Is our Bills Medical Staff Failing the team?

[SoFFacet]

Injuries are mostly random.

[CanadianFan]

Players that put themselve in non necessary physical harm also dont contribute to their ability to stay productive on the field. I.e not making the otas. Training camp, minicamp, missing practices, playing basketball, going 100 miles an hour at practice when its a walk through. I really doubt all the injuries are related to the medical personnel or strength and conditioning folks.

 

it's staff, facilities and equipment, and team culture. Culture part meaning its the importance the team's coaching staff gives to these guys' programs. So this is the cultural part of it. If the coach does not give respect to the medical staff or training/strength and conditional staff programs, then players are not likely going to heed it, and their effectiveness is reduced.

 

So start with top experts in their field. Support them with adequate staff, facilities and equipment to deal with 53+ players year round, and follow through with recognition by the coaching staff that these guys are part of your team and they can give you that on-field performance edge WITHOUT using illegal drugs.

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

 

it's staff, facilities and equipment, and team culture. Culture part meaning its the importance the team's coaching staff gives to these guys' programs. So this is the cultural part of it. If the coach does not give respect to the medical staff or training/strength and conditional staff programs, then players are not likely going to heed it, and their effectiveness is reduced.

 

So start with top experts in their field. Support them with adequate staff, facilities and equipment to deal with 53+ players year round, and follow through with recognition by the coaching staff that these guys are part of your team and they can give you that on-field performance edge WITHOUT using illegal drugs.

 

...don't see how you can meld Medical and S/C staffs together.....they are mutually exclusive units...S/C is preventative maintenance to have a program to minimize injuries...Medical is POST INJURY as in rehab/advice as to course of action to return player(s) to pre-injury health....biggest knock through the years on various MB's has been the decline since the Rusty Jones era.......sure the S/C staff hands out off season regimen/dietary sheets to every player in this now 24/7/365 sport, BUT how do you legislate it?.....didn't Dareus need THREE additional weeks to get in game shape after suspension?....how would you punish him?.....at the same time, look at the ACL injuries, now worse than the common cold...can the body actually sustain 24/7/365 workouts?.....faulting staffs seems all too convenient..........

Edited May 5, 2017 by OldTimeAFLGuy

[CanadianFan]

 

...don't see how you can meld Medical and S/C staffs together.....they are mutually exclusive units...S/C is preventative maintenance to have a program to minimize injuries...Medical is POST INJURY as in rehab/advice as to course of action to return player(s) to pre-injury health....biggest knock through the years on various MB's has been the decline since the Rusty Jones era.......sure the S/C staff hands out off season regimen/dietary sheets to every player in this now 24/7/365 sport, BUT how do you legislate it?.....didn't Dareus need THREE additional weeks to get in game shape after suspension?....how would you punish him?.....at the same time, look at the ACL injuries, now worse than the common cold...can the body actually sustain 24/7/365 workouts?.....faulting staffs seems all too convenient..........

 

This separation of functions might be at the root of this. Do go back and read my original post. All three needs to be working together to prevent injuries. The next level is enhance performance. It's all inter-connected. Starts with med staff evaluating players physically. Identifying potential problems. Strength and conditioning takes over designs programs to counter those potential problems. Someone else does analysis of each players' mechanics and identify issues in their motion that can cause injuries. Team work. Cohesive, comprehensive approach to enhancing performance.

 

First step is identify and remedy the causes of the injuries. Bills are in the bottom of the league in injuries for last 8 years. That is a problem that has to be recognized, and steps must be taken to remedy that.

 

Second step is looking at steps to build a better team in this aspect so that all phases are working together towards enhancing onfield performance of these athletes in LEGAL and HEALTHY way.

 

It's all part of building a WINNING CULTURE. A WINNING ORGANIZATION.

