We have had years in the NFL when many teams suffer from injuries. I can remember a few years where more than half of the teams had their first string quarterback on injured reserve at the same time. However, I cannot remember a time when we have had so many injuries in just the first two weeks of the season. While the 49ers are the most shocking example, it is interesting to note that there is only ONE team that does not have an injured starter -- the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bears Khalil Mack will be a gametime decision; if he plays, that makes the Bears the only other team to have their intact Week 1 starting roster playing in Week 3.
So what is the cause of all of this? The 49ers are blaming the new turf in Giants Stadium, and the number of ankle and knee injuries, usually due to cleats catching in the turf, suffered by BOTH the 49ers and the Jets in their game does seem to add merit to that claim, but that doesn't explain the other teams.
The type of injuries, however, DO help point to the problem. So many of the injuries are joint, muscle, or ligament injuries. When else do we see such a prevalence of similar injuries? Marathons or decathlons, especially when the participants have not sufficiently warmed up. The body is not used to the type of repetitive stress that lengthy physical activity places upon it, and the key areas that will stress first are joints and muscles, and the connective tissues.
So what makes this year so stressful? The lack of a sufficient offseason and preseason. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most teams did not have team practices, or even allow organized gathered workouts at their facilities. Players were left to devise their own physical conditioning programs to regain or maintain their status. There were no preseason games to gradually progress to playing four full quarters.
Let's look a typical year to really understand the impact. Many teams have spring training, usually for rookies or new transfers. It combines physical activities with playbook training, to work the newbies into the roster. Then, in the middle of summer, training camp begins. Most team training camps begin slowly, with calisthenics, running drills, tackling, and other separate activities, but little practice of actual game conditions. Gradually contact drills are added, and then practice scrimmages, and then full contact practices twice (or more) a day. Then, one month before the start of the season, you have the preseason games. Here players experience actual game conditions, but nobody plays the entire game. Veterans who are not competing for a position may start by playing just one drive, or perhaps a single quarter. Players competing for a roster spot will be rotated in and out to see how they react to different plays and configurations. Gradually, as the roster is trimmed and the coaches are forming the Week 1 starting roster, players will play longer and longer in each preseason game.
But notice how players are gradually escalated to full four-quarter full-contact conditions. This is done to let the body adjust to each level, and gradually building up resistance and conditioning. This year, the league did not have that. No spring training, an extremely short training camp, and no preseason games. As a result? Many of the players' bodies are not yet conditioned to playing a full football game, with all of the physical demands required. Thus, we are seeing a large number of these stress injuries.
Now, the advantage is that stress injuries take less time to heal, so that the players will miss fewer games than from a broken bone or ACL, but it certainly means that we will see much more roster juggling in the weeks to come. Will we reach a point in the season when the players' bodies will have adjusted to game play? Probably, but it may not occur for a few more weeks. Until then, welcome to the 2020 "normal".
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