FanPost

Timing of Injuries: Is there a silver lining?

Like the rest of us in Broncoland, I have been sitting here reading about one injury after another coming out of training camp, and reading mostly assinine comments left on facebook, yahoo, nfl.com, and elsewhere about the season being lost, the coach being a (insert any derrogatory adjective here) and the Broncos being finished before they start. 

 What I want to explore is the timing of these injuries and how they will NOT doom the Broncos this season.  If a team is going to get the injury bug, the offseason and the first week of camp is the IDEAL time for it to happen for several reasons that I will list after the jump. 

 

1. The amount of bodies you have in camp allows for fewer reps to those not starting or in a heavy rotation.  An injury early in camp allows coaches and players to change their approaches on who gets these reps, and allows for your injury replacement(s) to be far more game ready than they would be if the injury happened during the season.  


2. Any adjustments that may need to be made by the coaches can be implemented and practiced while still in a training environment (I.E. Implementing more 4-3 base defenses if you are thin at LB)

3. Camp provides you with the time and ability to taylor certain drills and matchups to determine which player(s) will fill the role of the injured the best and in what situations.

4.  Mentally, players in backup roles KNOW they are going to have their opportunity.  Having several players fight for that position is, to me, far better than inserting a backup into the starting lineup in a regular season game-week.

5. The ability to determine the severity and course of treatment for the injury. This allows you to use the PUP or IR list as best suits your teams needs.  If Dumervil, for example, is determined to need 4 months of rehab, then this allows you to put him on the PUP list for the first 6 weeks, I believe, before activating him or puttin him on IR if the rehab is not going as scheduled.

and finally 6. Time to heal. The players hurt early in camp have a FAR better chance of contributing THIS season than ones hurt during the year.

I, as the rest of us, hope that this is the end of this rash of injuries! I still believe this team is headed in the right direction and will pleasantly surprise all but us most aggressive kool-aid drinkers.

If you have any other opinions or points that I neglected to put in here, then post away!  I always love the discussions here at MHR!  GO BRONCOS!


This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.