What about the (other) elephant in the room: Injuries (2 Viewers)

[Colstonbaby]

The injury bug!!

Does it not feel like the Saints have a sytemic problem in that regard ? Is it just the turf at home ? Poor conditioning? Poor technique?

Just to play "hypothetically", if the Saints had 50% less "lost time from the starters", they most likely would be in the Wild Card/NFC South champ race even now.

 

[Goatman Saint]

Ram-degenerative knee
Shaheed-meniscus damage from a hit on the knee
Adebo-brother femur
Hill-knee caught up in a tackle
Olave-series of concussions
Kamara- ribs and groin injury
Carr-multiple injuries due to hits, wrist fell wrong and broke
McCoy-elbow
MVS-chest
Turner-knee injury

Exactly which of these injuries has anything at all to do with turf?

Injuries happen, and some of these I’ve felt have some to do with either trying too hard and not staying in a good place, or not knowing when a play is done to think health. Form, self awareness all that goes away when you’re trying to do that little extra on every play. And unfortunately that’s a lot of times when injuries happen. There’s the mentality of get down or get out for self preservation. If you don’t, then things happen.

 

[Saint KayBee]

From what I’ve read in other threads, I’ve been led to conclude that injuries don’t matter, all that matters is next man up, and that every Saints player on the roster at a given position is supposed to have the exact same level of talent to the point of basically being indistinguishable from each other aside from number on the chest and face under the helmet. A player replacing a starter and not being as good as the starter is outside of the standards of greatness expected of the team and thus completely unacceptable. Talent is not innate and observable, it’s permeable from the training facility walls borne of the ghosts of retired Saints past (2006-2020 only) and all any player has to do to be great is to remember that a fan somewhere has standards.

 

[MarylandWHODAT]

I place a lot of that blame on Dennis Allen. Remember, he didn't have the team stretch before practices. Something the Rizzi brought in. Yes, overall, the injury curse has hit the Saints hard but I believe a lot of the hamstring issues were Allen's fault.

The list you presented is just freak injuries. Carr's could have been prevented. The others? Yeah, the Saints are snakebit this year......

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Why ‘other’ and why ‘elephant’
Injuries are the primary story of this season

 

[EvilMike]

The injuries have exposed the lack of depth for the Saints, and living year after year after year in salary cap hell doesn't make it any better.

 

[oysters]

The injuries have exposed the lack of depth for the Saints, and living year after year after year in salary cap hell doesn't make it any better.

I'm not saying our depth is great but no team is 5 receivers deep and 3-4 cornerbacks deep. But yes we could use more quality young players.

 

[2009ring]

Why ‘other’ and why ‘elephant’
Injuries are the primary story of this season

I said in another thread this team as constructed should win between 8-11 games if the major players don't get injured. We're literally hiring WR's off the street, reminds me of 2010 when we went into the playoffs with Julius Jones as our feature back, I think we signed him a week before the game??

 

[madsaint1967]

I said in another thread this team as constructed should win between 8-11 games if the major players don't get injured. We're literally hiring WR's off the street, reminds me of 2010 when we went into the playoffs with Julius Jones as our feature back, I think we signed him a week before the game??

Yep, he had to stop smoking!!

 

[Stalwart385]

Just rotten luck.

The real concerning part is its our young core that is injury riddled. The old vets soon to retire stay healthy.

 

[texasjefe]

Ram-degenerative knee
Shaheed-meniscus damage from a hit on the knee
Adebo-brother femur
Hill-knee caught up in a tackle
Olave-series of concussions
Kamara- ribs and groin injury
Carr-multiple injuries due to hits, wrist fell wrong and broke
McCoy-elbow
MVS-chest
Turner-knee injury

Ram is an older vet, but there was such a dropoff behind him. His career is over.

Shaheed carries too much of the load and his size is not ideal. There's a huge dropoff behind him. He also had a major injury coming out of college.

