On Players' Health: Luck vs. Skill

[Roy P]

Originally Posted by dadmg

Namely the concept is that some athletes are more prone to injury than others. If a player has a chronic problem staying healthy, its not just bad luck.

Discussing Cushing, Drew Boylhart believes that if Cushing played MLB that he'd be less likely to get injured.

He states, '{Cushing} will take the angle more when tackling a player and this will allow for a hard hit, but not such a jarring hit that hurts him. It might take Brian a little time to get comfortable at that position, but I also feel that he will eventually show his leadership skills better from that position. The key is to keep Brian healthy and on the field and if you keep him at OLB he will just meet the sweep or the off tackle, run head on and continue to get hurt. At MLB, he will be moving forward with an angle towards the player and tackle with movement."

I'm not sure if I buy into it, but there may be something to how he makes impact.

[cadams]

I am not sure what we can draw from this, but I thought Schaub was a completely different qb when he came back at the end of the year than I have ever seen him be before. He was taking hits and jumping back up and acting like nothing out of the ordinary had happened after his comeback. This is very different than any other time in his career with the texans. Before that when he would get hit hard (and sometimes not so hard) he would take a while to get up, or visibly grimice and show he was still feeling the hit. He took some big time shots at the end of the year and they didn't seem to even phase him. I am not sure if it was just me seeing things, or if something just changed with him after his injury at minn, but the guy hurt his knee, had it scoped (and frankly I wrote him off for the season at that point) and then came back within 4 weeks and played tougher than I have ever seen him play. Hopefully that will carry over to next season. Anyone else notice that, or was I just seeing things?

[Bigtinylittle]

Originally Posted by cadams

I am not sure what we can draw from this, but I thought Schaub was a completely different qb when he came back at the end of the year than I have ever seen him be before. He was taking hits and jumping back up and acting like nothing out of the ordinary had happened after his comeback. This is very different than any other time in his career with the texans. Before that when he would get hit hard (and sometimes not so hard) he would take a while to get up, or visibly grimice and show he was still feeling the hit. He took some big time shots at the end of the year and they didn't seem to even phase him. I am not sure if it was just me seeing things, or if something just changed with him after his injury at minn, but the guy hurt his knee, had it scoped (and frankly I wrote him off for the season at that point) and then came back within 4 weeks and played tougher than I have ever seen him play. Hopefully that will carry over to next season. Anyone else notice that, or was I just seeing things?

I think at the time Schaub went out, our pass protection was at it's worst. So maybe he was suffering the effects of multiple hits. Maybe when he came back he had healed somewhat. And by that time, the line was playing better so he wasn't taking so many vicious hits.

I still want us to do something to upgrade our pass protection, but I'm not exactly sure what we should do. Our defense is so poor it's kind of hard to justify a first day pick for the offense.

[kravix]

Originally Posted by cadams

Anyone else notice that, or was I just seeing things?

I actually noticed it to. I though there were a few hits after he came back that were going to put him out again, and he jumped up like he never had in the past and kept going.

I was wondering if maybe it wasnt a body hardening thing. The Marine Corps implemented a new for of hand to hand combat traninig just before I got out that was a mix of many martial arts styles. Part of the exercises were called "body hardening" we would strike each other in sensitive nerve areas over and over and over and over. After the first few sessions the pain became less and we were able to strik harder.

Now take Schaub. As a backup QB the ammount of physical abuse he was taking is minimal. After a few years riding the pine could his tolerance for the pain have lessened? Football players play through pain all the time because they are used to it. Take a person with the same physical size and general health of a NFL player that has never taken those hits and throw him into a even a practice scrimage and the likelyhood of them not feeling every little thing is pretty small. Hits, bruises, tweaks and such that a regular player shrugs off wouldnt be as easy for that person.

[dadmg]

Originally Posted by Roy P

Discussing Cushing, Drew Boylhart believes that if Cushing played MLB that he'd be less likely to get injured.

He states, '{Cushing} will take the angle more when tackling a player and this will allow for a hard hit, but not such a jarring hit that hurts him. It might take Brian a little time to get comfortable at that position, but I also feel that he will eventually show his leadership skills better from that position. The key is to keep Brian healthy and on the field and if you keep him at OLB he will just meet the sweep or the off tackle, run head on and continue to get hurt. At MLB, he will be moving forward with an angle towards the player and tackle with movement."

I'm not sure if I buy into it, but there may be something to how he makes impact.

That's a bit of an odd analysis from Boylhart - kinda goes against conventional wisdom. Based on purely anecdotal evidence, I've always believed that MLBs, especially slightly undersized ones or weakside backers that have been moved to the middle, have a tendency to have a hard time staying healthy. Dan Morgan's one that comes to mind (especially with the insane news today that he's unretiring), but then again Morgan's pretty much a poster boy for the "health is a skill" argument - is there any part of his body that he didn't sustain a substantial injury to during his career?