How do NFL Executives Plan for Injuries?

[Sonny Joe Hog]

In another thread desertfox59 and Oldfan touched on the matters of age and conditioning as they relate to injuries to NFL players. The points they made started me to thinking about how the propensity for injury affects the strategic decision making of NFL executives. Specifically, how predictable are injuries if a large sample of players is taken into consideration and how does that influence the long range planning of NFL executives and the composition of NFL teams? I thought that this topic might be worthy of its own thread. So I started one.

I think that even a casual observer of NFL football understands that, in general, younger players suffer fewer injuries and recover from them faster than older players. However, more experienced players are generally more skilled and savvier than younger players.

When we say that teams have a good balance of veterans and youth, are we saying that they have captured both the benefits of experience and the health of youth? Or is it simply a strategy for building and maintaining over time a core group of players?

But the propensity to accumulate injuries is not just greater or lesser based on age and wear. Some young players have suffered more injuries than other young players. How much of a factor is this in building a team?

For example, I thought that Adrian Petersen was the clearly the best player in last year's draft and there must have been some NFL executives who agreed with my assessment. Yet, he was drafted 7th overall - no doubt because of a serious injury he suffered in college. So what do you do in a case like that, anyway? Is this a case where the team executives are concerned about the long term value of their investment or are they willing to pass on star potential simply because they might be risking their jobs if he were to be injured again in the short term?

The entire issue of teams developing strategies of selecting players who may be less likely to be injured than some other players and then training the players they select in a way that helps them to avoid injuries seems to me to be a key factor in determining the success or failure of an NFL franchise. I wonder how much scientific study has been done on a macro level of the propensity for injury to football players based on age, body type, conditioning methods, previous injuries, etc. and if any of that research is being employed by NFL executives in building their teams?

I'd like to hear from any people on this board who have insight into this topic.

[abu69]

Health, and by association Depth, are HUGE factors in determining success. The bottom line is there is no way to prevent injuries, you can only do your best to get players in top shape, and draft well and make shrewd personnel decisions. Gotta have a contingency plan for every position.

[Dondrae474]

They were saying on Sports Talk 980 on yesterday that the Skins had brought in a special hamstring specialist to help the team deal with its rash of hamstring/groin injuries. Not sure what he is supposed to do but hopefully its successful.

[Sonny Joe Hog]

They were saying on Sports Talk 980 on yesterday that the Skins had brought in a special hamstring specialist to help the team deal with its rash of hamstring/groin injuries. Not sure what he is supposed to do but hopefully its successful.

I'm happy to see that they're trying to solve the problem.

[Redskins Anonymous]

Every year Bill Polian sacrifices a virgin to the god moloch to keep Peyton Manning healthy. And of course, Scott Peoli in New England has nothing to worry about as ESPN has reported that Tom Brady is perfect and cannot be injured due to the fact he is actually a secret government cyborg.

[D'KanSkinFan]

Every year Bill Polian sacrifices a virgin to the god moloch to keep Peyton Manning healthy. And of course, Scott Peoli in New England has nothing to worry about as ESPN has reported that Tom Brady is perfect and cannot be injured due to the fact he is actually a secret government cyborg.

:laugh: ; could this be true?!

[WigSkin]

They were saying on Sports Talk 980 on yesterday that the Skins had brought in a special hamstring specialist to help the team deal with its rash of hamstring/groin injuries. Not sure what he is supposed to do but hopefully its successful.

There is a famous story over here about a high-profile soccer star who was plagued early on in his career with hamstring problems so he had an abundance of medical tests etc in an attempt to find the underlying problem.

After much head scratching and analysis it turned out he was suffering the injury as a result of driving his top of the range sports car! So I say get the Skins players into sensible cars and save their careers!

As for groins... I'll leave that to an expert in the field... [Paging Dr Romo sits to pee, paging Dr Romo sits to pee ]

[TGI Jef]

There is a famous story over here about a high-profile soccer star who was plagued early on in his career with hamstring problems so he had an abundance of medical tests etc in an attempt to find the underlying problem.

After much head scratching and analysis it turned out he was suffering the injury as a result of driving his top of the range sports car! So I say get the Skins players into sensible cars and save their careers!

