Offensive Line Injuries - Bad luck or poor conditioning or poor coaching?

[Toofy]

Our offensive line has been totally decimated this season.


1. Onwenu to start the season ( few games)
2. Riley reiff full season
3. Calvin Anderson almost full season
4. Wheatley full season
5.lowe - more than 7 games
6. Strange - close to 8 games out
7. Trent brown - 3- 5 games ( most durable )

So if we look at this as a team, this seems to be the entire team on IR and no team can really survive this onslaught.

Across league eagles, chiefs, bills all seem to be doing relatively better on offensive health. On a relative basis Trent brown seems to be much more healthy than majority of Olinemen. That means we really suck at continuity.

So is this pure bad luck or something to do with our evaluation of injuries to free agents as well as our rwhb and conditioning process which is not keeping our linemen pliable and ready to go.

The rookies seem to be be okay healthwise. Does this mean we have a different strategy towards building offensive line ? Do we hold the conditioning team repaonsible for team suffering so much injuries ? Could this be tied to poor Oline technique causing players taking wrong angles and tripping over one another in awkward angles.

 

[Sicilian]

I think it's a bit of both bad luck and poor coaching. Calvin Anderson was maybe never going to be a starting tackle, but would have made a much better swing tackle than McDermott or Lowe, and I can't imagine whatever is going on with him was something that would have shown up in medicals. That's just pure bad luck and hopefully he's okay long term.

I don't think conditioning is really the problem, but guys get hurt WAY more when they're unsure of what to do. Players say it all the time: You get hurt more when you're playing to not get hurt, because you're standing still and not taking charge of where your body is and how it's moving. There's fluky injuries sure, but well run units that are confident in their ability and assignments (and those of their fellow players) get hurt less because they're in control more.

Once things started to spiral, where a few injuries caused a cascade of OL moves, it just never allowed these players to take that control. So, more injuries piled up. Some bad luck, some bad coaching not stabilizing the situation, some bad player evaluation (Reiff signing, Lowe and Wheatley trades, etc).

The bad news in that is that it's not an EASY fix, as they need multiple pieces. The good news is that if the next regime (assuming there is one) can identify those pieces, and they get a little luck with early continuity, the OL situation CAN go from bad to good very quickly. Throw in hopefully a QB who can help his line out more, either through athleticism or better decision making, and there's a path to an OL that's a strength rather than something that needs to be gameplanned around. Lots to sort out between now and that though.

 

[Sciz]

Belichick was asked about injuries as a whole on Wednesday (not just the OL):

Yeah, it's almost all contact injuries. Those are hard to account for – concussions, knees, ankles, shoulders. It's been contact injuries. You've got a couple of sicknesses, flus here and there. Control what you can control. Train the players the best we can, get them in good condition. When you see a contact injury like Cole's injury, it would be a hard one to prevent.

 

[Toofy]

Belichick was asked about injuries as a whole on Wednesday (not just the OL):

Yeah, it's almost all contact injuries. Those are hard to account for – concussions, knees, ankles, shoulders. It's been contact injuries. You've got a couple of sicknesses, flus here and there. Control what you can control. Train the players the best we can, get them in good condition. When you see a contact injury like Cole's injury, it would be a hard one to prevent.

Why does our team alone have so much contact injuries . I feel there is some poor technique at play here which hints at poor coaching. Klemm absence telling a bit here.

 

[PatsFan2]

Why does our team alone have so much contact injuries . I feel there is some poor technique at play here which hints at poor coaching. Klemm absence telling a bit here.

Klemm wasn't a durable Player on the field seems to have rubbed off on his players. Reiff - Anderson and Lowe are not NFL players.

 

[slash83]

Yes.

 

[jmt57]

I think looking at only one team and only one season provides too little data. I would want to compare that to the 31 other teams. Then I would like to look at that same data over multiple seasons. All while keeping in mind that an injury in August equals 17 games lost, while the same injury in January equals one game lost. So looking at games lost due to an injury can be deceiving as well.

With Strange, he had an injury in training camp that would eventually require surgery, but he elected to play through it. How do you accuarately assess blame?

In regards to the coaching, I seem to recall a season (2012?) when the Patriots went through four or five different centers. In the 2010's guys like Dan Connolly and Ryan Wendell were constantly being moved due to injuries. Does that make Dante Scarnecchia a bad coach? Of course not.

Obviously all these injuries do raise questions that do not make Klemm look good. But I don't know that we can jump to the conclusion that the Klemm is to blame for the injuries.

 

[Sciz]

Why does our team alone have so much contact injuries . I feel there is some poor technique at play here which hints at poor coaching. Klemm absence telling a bit here.

