Going into Week 3 of the NFL season, its now very clear why the NFL needs a preseason.
As I was sitting on my couch this weekend a sad trend kept coming over my TV. Injury after injury after injury. The 49er’s lost Joey Bosa, Jimmy Garoppolo, Raheem Mostart, and Soloman Thomas. Then it was Saquan Barkley going down with a season ending ACL. Christian McCaffery out for weeks. Cam Akers with a rib injury. The list goes on and on. Without a NFL Preseason we are seeing many ore injuries
The Detroit Lions have already seen their fair share of injuries this year. The secondary is a shell of itself. The D line suffered set backs. Kenny Galloday hasn’t played a game. Don’t forget our self inflicted wounds, but that’s a little different. The amount of torn ACL’s and torn muscles have to be related to the lack of conditioning in the NFL.
Players
I am not a doctor, but I do have common sense and have put on pads before. I used to dread 2-a-days. The way you couldn’t walk for the entire week. How your body was adjusting to the psychical nature of the game. But then you could put on pads. Your body ached a little more after the first few padded practices. The pay off was you actually got to hit someone!
After conditioning and a few padded practices you sent to play your scrimmages. Every step of the way the game got a little fast and the hits became harder. Your body needs to absorb those hits. It needs to build up the muscle response.
Without and NFL preseason the entire league skipped a major step in preparation for a season. The rush to play the regular season may cost the owners a lot more than just a few games. It may coast them their biggest stars and take years off careers.
Rookies
While the NFL preseason isn’t the greatest of football it does even more than conditioning. It gives rookies time to adjust to the game speed. The Detroit Lions are feeling the brunt of no preseason with what they saw in #3 overall pick Jeff Okudah on Sunday. Okudah ranked next to last out of almost 100 DB’s who played last weekend.
Jeff inst the only one struggling. Isiah Simmons, who we will see this week in Arizona, has been dreadful. Letting up big play after big play. Are both these guys just not good? I don’t think so. They just haven’t acclimated to the fastest and hardest hitting sport in the world.
The Future
I hope we can assume there wont be another global pandemic for at least 100 years. So, this problem should work itself out. The NFL owners have been pushing for a reduction to 2 preseason games for a while. Adding 2 regular season games. After the start to this season, I say leave it right where it is. 4 Preseason game, 16 regular season.
Injuries will happen regardless. But wouldn’t you rather they be fewer and further between? As a selfish fantasy owner I hate seeing guys go down left and right. All the injuries take away who I was rooting for and my passion for my fake team. It hurts the real players careers. And it will only hurt the bottom line of the the owners in the long run.