Adebo is a starter but there has been too much expectation for him, and he's been inconsistent. There was a huge dropoff

Depending on Hill and the higher and critical usage, very few vets are going to survive it. His career should be over. He had multiple major injuries in college.

Carr - No matter how well he plays to a number of you, he can't focus, finish, or win games. He's not a guy you build around. Loomis bet on a vet who had been benched by the sad sack Raiders. His lack of focus and discomfort reading his route progressions can certainly place him at a higher level of injury probability. He just does not make good decisions.

Turner had an injury history coming out of the non-power 5 team he played for, as did Davenport.

Point is - the drafting of players with injuries, the pressure of drafting starters off a paltry amount of picks, the restructuring of old guys, the usage of old guys because Loomis sold off cap flexibility which gives him no choice but to extend and restructure...

The draft, roster and cap mismanagement absolutely plays a huge role in the annual injury parade. It's called a trend, as are seasons where the Saints win between 5-9 games (beating no one good), are capped out for in my mind 3 more seasons, miss the playoffs, and basically have been out of it since Week 3 two seasons in a row.

The injuries are not a fluke, they are a symptom of Loomisball.

 

[Saint KayBee]

I said in another thread this team as constructed should win between 8-11 games if the major players don't get injured. We're literally hiring WR's off the street, reminds me of 2010 when we went into the playoffs with Julius Jones as our feature back, I think we signed him a week before the game??

Julius Jones joined the Saints in October of that season. Led the team in rushing in that Cowboys comeback game. They signed Deshawn Wynn and Joique Bell before the wild card game but neither player recorded a stat in the game.

The bigger issues were Pierre Thomas’ injury during the week 16 Falcons game, a win the Saints needed, and then Chris Ivory suffering an injury before the season finale’s result stopped mattering. That all set the stage for Reggie Bush, back from injury since Thanksgiving, to show that he could be RB1… but God, the universe, and everybody except Reggie Bush-only Saints fans knew he didn’t have that in him by this phase in his career. He had 10 touches for 49 yards and was done for the day after a 3rd-and-10 reception to get the first down with the team clinging to a thread of hope late in the 3rd quarter.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

The injury bug!!

Does it not feel like the Saints have a sytemic problem in that regard ? Is it just the turf at home ? Poor conditioning? Poor technique?

Just to play "hypothetically", if the Saints had 50% less "lost time from the starters", they most likely would be in the Wild Card/NFC South champ race even now.

It doesn't. It had more to do w/ the voodo of this years energy. Look no further than how the Pelicans suffered the same fate.

 

[fishing4food]

Looking at the injuries of what the Lions have endured this season and with their current record is pretty good. They're also in one of the toughest divisions in the NFL. Sure, the Saints had some injuries to key players but to be this bad at the end of the season is just making excuses. Our players are just not that good.

 

[St.Dan]

Julius Jones joined the Saints in October of that season. Led the team in rushing in that Cowboys comeback game. They signed Deshawn Wynn and Joique Bell before the wild card game but neither player recorded a stat in the game.

The bigger issues were Pierre Thomas’ injury during the week 16 Falcons game, a win the Saints needed, and then Chris Ivory suffering an injury before the season finale’s result stopped mattering. That all set the stage for Reggie Bush, back from injury since Thanksgiving, to show that he could be RB1… but God, the universe, and everybody except Reggie Bush-only Saints fans knew he didn’t have that in him by this phase in his career. He had 10 touches for 49 yards and was done for the day after a 3rd-and-10 reception to get the first down with the team clinging to a thread of hope late in the 3rd quarter.

Thomas' injury was actually a re-injury. He had been injured initially in the infamous home loss to the Falcons in week 3. It's how Ivory got to be the RB1 for most of 2010 in the first place. Still love me some Chris Ivory memories, but man, he always ran too hard and got himself injured in the process. But indeed, our lack of health at RB was the main reason we lost to a sub-.500 team in the first round.

Also true is that having a sure-fire Hall of Famer under center will sure mask any other depth-related deficiencies you might have. We don't have that luxury anymore.