As for groins... I'll leave that to an expert in the field... [Paging Dr Romo sits to pee, paging Dr Romo sits to pee ]

gotta say it - brilliant post.

tgijef

[Taylor 36]

They were saying on Sports Talk 980 on yesterday that the Skins had brought in a special hamstring specialist to help the team deal with its rash of hamstring/groin injuries. Not sure what he is supposed to do but hopefully its successful.

I hope it works. It is crazy the amount of injuries we've been having with hammies and quads.

[PigSkins47]

They were saying on Sports Talk 980 on yesterday that the Skins had brought in a special hamstring specialist to help the team deal with its rash of hamstring/groin injuries. Not sure what he is supposed to do but hopefully its successful.

bout friggen time. and this is a much better idea than firing Bubba Tyer (another thread a couple days ago :doh: )

[Dondrae474]

How does one become an NFL exec. Is there a school for that?

[CallMeGreen]

They were saying on Sports Talk 980 on yesterday that the Skins had brought in a special hamstring specialist to help the team deal with its rash of hamstring/groin injuries. Not sure what he is supposed to do but hopefully its successful.

I heard part of this too. But it sounded more tongue-in-cheek than reality.

The trick is better stretching and exercising techniques.

.

[PigSkins47]

How does one become an NFL exec. Is there a school for that?

My guess would be either sports management or business management. Plus a LOT of connections...

[Redskins Anonymous]

My guess would be either sports management or business management. Plus a LOT of connections...

unless you're Bruce Allen which means you have to mow Gruden's yard, walk his dog, give him massages with happy endings, and worst of all, babysit his hyperactive devil-spawn children. Oh and live in the horse$hit city of Tampa.

[mdskins75]

In another thread desertfox59 and Oldfan touched on the matters of age and conditioning as they relate to injuries to NFL players. The points they made started me to thinking about how the propensity for injury affects the strategic decision making of NFL executives. Specifically, how predictable are injuries if a large sample of players is taken into consideration and how does that influence the long range planning of NFL executives and the composition of NFL teams? I thought that this topic might be worthy of its own thread. So I started one.

I think that even a casual observer of NFL football understands that, in general, younger players suffer fewer injuries and recover from them faster than older players. However, more experienced players are generally more skilled and savvier than younger players.

When we say that teams have a good balance of veterans and youth, are we saying that they have captured both the benefits of experience and the health of youth? Or is it simply a strategy for building and maintaining over time a core group of players?

But the propensity to accumulate injuries is not just greater or lesser based on age and wear. Some young players have suffered more injuries than other young players. How much of a factor is this in building a team?

For example, I thought that Adrian Petersen was the clearly the best player in last year's draft and there must have been some NFL executives who agreed with my assessment. Yet, he was drafted 7th overall - no doubt because of a serious injury he suffered in college. So what do you do in a case like that, anyway? Is this a case where the team executives are concerned about the long term value of their investment or are they willing to pass on star potential simply because they might be risking their jobs if he were to be injured again in the short term?

The entire issue of teams developing strategies of selecting players who may be less likely to be injured than some other players and then training the players they select in a way that helps them to avoid injuries seems to me to be a key factor in determining the success or failure of an NFL franchise. I wonder how much scientific study has been done on a macro level of the propensity for injury to football players based on age, body type, conditioning methods, previous injuries, etc. and if any of that research is being employed by NFL executives in building their teams?

I'd like to hear from any people on this board who have insight into this topic.

Like you mentioned in post. I think age and injury history has a lot to do with this. Younger players are usually more durable and less injury prone. So think age/injury history have to be given a lot of consideration. A 22 year old can take a lot more abuse to his body than somebody that is 33 or 34. That's why you don't want to stock up your team with a bunch of 30 year olds. They tend to wear down a lot easier as the season goes as opposed to a younger guy that has a better chance of surviving the physical grind of the nfl.

[Dondrae474]

Yeah B-mitch hit on the stretching aspect during the JT show. He advised that a lot of times players will skip stretching because they don't want to wait for the trainer to get to them. He advised that they go out and run around and start to feel good and skip the stretching aspect. The end result is more injuries.