I don’t think anybody has the answers there. Every time it seems like some team has solved injuries, it’s not long before it’s shown otherwise. For example, these two articles were two months apart:

The Los Angeles Rams Have a Secret Weapon: Keeping Players Healthy

The reigning Super Bowl champions have conquered the NFL with modern, data-based sports science practices that have kept injuries low inside a sport where they seem random and impossible to predict.

www.wsj.com

The Rams' list of injuries this season is almost unfathomably long

The Rams have dealt with more injuries than just about any team this season, with Cooper Kupp being the latest to go down

theramswire.usatoday.com

 

[Real fan 02]

Klemm wasn't a durable Player on the field seems to have rubbed off on his players. Reiff - Anderson and Lowe are not NFL players.

And not a reliable coach. As Pittsburgh reported he was seeking another job while still under contract. Coincidence he "stepped " away this season.

 

[Real fan 02]

Why does our team alone have so much contact injuries . I feel there is some poor technique at play here which hints at poor coaching. Klemm absence telling a bit here.

Or poor conditioning, stretching, ect. Football is a violent sport all together

 

[Triumph]

Players don't practice as much as they use to since the NFLPA lobbied for changes to the way training camps are structured.

In the Pats case, Reiff had issues staying on the field with the Bears last year too. The Pats are his 5th team and likely last team.

 

[archstanton543]

Why does our team alone have so much contact injuries . I feel there is some poor technique at play here which hints at poor coaching. Klemm absence telling a bit here.

There are more injuries across the league because guys are wearing fewer pads to keep up with the speed of the game. I mean, remember when LB's used to wear bulky neck rolls and huge shoulder pads? Look at what most of them are wearing now. It's not that sports science has gotten better and they just wear more lightweight pads. They're just wearing fewer pads which is leading to more injuries across the board.

I'm not pulling this out of my ass. Scott Pioli said as much on one of Curran's podcasts.

 

[SammyBlueCat]

There are more injuries across the league because guys are wearing fewer pads to keep up with the speed of the game. I mean, remember when LB's used to wear bulky neck rolls and huge shoulder pads? Look at what most of them are wearing now. It's not that sports science has gotten better and they just wear more lightweight pads. They're just wearing fewer pads which is leading to more injuries across the board.

I'm not pulling this out of my ass. Scott Pioli said as much on one of Curran's podcasts.

This true. Notice that very few collegiate players wear knee pads properly?

 

[SammyBlueCat]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/04/26/nfl-draft-training/

 

[Toofy]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/04/26/nfl-draft-training/

Paid article. Unable to view it..

 

[TheRainMaker]

There are more injuries across the league because guys are wearing fewer pads to keep up with the speed of the game. I mean, remember when LB's used to wear bulky neck rolls and huge shoulder pads? Look at what most of them are wearing now. It's not that sports science has gotten better and they just wear more lightweight pads. They're just wearing fewer pads which is leading to more injuries across the board.

I'm not pulling this out of my ass. Scott Pioli said as much on one of Curran's podcasts.

Those were the good old days where LB’s were the neck rolls and massive pads.

How about Curtis Martin’s elbow pads?

 

[Gumby]

17-game seasons. We are a couple years in on this now. Do that gives one possible +correlation between the vet injury a nd rookie health difference someone mentioned.

also I think it is synergistic. When you have the first couple injuries and then you know season is shot; do they stop playing so hard leading to similar results as the indecisive play someone mentioned. Or having to cover a depth instead of natural position makes you more likely to get hurt. IDK but think it all goes together

 

[Boomer B]

injuries happen. It was talked about endlessly how we needed to upgrade both talent and depth but we didn’t really address it as well as we needed to. Our line is shaky at best, and then injuries hit and it’s complete swiss cheese

 

[skinnydog]

Our offensive line has been totally decimated this season.


1. Onwenu to start the season ( few games)
2. Riley reiff full season
3. Calvin Anderson almost full season
4. Wheatley full season
5.lowe - more than 7 games
6. Strange - close to 8 games out
7. Trent brown - 3- 5 games ( most durable )

So if we look at this as a team, this seems to be the entire team on IR and no team can really survive this onslaught.

Across league eagles, chiefs, bills all seem to be doing relatively better on offensive health. On a relative basis Trent brown seems to be much more healthy than majority of Olinemen. That means we really suck at continuity.

So is this pure bad luck or something to do with our evaluation of injuries to free agents as well as our rwhb and conditioning process which is not keeping our linemen pliable and ready to go.

The rookies seem to be be okay healthwise. Does this mean we have a different strategy towards building offensive line ? Do we hold the conditioning team repaonsible for team suffering so much injuries ? Could this be tied to poor Oline technique causing players taking wrong angles and tripping over one another in awkward angles.

Some of these guys have injury histories and others are just not that good

 

[BTTA]

How would it be possible for poor training to play a role in this day and age? Don't all teams have multiple people paid to keep up on the science and medicine and ensure that it is integrated into the players' habits? Could the Patriots really not be doing that?

Bad years for injuries move from team to team around the league over time. It is like cancer clusters, which are mathematically required based on the laws of numbers.

But yeah, how a team does with injuries in a given year is a huge and under represented factor in winning in that year.