A Closer Look At Injuries...

[QuothDaRaven]

I know we are only 3 weeks into the season, but again we seem well on our way to another season filling the IR list. Last year we had 19 players on IR. The year before we had 20 on IR. It could just be a really horrible string of bad luck, but the physician in me wanted to take a closer look at what appears to be a worrisome trend.

So I looked at the Patriots. Last year they had just 7 players on IR. The really interesting thing about the Patriots is that three years ago their team had 20 players with hamstring injuries. 20! They hired a Harvard-trained physician and exercise scientist to look at their training program. The next year they had 3 hamstring injuries, and the year after they had 2.

The following is an excellent article and I highly recommend it. The Pats basically had a competitive advantage over the rest of the NFL.

https://www.si.com/edge/2016/08/18/h...gland-patriots

The Ravens are now in their third year of what seems to be a relatively high injury rate. They made a big deal out of signing Steve Saunders. I researched Saunders. He formed his own company, the Power Train Sports Institute. He's best known for his conditioning work with James Harrison (who is already a freak). The thing is, he seems to be much better known for his speed, strength, and conditioning programs than he is for injury prevention. He's not a physician (not that you have to be or anything like that, just a note on medical training).

I honestly don't know what other steps the Ravens are pursuing to evaluate their injury prevention, but they need to go all out. Turf analysis, equipment analysis, and I think they need to bring in a team of physicians and scientists to get really deep into the data and the programs and break things down to their basic components on a team basis and individual player basis.

The article up there makes mention of a resistance among NFL coaches to implementing injury prevention programs because they don't want to take any precious time away from the limited time they have with their players already because of the CBA. I'd like to get Harbaugh's take on it.

It could just be our bad luck, or a curse, or statistical variation. Whatever it is, I'm sick of it, and it needs to be priority number one so we can finally evaluate this team without the constant injury excuse.


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[houstonravensfan]

Outstanding post. No secret to the Patriots' success: they're smart. They think outside the box. They avoid "Not Invented Here Syndrome."
Bellichik plays chess; most other NFL coaches play checkers. Harbs? Tiddly-winks.

[WNCRavensFan]

Breakdown of Ravens IR injuries

Brandon Boykin - undisclosed
Bam Bradley - ACL
Maurice Canady - knee
Kenneth Dixon - meniscus
Crockett Gillmore - MCL/meniscus
Brandon Kublanow - undisclosed
Alex Lewis - shoulder
Albert McClellan - ACL
Stephane Nembot - undisclosed
Dennis Pitta - hip
Sheldon Price - concussion
Nico Siragusa - ACL/MCL/PCL
Brent Urban - lisfranc
Tim White - thumb
Danny Woodhead - hamstring
Marshall Yanda - ankle
Tavon Young - ACL
------------
TOTALS

7 Knee
1 Hand
1 Ankle
1 Foot
1 Hip
1 Hamstring
1 Shoulder
1 Concussion
3 Undisclosed

Nearly half the list are knee injuries. If anyone has info on the three undisclosed ones, I'll edit the list.

[QuothDaRaven]

Breakdown of Ravens IR injuries

Brandon Boykin - undisclosed
Bam Bradley - ACL
Maurice Canady - knee
Kenneth Dixon - meniscus
Crockett Gillmore - MCL/meniscus
Brandon Kublanow - undisclosed
Alex Lewis - shoulder
Albert McClellan - ACL
Stephane Nembot - undisclosed
Dennis Pitta - hip
Sheldon Price - concussion
Nico Siragusa - ACL/MCL/PCL
Brent Urban - lisfranc
Tim White - thumb
Danny Woodhead - hamstring
Marshall Yanda - ankle
Tavon Young - ACL
------------
TOTALS

7 Knee
1 Hand
1 Ankle
1 Foot
1 Hip
1 Hamstring
1 Shoulder
1 Concussion
3 Undisclosed

Nearly half the list are knee injuries. If anyone has info on the three undisclosed ones, I'll edit the list.

This is excellent information. Thank you.


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[Terpsfan82]

Outstanding post. No secret to the Patriots' success: they're smart. They think outside the box. They avoid "Not Invented Here Syndrome."
Bellichik plays chess; most other NFL coaches play checkers. Harbs? Tiddly-winks.

