Once a team has developed a core of good players the most important goal needs to be reducing injuries to those players thruout the season.
That will be the next big breakthough in the NFL... eliminating most season ending injury.
I expect an "outside the box" thinking coach like Carroll will have his key players wear protective knee and ankle gear all the time they practice. What with the new designs that don't restrict motion ....just prevent motion past safe limits.
Many of the injuries that sideline players are actually started in practice and just aggravated during games.
I would like to see the Seahawks experiment with these new non restrictive knee and ankle braces during mid week full speed practices and chart how and if they can help prevent injury during a game when the protective gear is not used.
As it is now most application of these devices is used AFTER a player complains of soreness from over extension or impact.
I suspect that most starting players run at or near game speed as much as 10 hours in a week of practice. During a game a player only applies the kind of impact and range of motion that could cause injury about ten minutes on a Sunday. Perhaps if the braces were worn for most of the practice periods fewer injuries would get started in the first place and most of the little owies that do occur could get a better chance to recover up till gametime.
What we do know is that with the shrinking "tackle" zone the officials are imposing..it is putting more preasure for injury impact on the legs.
The team that gets ahead of the curve on this issue will have a huge advantage in this upcoming season and for all of those to come.
That will be the next big breakthough in the NFL... eliminating most season ending injury.
I expect an "outside the box" thinking coach like Carroll will have his key players wear protective knee and ankle gear all the time they practice. What with the new designs that don't restrict motion ....just prevent motion past safe limits.
Many of the injuries that sideline players are actually started in practice and just aggravated during games.
I would like to see the Seahawks experiment with these new non restrictive knee and ankle braces during mid week full speed practices and chart how and if they can help prevent injury during a game when the protective gear is not used.
As it is now most application of these devices is used AFTER a player complains of soreness from over extension or impact.
I suspect that most starting players run at or near game speed as much as 10 hours in a week of practice. During a game a player only applies the kind of impact and range of motion that could cause injury about ten minutes on a Sunday. Perhaps if the braces were worn for most of the practice periods fewer injuries would get started in the first place and most of the little owies that do occur could get a better chance to recover up till gametime.
What we do know is that with the shrinking "tackle" zone the officials are imposing..it is putting more preasure for injury impact on the legs.
The team that gets ahead of the curve on this issue will have a huge advantage in this upcoming season and for all of those to come.
