Sports

[gardenman]

Training camp is just brutal to quarterback's arms. Plays get run every thirty seconds or so, for about three hours, five days a week, so that's about 360 plays per day. Play calling these days is about 60% pass and 40% run, so that's about 216 passes a day. If you've got four QB's you're looking at fifty plus passes a day, not including their warm up tosses. You really need QB's with rubber arms to survive training camp. They pretty much all get a dead arm as camp goes on. Anything you can do to spare a quarterback is good. Investing in a robot to make throws might be a very good investment. 

[Spurt]

Finally----

After a decade focused on improve brain health, the NFL has begun to focus on lower-body injuries.

“We’re taking a very, I think, comprehensive approach to understanding foot, ankle, or knee injuries and the contributing aspects of that,” Miller said. “I think, we are looking at the performance of certain cleats; their traction; how easily they release from different turf surfaces; how much different turf surfaces contribute to potential injuries; how we train our athletes, the load they go through on a daily basis or through a training camp and whether that correlates with particular sprains or strains.”

[teganslaw]

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@Spurt wrote:

Finally----

After a decade focused on improve brain health, the NFL has begun to focus on lower-body injuries.

“We’re taking a very, I think, comprehensive approach to understanding foot, ankle, or knee injuries and the contributing aspects of that,” Miller said. “I think, we are looking at the performance of certain cleats; their traction; how easily they release from different turf surfaces; how much different turf surfaces contribute to potential injuries; how we train our athletes, the load they go through on a daily basis or through a training camp and whether that correlates with particular sprains or strains.”

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It's about time the NFL checked this out. Injuries have been going on for too long.

SPURT, I saw that Washington plans on starting Ereck Flowers at left guard. Good luck with that move. Maybe it will work out, after all. One can only hope.

I've been watching "Hard Knocks Training Camp with the Cleveland Browns" on demand. It's interesting seeing the interactions between coaches and players. I'm a big fan of Baker Mayfield. He is the type of player this team needed.

[gardenman]

@Spurt 

I think what they'll end up finding is that a lot of guys are making their muscles stronger than their ligaments and tendons. A lot of the ACL's and Achilles injuries we're seeing these days are just guys running and they pop. I think the emphasis on weight and strength-training may need to be de-emphasized for most players, especially lower body training. If you strengthen your calves so you can dead lift 400 pounds, but your Achilles will tear at 390 pounds, you're going to have a problem. At some point that super strong calf muscle will ask for more than the Achilles can deliver. Upper body strength is more important in football, but even that can be taken to extreme. We're seeing more torn pecs, biceps and triceps these days. Those aren't turf or cleat related.

I don't think football players need to be competing for Mr. Olympia medals as much as they need a certain amount of functional strength. The team that figures out the right amount of functional strength and trains their guys to that level, but not above, will likely dominate football for some time.

In high school football the ACL injuries tend to come from contact. Someone hits you on the side of the knee and the ACL pops. High school players tend not to be overly muscled. In the pros, we're seeing far more injuries happening with no contact.

Determining the tear strength of the various ligaments and tendons and then training players to keep their strength under that limit could help to prevent a whole lot of lower body injuries. You want your players fit and strong, but can they be too fit and strong? I think they can and many are. If your calf isn't strong enough to tear your Achilles, you're not going to tear your Achilles. If your quads or hamstrings aren't strong enough to tear apart your ACL, it won't just pop while you're running down the field. 

Good luck to the training staff that tries to convince players not to train as hard, or lift as much, but I suspect that will be the ultimate answer. Find the balance betwen required strength and the tearing point of the various tendons and ligaments. Ligaments and tendons tend to get weaker over time, so that strength level may need to be adjusted downwards over the length of a player's career.

[gardenman]

I suspect there's more to the Ereck Flowers story with the Giants than we know. He's a big kid (6'-6" and 330+ lbs.) who's athletic and was the ninth overall pick in the draft not too long ago. But he played horribly with the Giants. Was it the coaching? Was it some personal issue that he was dealing with? DId he just not like his teammates?

He's a guy worth taking a look at and hoping you can extract his potential, but it's hard to bet on a kid like that. Being a first round pick in NYC isn't easy though. The press is quick to label you a bust. Did he start believing the press? He's getting another shot now. It'll be interesting to see how he does. He could dominate. Or he could just end up getting cut towards the end of training camp. You just never know. Generally speaking, teams don't just give up on a guy who was the ninth overall pick in the draft, but the Giants did. We'll have to see how he does in DC. So far, he's been playing without pads in the OTA's and minicamps and has looked good enough to be slotted into a starting spot. Can he hold onto it once the pads go on?

