How much of our injury bug is due to a lousy training/medical staff? (1 Viewer)

[Mr. Sparkle]

This may seem a little Non-Saints to start, but bear with me...

SI.com has a story about how former Pels Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon are thriving in Houston now that they are healthy. Gordon, in particular, credits the work of Houston's training staff.

Health At Center of Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson Resurgence | SI.com

He stops short of calling out the Pels medical staff, but, the implication is pretty obvious.

If you've followed the Pels at all, you know that they've had just about as many injuries as the Saints secondary over the last few years. They are NEVER healthy. A Pels blogger went in depth on this phenomenon last spring:

http://www.thebirdwrites.com/2016/4...-injuries-grade-davis-holiday-evans-pondexter


One of the issues the Pels have faced (according to the article) is the lack of big time spending on a modern training staff.

The first thing that should jump off the page is the lack of top tier executives on the New Orleans Pelicans payroll. Since Jon Ishop departed for the Detroit Pistons, New Orleans has not filled his vacant position of Director of Sports Medicine. In his stead, Dell Demps stated, "an organization decision was made to bring Brooks over from the Saints." Prior to joining the Pelicans before the 2014-15 season, Brooks was an assistant trainer for the New Orleans Saints.

It goes on to quote Brooks as being a self-described "old school" trainer, who eschews a lot of the current technology, etc, in favor of having " a good set of hands."

Now, if you look at the two teams staff rosters, they do not seem to share any trainer or medical staffs in common (other than Brooks who has worked for both teams) but its the same ownership and presumably the same upper management that's allocating resources.

I recognize this can veer into tinfoil hat territory, but, at some point, the enormous amounts of injuries spread across both teams over multiple years has to be considered more than just bad luck.

 

[jayd265]

my current physical therapist knows some of the PT's for saints/pelicans and said the medical facilities are severely lacking. he told us that back in 2014 when i started seeing him. so i've always wondered that in the last few years with all the injuries. some you cant prevent. but i'd imagine some could be by better equipment/rehab/training.

 

[insidejob]

Some time in the middle of the season I researched the number of players out with injury and on PUP/IR for nearly every team in the league for that given weekend. This was some time around week 10 and we weren't really any more injured than the rest of the league.

What hurt us so bad was that most of our injuries were on the defense, where we have had no depth and were expecting big contributions from our injured starters, and that our DB's in particular were sooooo injured that it was a bit uncanny.

But when it came to the number of players out, we were slightly above average. I was pretty much going to start the same thread but then found out we weren't as bad off as I thought.

Atlanta must have a horse shoe shoved up their collective ***** or something to have stayed as healthy as they have all season long.

 

[Meachemdat]

I would definitely look at our conditioning, but some of the injuries have nothing to do with the medical staff. Now one thing you can point to is recovery time. Players recovering from injury seem to nag on forever here.

There is also the concerning thing that was mentioned above that since Demps has taken over the pelicans both franchises have been riddled with injuries.

 

[SoggyBottomBoy]

Benson has never been a tight owner. He's dolled out big money for coaches and players for years. Like Sparkles said, I don't know if this is the reason for our rash of injuries, but if there is a correlation, money would be wisely spent upgrading the training staff.

 

[albionmoonlight]

If I owned a team, I would spend huge on every area not constrained by salary cap--mainly coaches and training staff.

You have a product worth a literal billion dollars. And you have the chance to brag over 31 other billionaires by beating their toys with your toy. How would you not spend the few million necessary to max out those areas?

 

[St.Dan]

Benson has never been a tight owner. He's dolled out big money for coaches and players for years. Like Sparkles said, I don't know if this is the reason for our rash of injuries, but if there is a correlation, money would be wisely spent upgrading the training staff.

I'd stop short of saying he's "never been" a tight owner. The OPPOSITE was true for the first 15 or so years he owned the Saints because he had a multitude of other business interests on his plate, including owning several banks in Texas in La. And the taxpayers footed the bill for the training facility on Airline, lest we forget.

 

[Brennan77]

I have this theory about the defense and injuries. I think injuries are more likely to occur when guys are not in a scheme that consistently has them in proper position and in a position in which the player expected to be. If you're constantly recovering to make a play at an unexpected, suboptimal angle, I think it can contribute to a compromised ability to play safely.

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[Swimmer]

It all a result of Rob Ryan

 

[Eman5805]

So what, we're not stretching enough? Pushing our players too hard? Blame our staff but what specifically are we not doing? Besides, Houston is Medical Mecca. Their medical center is the size of other cities.

 

[dutar76]

ACL's, MCL's, and Ankles have been discussed with artificial turf. Concussions, shoulders, backs, and broke fibula's or other bones can't be prevented by training staff. Hamstrings, Pecs, Quads, etc... those could possibly be helped by trainers. Not real sure.

One thing that "could" be a problem is recovery time allowed. When you have as many injuries as we've had, especially to certain positions, there may be a little more push to get back on the field sooner than later. Breaux might not have been ready, for example.

And if you're playing at less than 100% in the NFL, you are in a bad situation as far as staying healthy.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

So what, we're not stretching enough? Pushing our players too hard? Blame our staff but what specifically are we not doing? Besides, Houston is Medical Mecca. Their medical center is the size of other cities.

read through some of the linked articles (and this one: NBA: New Orleans Pelicans' season of injury, that is sub-linked in one of the stories, where a recent hire from the Spurs is forced to walk back his comments about the Pels not yet having a modern approach)

There is a whole science built around injury prevention, conditioning and recovery. The Pels and perhaps the Saints seem to still subscribe to the "rub some dirt on it" philosophy.

You have to wonder if under another staff Ellerbee would've had a 2 week quad injury instead of 12 week quad injury.

 

[dvdman]

Wait you mean we didn't fire them too?!?!?!??!?!?

 

[Swimmer]

ACL's, MCL's, and Ankles have been discussed with artificial turf. Concussions, shoulders, backs, and broke fibula's or other bones can't be prevented by training staff. Hamstrings, Pecs, Quads, etc... those could possibly be helped by trainers. Not real sure.

One thing that "could" be a problem is recovery time allowed. When you have as many injuries as we've had, especially to certain positions, there may be a little more push to get back on the field sooner than later. Breaux might not have been ready, for example.

And if you're playing at less than 100% in the NFL, you are in a bad situation as far as staying healthy.

Good stuff. One thing I have learned through NFL trainers is that broken bones and back/neck injuries can be reduced through proper strength building which acts like a shield for some injuries. If I repeat this well (?), it's a training system that works with Muscles in right places in right proportion, flexibility in core soft tissues (tendons, ligaments...) and proper care of steroid usage, when a player uses it.

For those using steroids, apparently there's a science. The Steroid is used at certain changing levels for a defined period of time. The the player comes off the steroids and the trainers then use a short (like a month or less?) regime of HGH and HCG. Supposedly, the HGH and HCG are what provides protection from steroid related injuries as much as possible.

I wish SammyKnight would read this and comment. He seems to know a lot about this subject.

 

[austxsaintfan]

Somebody must have it in for the Saints/Pelicans medical staff.

I didn't read the article but looking at Gordon and Anderson's statistics this year, i'd hardly call them breakout seasons.

Anderson is averaging exactly the same as his career and Gordon is averaging .7 more points per game but taking more shots.

Don't believe the hype!