12-24-2022, 10:38 AM
(12-24-2022, 10:13 AM)bfine32 Wrote: Nobody in this thread wants the Bengals to not go undefeated the rest of the year. The question was more risk v. reward. For instance, Trey Hendrickson is planning to play with a broken wrist. I'm no doctor but I do know a fracture heals best through calcification and trauma to the fracture site could cancel any healing already started.
We shut him down for the rest of the season and the bone has had 5 weeks to heal (6 if the boys continue to roll.) These guys do not forget how to play football because they miss a couple of games. Ja'Marr came back from time out and hasn't missed a beat. Mixon returned and went for 98 yards at 6.9 YPC, Reader has been all-world since his return.
Is the risk of Try reinjuring his wrist, Hubbard/Hurst tweaking to calf worth hosting The Chargers as opposed to traveling to Tenn/Jax. The Tampa game should have showed us this is a New Dey and our fanbase travels well.
That's precisely the question I was asking.
Without a bye, which is still not something they control, the walking wounded will be asked to play, potentially, 4 more games in 5 weeks. That's if things go the way we want them to, obviously. Maybe playing one game with a balky hamstring or broken wrist is no big deal, but we're talking about another near quarter season of football, and it's a quarter season that's likely to be even more physical and intense than the regular season.
This is new-ish territory for the Bengals. They were very fortunate with few injuries last year. This year is closer to the norm in the NFL.
When guys gut out injuries, the name Levi Jones always comes to mind for me. He was one of the league's best left tackles in 2005. By the last quarter of the year, he was playing with knee issues and taking pain-killing injections to get himself on the field for the playoff run. He was still very good while doing it, but after that he took a nose dive as a player. It sticks with me because he wasn't even that old.
I'm not saying the injuries we see now will result in those kinds of consequences, but playing hurt isn't always just a matter of pain tolerance. It can have longer term consequences for players and to the team as a whole.
Buying a couple of weeks for some guys has a short-term cost, but also a possible major benefit in the post season, and in the long term.