[Spurt]

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@teganslaw wrote:

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@Spurt wrote:

Finally----

After a decade focused on improve brain health, the NFL has begun to focus on lower-body injuries.

“We’re taking a very, I think, comprehensive approach to understanding foot, ankle, or knee injuries and the contributing aspects of that,” Miller said. “I think, we are looking at the performance of certain cleats; their traction; how easily they release from different turf surfaces; how much different turf surfaces contribute to potential injuries; how we train our athletes, the load they go through on a daily basis or through a training camp and whether that correlates with particular sprains or strains.”

---

It's about time the NFL checked this out. Injuries have been going on for too long.

SPURT, I saw that Washington plans on starting Ereck Flowers at left guard. Good luck with that move. Maybe it will work out, after all. One can only hope.

I've been watching "Hard Knocks Training Camp with the Cleveland Browns" on demand. It's interesting seeing the interactions between coaches and players. I'm a big fan of Baker Mayfield. He is the type of player this team needed.

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@teganslaw 

Gruden said he was playing him at guard but there's a chance he might not even make the 53 man roster....we'll see...

[gardenman]

There was an interesting Tweet yesterday from an NFL reporter that the Redskins have the most expensive offense in the entire NFL. He went on to point out that their top three wide receivers combined have fewer receiving yards than seventy-seven individual wide receivers over the past three seasons. Alex Smith's contract accounts for a lot of that money, but even with that, there really aren't a lot of "name" guys on the roster who you'd think would be paid all that much. Haskins and Guice are on rookie deals so they're cheap. I think Josh Doctson is still on his rookie deal. Adrian Peterson signed pretty cheap, under $2 million if I recall right. Trent Williams and Scherff are kind of pricey as is Jordan Reed, but it's still a bit surprising. When you think of the most expensive offense in the NFL, I wouldn't think of the Redskins. I'd have them middle of the pack or farther back. 

[gardenman]

Defensive end Connor Barwin was in Philly recently and at the Linc. It could be the Eagles are giving him a look to see if he has anything left in the tank. He was pretty productive while here earlier and could compete for a depth spot on the roster. He could also be under consideration as an "in case of emergency" type guy who could be called to come in should injuries pile up at defensive end. With Brandon Graham and Derek Barnett locked in as starters and Vinny Curry, Josh Sweat, Joe Ostman, Shareef Miller and Daeshon Hall, there's no real "need" for him right now. Those top six look pretty locked in if the Eagles keep six DE's. If they only go with five guys, Ostman and Hall will be in a bit of a scramble. Barwin didn't shine with the Giants last year getting just one sack, but he averaged around seven a year in his four years with the Eagles. We'll have to see what happens there, but they're in contact anyway.

[gardenman]

Just some odds and ends from around the league. Alex Smith has another four to six weeks with the external fixation on his leg then he'll finally be free. Then comes the long task of rebuilding the muscle strength in the leg. suffice to say you won't see him playing this year. With the Redskins drafting Haskins, he's likely done as a Redskin.

The Bears head coach Matt Nagy has gone kicker mad. He keeps showing the team the double doink from the playoffs and keeps having kicker comeptitions where kickers inevitably fail. Uh, Matt? Cody Parkey wasn't the problem. It was the line in front of him that let an Eagle defender get a hand on the ball and deflect it. He seems to have forgotten that and is focused exclusively on the kickers. He should have kept Cody Parkey, expressed confidence in the kid and tried to build him up. Instead he's gone through about five (i think) kickers so far this offseason.

Robert Quinn the d-lineman the Cowboys picked up from the Dolphins thinks he's in a perfect situation. He may be right, but I suspect there's a reason the Dolphins moved on from him after just one year and for just a sixth round pick.

Jake Butt, the Broncos tight end, is one of those guys you just have to root for. He was a top tight end coming out of college then tore his ACL. He won the starting job last year, then tore his ACL again. (He also tore it in high school.) Tearing an ACL once is tough. Doing it three times is really, really tough. He's trying to come back and play again however, so good luck to him. He was great when healthy in college and expected to be a very high draft pick.

A local reporter asked the Eagles players who impressed them the most in the recently completed OTA's and minicamp and the result was two to one in favor of Dallas Goedert. He's had a very, very good spring. Goedert and Zach Ertz on the field together could be a very powerful weapon for the Eagles. Covering one big, fast tight end is a challenge for most defenses. Covering two? Not many teams have had to even try to do it. It should be interesting to see how that works out.

[Spurt]

@gardenman 

That's shocking that the Redskins would have the most expensive offense....

Heres info from Over The Cap:

https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/washington-redskins/

And do you agree with this that the Cowboys have the best D line in the NFL...thats what I heard one analyst say