Not to seem like I'm banging on Harbaugh, but the fact that Belichek hired someone after one year and we're now in year three, tells you everything you need to know about the difference between the two. In the corporate world, two times is a trend. Why are the Ravens (seemingly) so slow to react?

[Terpsfan82]

Breakdown of Ravens IR injuries

Brandon Boykin - undisclosed
Bam Bradley - ACL
Maurice Canady - knee
Kenneth Dixon - meniscus
Crockett Gillmore - MCL/meniscus
Brandon Kublanow - undisclosed
Alex Lewis - shoulder
Albert McClellan - ACL
Stephane Nembot - undisclosed
Dennis Pitta - hip
Sheldon Price - concussion
Nico Siragusa - ACL/MCL/PCL
Brent Urban - lisfranc
Tim White - thumb
Danny Woodhead - hamstring
Marshall Yanda - ankle
Tavon Young - ACL
------------
TOTALS

7 Knee
1 Hand
1 Ankle
1 Foot
1 Hip
1 Hamstring
1 Shoulder
1 Concussion
3 Undisclosed

Nearly half the list are knee injuries. If anyone has info on the three undisclosed ones, I'll edit the list.

7 knee injuries. Something is going on with the way we do things.

[Ravenswintitle]

Reading TB12's book, he constantly talks about being pliable and pliability. Yoga, pilates, stretching, foam rollers, etc.
He absolutely believes that it helps you avoid soft tissue injuries.

"I think that's what we've been educated on. Well, I may argue something differently. I've seen really strong, physically-fit guys that, you know, would be the definition of health, that are the ones that are injured the most.
"If I can keep my muscles pliable, I can hopefully, you know, limit the intensity or limit the injury altogether, if I do absorb some of these forces."

[sawraven1]

Very nice article. Just another slap in the face basically stating how almost 20 years ago the Patriots took the initiative to keep their players healthier and in better shape.

On the radio this morning they were talking about how we lead the league by a large margin of players in IR going straight for few years now.
I know this off season they fired their conditioning coaches but the change obviously hasn't helped.

Us fans who spend our hard earned money should be hearing from the Owner on how he plans on hiring a team to investigate what the hell is going wrong up at 1 winning drive. This is not acceptable. This roster was already weak enough. But heading into week 4 and we have damn near 20 players on IR is absolutely inexcusable and there has to be a reason behind it. Whether is too much training, not enough what ever it is there are too many bodies for it to be a sheer coincidence and we have led the league for 3 straight years

[HbgPARavenfan]

Reading TB12's book, he constantly talks about being pliable and pliability. Yoga, pilates, stretching, foam rollers, etc.
He absolutely believes that it helps you avoid soft tissue injuries.

"I think that's what we've been educated on. Well, I may argue something differently. I've seen really strong, physically-fit guys that, you know, would be the definition of health, that are the ones that are injured the most.
"If I can keep my muscles pliable, I can hopefully, you know, limit the intensity or limit the injury altogether, if I do absorb some of these forces."

Tommy Dreamer: "I always tell these muscled, jacked up guys: always remember, muscles tear and rip but fat absorbs and that's why Tommy Dreamer is still here and I've never had a surgery in a 25 year career."

[JAB1985]

knee injuries are pretty fluky as it is. most of those are ligaments. If this were more like the Pats issues with hamstrings, id say thats correctable as its muscle related. How do you protect from an ACL which is usually caused by trauma, which the game provides plenty with falling bodies, or a situation where the knee simply cant handle the physics of cutting and snaps. thats not really preventable, imo.

im not sure how much prevention really would help with some of these, if it were clear cut, id love to do whatever we could to prevent it, but i think the FO is looking at it similarly. They did replace the turf they installed with real grass hoping some of these things got corrected so theyre not against making changes and are clearly looking into it.

[Ravenswintitle]

Tommy Dreamer: "I always tell these muscled, jacked up guys: always remember, muscles tear and rip but fat absorbs and that's why Tommy Dreamer is still here and I've never had a surgery in a 25 year career."

yup something like that. There's no doubt that stretching makes a huge difference, heard it from my coaches from junior high on.

[GOTA]

Great topic QDR. Something has to change and replacing the strength and conditioning coach didn't fix the problems. This organization needs to examine and evaluate how they prevent injuries and start from scratch.