Are there really more injuries than other years or is it just more of the same. I feel I hear this comment made every preseason. I just think there are a lot of injuries every year in the entire NFL, not just the Bears.
I'd be interested to see if there are any stats that show the rate of injuries now compared to 20 years ago.
Tough year everywhere it would seem Zif. We only last or #3 QB. Minny lost Bridgewater for the year with an ACL tear and dislocated knee. Not a good thing either for a mobile QB.
The NFL is getting to be a war of attrition.
I really think they need to increase the roster size and allow everyone to dress on GameDay.
We think alike Mike. John Harbaugh just came out with some comments of a similar nature. There are a lot of different theories about it some that make sense to me and others that don't but I believe it would help keep key players healthier throughout the season by being able to keep them off STeam and keep them fresher during the course of the game.
My theory is that many injuries happen when a player hasn't fully recovered from a ding he may have gotten earlier in the game or he's simply winded and needs to rotate out for a series or two. Keeping a few extra players on certain units would help with that plus you could afford to keep a 3rd QB on the roster if you chose to.
If the NFL expects to win it's battle to go to 18 regular season games they practically have to allow expanded rosters or the NFLPA will never agree to it. Harbaugh seems to feel team would need a roster of 60 with 53-55 active for games and fewer decisions to make about inactives.
Larger rosters would mean looking at that minimum salary number. I would like to see a minor league type of thing first, but college has its own agenda and NFL won't play nice with competing leagues.
Larger rosters would mean looking at that minimum salary number. I would like to see a minor league type of thing first, but college has its own agenda and NFL won't play nice with competing leagues.
Some kind of an NFL sponsored "farm club" type league might be an option too tragic but they tried that with NFL Europe and it failed. I think in order for it to be truly useful it would almost need to play it's schedule simultaneously or nearly so with the NFL schedule like MLB does so it's players are in football shape if they're "called up" to their NFL team. A spring league probably won't do much good other than as a developmental thing as long as rosters are capped at 53.
If the NFL runs a separate league schedule in conjunction with their own then it will compete with NCAA Football and that will not make them happy campers. Since the NFL depends on cooperation from the NCAA I can't see them doing that any time soon if ever. A developmental league may be better than none at all but I don't know if that really solves the roster issues teams face from September to January. To at least a certain extent injuries seem to be making a 53 man roster unmanageable over a 16 game season and nearly impossible over 18 games.
An expanded roster mean more expense but the majority of those additions would probably be players on rookie or vet minimum salaries anyway mostly playing STeams and backing the established starters. It would also give teams a more full compliment of players to practice with during the week and make it easier to deal with minor injuries or "owies" as Foxy like to call them. It would be easier to "spot" a guy whose hurting a bit for a few key series per game rather than expecting him to pull a full game out of his hat and risk further injury.
It's just an idea but maybe one whose time has come.
The NFL will never take on that liability. I think it's tough enough to keep the wolves at bay with concussion litigation already; they are not going to take on a farm system. I could see them agreeing to an expanded roster, but not until the new CBA as the cap would have to be adjusted as well.
Are there really more injuries than other years or is it just more of the same. I feel I hear this comment made every preseason. I just think there are a lot of injuries every year in the entire NFL, not just the Bears.
I'd be interested to see if there are any stats that show the rate of injuries now compared to 20 years ago.
I feel the same way Hawk. It seems like every year every fan of ever tem complains about losing so many people to injury. I may try to google this to see if there actually is any data on injury frequency.
If we could just get Canada to conform its football rules to the NFL we could use that as the developmental league.
Lol, I think the NFL should adapt a few CFL rules to make the game a bit quicker. It really is a fast game with 3 downs. It happens so often that both teams score 21 points in the last few minutes of the game
