The Value of Camp

[Merlin]

There's been an ongoing (usually negative) debate about the value of camp cream puff.

Here is a contrarian view that training camp itself should be blown up. The proposal's not far from what Billick's doing today.

The question is whether Billick's treatment of the players creates a competitive advantage. Certainly there have been a number of players who have left the team who have been quoted that they didn't realize they had it so good.



http://www.nfl.com/news/story/9606804

Questions mount as to the value of camp

Pat Kirwan By Pat Kirwan
NFL.com Senior Analyst

(Aug. 17, 2006) -- As I traveled around to NFL camps, a couple of things have become more than discussion points. The truth is there are a couple of trends and issues that start to define the mindset of the 2006 season.
SUMMER CAMPS ARE CLOSE TO BEING DEAD AS WE KNOW THEM

I know NFL coaches want to believe they still have an 'old school' mentality when it comes to training camp. Some coaches like to bring their team to remote sites and build a team. Others prefer to stay right at their regular facilities and get the work done. No matter where teams elect to run training camps, they all want to practice twice a day as much as possible, get the veterans enough playing time in preseason games to 'get their timing down', and work on new concepts for the upcoming season.

It all sounds good, but the truth is: 1) solid veterans are rarely working through all the practices; 2) quarterbacks are on 'pitch counts'; 3) there is very little being installed from the playbook that wasn't introduced back in the spring during organized team activities (OTAs); and 4) the whole concept of preseason camp and games has lost some of its value. The only problem is, I haven't met an NFL coach who is ready to admit that his team doesn't go to camp anymore.

Off the record, coaches know things have changed for good and change is happening anyway. The athletes come to camp in shape, they are at the training facilities year round and with all the offseason player movements, offenses and defenses are more generic than they used to be. I asked a few players who have switched teams a number of times in their career and they say it takes a few days to translate what new coaches want into a playbook language they already understand. A few days! Not weeks or months. A defensive coordinator I respect very much said, "In order to get all of our best players on the field, I had to rethink how I install our package and I have staff members who can translate any defense into our language."

The summer heat has been a factor in player fatigue prior to the start of the season.
The summer heat has been a factor in player fatigue prior to the start of the season.
I'm at the point that I think the first head coach who stands up and says, 'We don't go to camp anymore', is going to have a competitive advantage when it comes to recruiting veterans in the offseason. As one general manager said to me the other day, "If major college programs can go to camp two weeks later than us, play no preseason games and put 18-year-old freshmen on the field, we could get our team ready with a month of one-a-day practices and the players living at home."

Imagine, Notre Dame, Miami, USC, Michigan and all the other powerhouse teams don't play preseason games, yet they play good football in early September. As one retired head coach said to me this week, "The preseason games waste more time than they are worth." By the time a club packs up all the gear to go to camp, then the two-day process of breaking camp, the flights and hotels just to run 10 plays in a preseason game and all the injuries that occur during the game, it's just not worth it. I don't think the powers that be in the NFL will get rid of preseason games in the near future and there will always be a majority of coaches who think they still love summer camp, but here are a few ideas that could change the way teams operate.

Before you read this list, do you remember when teams went out in full pads twice a day all summer long? The injuries the past few preseasons have left general managers scrambling for extra players and trading for players using more compensation than they ever would have if the preseason injuries were way down. Anyway, think about why this list wouldn't be good for your favorite team.

1. Rookies and all backups competing for a roster spot report to their team facilities on Aug 1. There should be about 65 players in attendance for two weeks of intense practice.
2. During this two-week session, resolve all the special team units and give them lots of extra work. Set the team depth chart for the second and third strings. Play the first two preseason games with this group of 65. Hopefully, other teams don't follow suit and your seconds get work against another team's first unit and your thirds get work against their seconds.
3. On Aug. 15, bring in the 22 starters to the facility and now shift practice to a majority of sessions in shorts. Not one starter is injured and it's already the middle of August. How many teams around the league can make that statement this week? The daily routine becomes all players report at 9 a.m. There's no need for 7 a.m. starting times. The schedule would include: lifting weights and treatments in the morning; lunch break; meetings in the afternoon; a dinner break; and a night practice from 7-9 p.m.. NFL players are already tough and three weeks of beating on them only make them tired and injured according to many players I spoke with.
4. For the third preseason game, play the second string for the first half and the third string for the second half, but the first offense and defense take all of the two-minute opportunities the game presents. If none presents itself, then plan on a series before halftime.
5. Continue the next practice week in a one-a-day mode and let all the players go home at night if they want to. Some guys don't have a place to go until they make the team.
6. For the last preseason game, let the starters work the first quarter of the game or not at all. Make sure roster spots 23 through 53 go to the right men and that the starters are all healthy for opening weekend.

When I asked one former player about the above proposal, he said to me, "If it was like that when I played, I would never miss a practice and never had to pace myself when the practices wore me out." Another present-day player said, "We already give the good players off at times, but no one wants to admit it. A third player said, "Most veterans shut it down with a strained hamstring when the practices get out of hand." This formula means players don't have to milk an injury.

The number of injuries to key players can be minimized if training camps are eliminated.
The number of injuries to key players can be minimized if training camps are eliminated.
I went to 10 NFL camps before I constructed this camp proposal and I couldn't find a player who thought the present practice routine makes any sense any more. Players are in great shape. They know what the playbook calls for from the spring sessions and they all worry about a LeCharles Bentley type of serious injury on the practice field.

Even a few coaches felt living in college dorms and being confined to a small town out in the middle of nowhere really didn't build the team unity it once did back in the day. Teams with good leaders like Hines Ward in Pittsburgh, Tom Brady in New England and Peyton Manning in Indianapolis, don't need to be on a camp schedule or sleeping in a college dorm to become a tight group for the upcoming season. What they need is the best available players to be healthy. One starting quarterback a week ago said, "All this camp time does is give coaches too much time to install stuff we never use."

I find myself winding down my camp tour starting to believe there's no reason to hide behind the notion of camp anymore. I wonder if 2007 is the first time we see an organization proclaim preseason camp has gone the way of the dinosaur and preseason games are for non-starters and we intend to have all of our starters available for the opening 'real' game. The starters might be a little rustier this way, but they would all be on the field.

[bassgtrst]

Good article. I love Kirwan's stuff.

[GreenWave52]

The problem is I think we saw this doesn't work last year. We looked pretty out of sync and disjointed our first couple of games and by the time we had it together we had already lost too much and the injuries had piled up anyway.

[StingerNLG]

The problem is I think we saw this doesn't work last year. We looked pretty out of sync and disjointed our first couple of games and by the time we had it together we had already lost too much and the injuries had piled up anyway.

It's an unforutnate double-edged sword. Putting our hatred for them aside, ask the Cleveland Browns how much they love training camp.