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

 

This separation of functions might be at the root of this. Do go back and read my original post. All three needs to be working together to prevent injuries. The next level is enhance performance. It's all inter-connected. Starts with med staff evaluating players physically. Identifying potential problems. Strength and conditioning takes over designs programs to counter those potential problems. Someone else does analysis of each players' mechanics and identify issues in their motion that can cause injuries. Team work. Cohesive, comprehensive approach to enhancing performance.

 

First step is identify and remedy the causes of the injuries. Bills are in the bottom of the league in injuries for last 8 years. That is a problem that has to be recognized, and steps must be taken to remedy that.

 

Second step is looking at steps to build a better team in this aspect so that all phases are working together towards enhancing onfield performance of these athletes in LEGAL and HEALTHY way.

 

It's all part of building a WINNING CULTURE. A WINNING ORGANIZATION.

 

...cannot agree more nor am I arguing with anything you have posted....the systemic problem is being a 24/7/365 year round sport and trying to legislate what player(s) do outside of the season......kind of like your boss handing you a list of "do's and don't's" when you leave for your two week vacation......allegedly YOUR time right?......throw in the "guaranteed money " to further cloud the issue......

[billsfan_34]

The organization is failing the team- its systemic

[Alphadawg7]

Im glad you posted this. I started a thread on this very thing during this past season. Most just flamed the concept because there is a distinct lack of knowledge to the casual fan about just how important and impactful the parts of the medical staff and training staff are. In fact, a player will spend a lot more time with his conditioning coach and trainers than he will with any of his actual on field coaches (Positional, OC/DC, or HC). And how you train is incredibly impactful to durability, ligament strength, flexibility, etc that all factor into both recovery and injury prevention.

 

But, the medical/training staff here has not only had relatively poor results in regards to injury prevention, but recovery times and when players sit or come back has been grossly mismanaged here. Not to mention, things like the diagnosis our staff gave on Shaq's shoulder coming out of the draft was grossly incorrect. Now, personally I draft Shaq there even if I know he needs the surgery given its a short term, non career impacting type procedure, but still had they correctly recognized the severity like MANY other teams did, then maybe he gets the procedure done sooner and comes back earlier in the season. And given our defensive struggles, having him back sooner would have been a better plan.

 

Either way, its just a long list of mistakes. From how they handled McCoy's hamstring in 2015, how they handled Sammy and Robert Woods injuries, etc its just been too many mistakes. And that is just a few of the recent items.

 

If I am not mistaken though, didnt we make sweeping changes at least in the strength and conditioning department?

Edited May 6, 2017 by Alphadawg7

[Elite Poster]

 

Baltimore has one of the most injured teams the last 8 years. So YES that is the definition of FAILURE of the whole medical/training/conditioning teams not working well together or not being adequate.

 

But they do have a franchise QB and very good coaching which has made up for players lost to injuries. If you read the post you'd understand this better.

 

Thing is we are not one of the top teams in the league in any aspect except injuries. We need to use EVERY SINGLE EDGE we can find to be competitive. This is one of them.

We were one of the healthiest teams in 2015-16 season. A total of 11 starts missed due to injury. The Ravens were healthy as well. The 2016-17 season, they were not. You basically just inserted your own reality on to what actually happened to respond. The stats don't back up what you're​ are saying.

 

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"ravens injured for 8 years" - well I found a gap in this theory last year. As for "medical staff failing team" - we were one of the healthiest teams last year.

 

The answer 98% of threads are trying to seek here: NO franchise QB on this roster.

Edited May 6, 2017 by Elite Poster

[Mrbojanglezs]

I bet playing in cold weather increases chance of injury

[Clyde Smith]

This is asked every year. It's football people to hurt. It's up to coaching to teach players how to protect themselves.

Only to a certain degree, can't protect yourself with players like Landry gunning for your neck. Or a leg roll up with your back turned while you're trying to block.

[Thrivefourfive]

It's the coaching. Players will respond to intentional, honest, smart, and calculated ruthless coaching. The medical and strength & conditioning guys either take the lead of the coaching staff, or they are replaced by those who will.