Regarding becoming an NFL front office guy--> I have a law degree, I practice law, and I have almost completed my MBA. I just don't know where to start in terms of getting on with someones front office.

[Thoth]

There have been a number of reports over the years of trainers and players (college and pro) who adopt more rigorous stretching routines like yoga feel better and have much lower injury rates. This is fairly outside the box thinking. But remember like two or three years ago, in USA today or some big newspaper, there was an article about a few injury-prone players who did yoga and improved? I think this is something you implement in off-season, not mid-season.

Specifically, the OL: this one did not take a genius. Every starter on our OL is old. You can talk about lineman having greater career longevity, etc., but the truth is our line is old. We rolled the dice, and lost big-time. Having three injuries, two basically season enders, is unlucky, but. . .we rolled the dice, period. I can't think of another good team in football that doesn't have at least one promising young first-three-round OL starting.

Teams like Eagles, Pats, etc, make drafting lines priority. Logan Mankins. Shawn Andrews. Vince Wilfork. All 1st round picks.

I think it really gets back to just building your talent level up to the point where you don't have 5 glaring needs going into every draft. You're able to look ahead. Player X is a FA in 1 or 2 years, let's draft a potential replacement. Then you have confidence that, once in awhile there will be injuries, ala Colts left tackle, or departures, but you have guys who have been there learning and can step in. I think the Skins' tendency has been to mortgage the future for stop-gap replacements that they overpay in picks and salary for rather than trusting youth. They have also tended to go with aging players rather than young--I think this was Gibbs still thinking like non-salary cap coach too much.

I think this CONSISTENTLY drafting good is the key to the teams that have been consistently good like Seahawks, Pats, Colts, etc. because of supplemental draft picks. These teams often have 8-10 picks per year. . .they could never resign all their good players, but they carefully calculate extra picks--ala Chargers back-up RB. But this is predicated on confidence in your ability to find mid and late round gems at a fairly consistent rate. This is directly related to having so many more lower round picks.

Take this year, deep year for OL and DL in draft. If you aren't rushing to fill holes, you have the ability to draft best-player available NO MATTER WHAT. Bet you

I think this is the first year the team gives you optimism in this regard. This may seem counterintuitive, but hear me out:

We have started giving promising players a chance and scuttling older ones.

We have found some late round gems, Blades, Monty, Golston, etc. Previous few drafts late rounders sucked.

QB, most important position, is set.

Our roster is approaching being stocked. We draft well another year or two, we will be in the position of the better teams in that we can be looking ahead instead of scrambling each year.

Combine that with an owner who can almost always get the FAs he wants due to willingness to spend whatever it takes. . .

Keep in mind, that if we weren't behind in building talent, we would have already drafted 2-3 OL in rounds 2-4, and we would have a quality back-up guard/center waiting. Young ones on upside, rather than geezers. . .

It isn't luck, it isn't rocket science. . .we need younger players on OL, and better depth all around, and only a few teams have personnel, GM, and coaches that can scout and draft consistently well. . .

Moreover, good teams have a better ability to fill holes with great players looking for ring who sign for less (R. Moss) or who come back (Seau).

West coast, off to murder brain cells.

[Oldfan]

Good post, Thoth.

I think the coaches could cut down on injuries if they really set their minds to it. Here are just a couple of ideas to illustrate my point:

Don't keep your RB in to block. He's 210 pounds, trying to block guys weighing 280 coming at him with a running start. Peyton Manning has been quoted about his preference to use the RB as an outlet receiver. That strategy saves punishment on the RB and cuts down on sacks and hits on the QB.

A coach can teach safer blocking and tackling techniques. The way five-eleven Clinton Portis launches himself when blocking bigger players, we can expect him one day to come out of a collision five-four.

Cross-body blocks and tackles at waist level, rather than those below the waist, are safer for both players -- fewer knee injuries, fewer concussions and neck strains from knees to the head.

NFL linemen are commonly six- five, six-six, the bigger frame makes for a bigger man. I understand that, but I wonder whether shorter, squatier players wouldn't suffer fewer injuries especially on the O line. For example, Green Bay's Aaron Kampman got bull rush leverage on both Wade and Heyer in last Sunday's game, their muscle strains were predictable given the strain of trying to pass protect while being shoved backwards.