What do you think causes all these pre-season injuries?

[BwareDWare94 723]

The sheer amount of injuries suffered by NFL players before the season even begins, whether that's in training camp or mandatory/voluntary workouts beforehand, is startling and unprecedented. You don't see this at other levels of football. Practice injuries happen, but with the rash of injuries we see every summer during the leadup to the NFL season, what is going on that causes these injuries?

 

In my opinion, it's all the drills that work the joints so heavily. Franchises work very hard on footwork and technique, and while that is valuable, I do wonder if they need to ease the pressure they're putting on players' joints during practice. You also have to factor in that it's hard to maintain so much surface and there are sure to be questionable areas.

 

Yeah, reps matter, but so does a guy's availability come September.

 

What are your thoughts?

[CampinWithaMissingPerson 2,025]

 

Why do these non-contact Achilles and ACL tears seem to happen more frequently? Certainly there is more media coverage making it seem more prevalent, but there is another reason. As players get bigger, faster and stronger, the size of the Achilles tendon (or ACL) does not increase. The Achilles of the 227-pound Arian Foster is not proportionately thicker, wider or stronger than that of a 150-pound office worker.

 

There are two ways Achilles tendons rupture. The first type involves a weakened Achilles with tendinosis in a middle age or older individual. The second involves a completely healthy tendon where the muscle of a younger athlete is actually strong enough to tear the Achilles when it contracts quickly.

 

When you said, "you don't see this at other levels of football" this can explain why. In the NFL these guys are growing into their bodies/maturing, their better diets, and weight programs/supplementation are all more advanced leading to bigger, faster dudes but these tendons, ligaments and joints are all the same size. It's raw physics.

[Cherry 1,302]

We do this every year.

 

When you have world class athletes running around top speed, cutting incredibly fast, and slamming into each other there are going to be injuries.

[RazorStar 4,025]

There are no ways to strengthen ligaments, there is no blood to flow to them. You build a guy bigger and bigger and those ligaments can't keep up.