 

Then, let the PEDs flow like The Falls. The Bills have had none of these things since 1993.

[CanadianFan]

Im glad you posted this. I started a thread on this very thing during this past season. Most just flamed the concept because there is a distinct lack of knowledge to the casual fan about just how important and impactful the parts of the medical staff and training staff are. In fact, a player will spend a lot more time with his conditioning coach and trainers than he will with any of his actual on field coaches (Positional, OC/DC, or HC). And how you train is incredibly impactful to durability, ligament strength, flexibility, etc that all factor into both recovery and injury prevention.

 

But, the medical/training staff here has not only had relatively poor results in regards to injury prevention, but recovery times and when players sit or come back has been grossly mismanaged here. Not to mention, things like the diagnosis our staff gave on Shaq's shoulder coming out of the draft was grossly incorrect. Now, personally I draft Shaq there even if I know he needs the surgery given its a short term, non career impacting type procedure, but still had they correctly recognized the severity like MANY other teams did, then maybe he gets the procedure done sooner and comes back earlier in the season. And given our defensive struggles, having him back sooner would have been a better plan.

 

Either way, its just a long list of mistakes. From how they handled McCoy's hamstring in 2015, how they handled Sammy and Robert Woods injuries, etc its just been too many mistakes. And that is just a few of the recent items.

 

If I am not mistaken though, didnt we make sweeping changes at least in the strength and conditioning department?

 

I'm glad you brought that up, and I was hoping someone would. Now the other sticking point for me are all the injuries with Watkins. If some analysis was done I wonder if they could have identified issues/weaknesses in his ligaments, muscles, bones in light of the demands of the position and prescribed a strength and conditioning program to address those issues before they become a problem.

 

I think that misdiagnosis of Shaq's shoulder is a symptom of a problem within the organization. Blaming does not improve things. I am not saying doctors missed it. They might have spotted it, but were they over-ruled by Whaley and co? And this is what I meant by the cultural aspect of the organization. If we employ the best docs and trainers in the industry, their input needs to be respected and heard. Their professional recommendations need to be taken up. You need to see this aspect as one of those that can provide the team with that competitive edge. If you view this facet as being as important as the practices and coaching X and Os, this is potentially a game changer.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

This off season as I began to reflect on the past seasons and the coming season, I began to wonder about this aspect of the Bills organization. I found a few interesting findings but could not fit them well into a single post on here so I made a short blog page for that purpose. A few key excerpts -

 

Bills were 5th worst in NFL when it comes to injuries. And we're in the bottom third of the league over the past 8 years. That is the definition of failure.

 

This is not an excuse for past performance but a call to Bills organization to be pro-active in improving this facet of the team's support structure.

 

https://acanadianfan.wordpress.com/2017/05/04/first-blog-post/

 

I've wondered about this myself.

 

A key concern (to me) is drafting and signing some players who have had known medical issues (which can be strategic) and counting on them to contribute (which isn't). Chris Williams on OL would be one example. Shaq Lawson would be another. Is it the medical staff failing to catch and document problems? Is it the interpretation the FO placed on the medical report? Doctors tend to write in guarded language and hedge their bets.

 

I've also wondered if there's something systematic in the Bills facilities that causes problems. Personally I think artificial turf is very hard on the body, but is the Bills practice and TC facility an extra level of awful?

[rant_and_go]

Players on winning teams don't get injured as much. When the score's 35-0 at halftime, the QB is not going to scramble and throw to the star WR going to go over the middle. Defenses rush more and play more zone.

Also players are going to play through more when having a chance for the Super Bowl. Lots of players leave the Cowboys, Steelers and Green Bay and are nothing. Compare that to Gilmore and Watkins this year, or back in '02 when Reuben Brown skipped the last game.

Edited May 8, 2017 by r.harvey

[Jasovon]

Injuries are mostly random.

So we're just consistently unlucky?

 

Injuries are not Random, if you draft injury prone players and can't condition existing players to stay healthy then you get more injuries.