprotected prior to the start of the regular season?”
We regularly hear of practice speed, preseason speed and seasonal speed as all being different. The intensity and velocity increase as September approaches. Veterans often coast through the process. Their job is to get into football shape without risking injury.
But how exactly is that achieved?
Does coddling an accomplished vet, playing him very little during preseason games 1 and 2 and not at all in game 4, help or hurt him when warp speed arrives on opening day?
Remember “Camp Creampuff”?
Former Ravens head coach Brian Billick used to be criticized for what was deemed to be a relatively easy training camp. Yet I can tell you that after observing today’s version of training camp for the past few years, Billick’s practices were far more intense that those of John Harbaugh.
It’s not as if Harbaugh wants it this way. He has no choice, nor do any of the other 31 head coaches who must toe the cream puff line established by the NFLPA.
So with all of the attention placed by players on their bodies, the easing into the season and the special attention given to player safety, why does it feel like injured reserve is as populated as the upper reserve at M&T Bank Stadium?
Maybe, just maybe that all of the precautions are counterproductive and there needs to be a better ramp up strategy to the moment the league flips the switch on opening day and says, “Go get ‘em boys!”
Take a look at the product on the field this opening week. Anything impress you much? My eyeball test suggests the games were sloppier, more poorly officiated and at the end of the day less exciting.
Remember when all of that great rock and roll from the 70’s gave way to so much garbage in the 80’s. Is the new CBA the NFL’s answer to the synthesizer in music? Maybe it was intended to make things better, even easier, but in the end was the product as good?
Clearly the Ravens won’t be as good with the loss of Terrell Suggs. It’s interesting how some think that this Achilles injury won’t affect the Ravens but how do you expect them to be as good when a probable double-digit sack guy is now removed from the depth chart?
And speaking of depth, why is it that teams have to pay 53 guys but they can’t dress 53 guys on Sunday? Whose idea was that? Think about it!
You own a business and you have 53 employees and on the most important workday of the week, seven of them are told they can hang out and not do anything PLUS get their full pay check.
This practice of the NFL doesn’t reward teams who have developed the best 53-man rosters. It doesn’t reward their ability to scout, teach and manage the salary cap. In fact it penalizes them.
When Suggs went down on Sunday, maybe it would have been nice to see Za’Darius Smith on the field. Or maybe given Denver’s altitude, defensive coordinator Dean Pees may have wanted more rotation options to help spell the defenders who were asked to sprint after Peyton Manning time and time again.
Might the Suggs injury have been prevented if he had taken fewer snaps?
Of course we’ll never know.
What we do know is that not dressing all 53 players on a team’s roster makes no sense whatsoever. In a league that claims to be interested in player safety, wouldn’t’ it stand to reason that the more players available to a head coach on Sunday the safer players will be?
What good are the idle seven “workers”?
If all 53 were active you would have to think that somewhere along the way it could help preserve players through the season and a more preserved player is less likely to suffer an injury that may be rooted in fatigue. One look at the Suggs replay (2:30 mark) and it’s easy to draw the conclusion that he was lumbering, isn’t it?
At the end of the day, fans just want the best possible product on the field.
But with injuries mounting, the sloppy early season play and the 224 NFL employees standing on sidelines across the league doing nothing each Sunday, is the league as concerned as the fans?
There has to be a better way and it’s incumbent upon the league to do something about it.
Or will those NFL’s ivory tower suits once again marinate in their own arrogance while protected by the Teflon shield provided by fan devotion?
Unfortunately we already know the answer.
