Real Talk: Sometimes players are said to be injured when they're really just being benched. Sometimes it is to let them develop more. Sometimes it is to hide them on the IR list/make space on the roster. Sometimes they just need to sit down and take a step back. It happens to very good players.

I don't know how often that is the case. Maybe very rarely. Or perhaps it is sometimes grey area -- there is an injury that could be played through but the coaches wanted to bench the guy anyways. That said, for the times it does really happen, if players aren't ready to play that's usually a coaching issue right? I mean...there are plenty of players who ball out their rookie year.

At least this year we took a guy in the first round who isn't coming off injury and is extremely fresh after taking a year off.

Hopefully this is the start of a new day lol

According to ProFootballFocus, we have the worst injury luck in the league, which isn't really surprising:

Quote:Every fanbase thinks their team has bad injury luck, but fans of the Cincinnati Bengals have a pretty strong case of their own.

Pro Football Focus took their Wins Above Replacement metric and applied it towards figuring out which teams have lost the most player value due to injuries. Their data goes back to 2012, and since then, no other team has lost more WAR value due to injury than the Bengals.

Of the 15 worst seasons in terms of injury damage since 2012, the Bengals are responsible for three of them. The Arizona Cardinals are the only other team that appeared on the list multiple times. 2013, 2018, and 2020 were the years the Bengals were hit the hardest, per PFF’s WAIL (WAR-Adjusted Injuries Lost) metric.

The Bengals’ 2020 season was riddled with injuries, but the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers finished ahead of them on the WAIL scale. Their respective seasons are also at the top of the WAIL leaderboard since 2012.

Those seasons are usually outliers, but for the Bengals, they’re unfortunately more common compared to the rest of the league. The NFL saw a notable increase in players missing games last year thanks in part to COVID-19. Hopefully with a full offseason and preseason returning, injuries will see an equally large decrease compared to 2020.

As for the Bengals, they’re just hoping to keep more of their stars on the field. They haven’t had a first-round pick play an injury-free season in over half a decade, so rookie wideout Ja’Marr Chase just making it through the season relatively unscathed would be a success.

This was the biggest issue last year. Joe Burrow missed the final six games due to his knee injury, and since he’s the quarterback, his WAR value is inherently higher. This is also why the 2018 season made PFF’s top 15, since both Andy Dalton and A.J. Green went down in the middle of that season.

Injuries are always going to happen, but the Bengals are well past due for a healthier season.

Can this all be attributed to no indoor practice facility, poor training equipment, and a lack of doctors/trainers?

I feel like there was a thread that recently disproved the size of our medical staff being an issue (maybe it was just the weight room), but what other explanation could there be for such poor health of our players?

We all know Mike Brown is bullheaded, but he's also a businessman, so why wouldn't he see that healthier players means more money by winning, losing less money paying injured players, and just overall improved team health and team comfortability mean an overall more successful franchise?

After a while, it stops being just "bad luck."

(06-22-2021, 05:34 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: According to ProFootballFocus, we have the worst injury luck in the league, which isn't really surprising:


Can this all be attributed to no indoor practice facility, poor training equipment, and a lack of doctors/trainers?

I feel like there was a thread that recently disproved the size of our medical staff being an issue (maybe it was just the weight room), but what other explanation could there be for such poor health of our players?

We all know Mike Brown is bullheaded, but he's also a businessman, so why wouldn't he see that healthier players means more money by winning, losing less money paying injured players, and just overall improved team health and team comfortability mean an overall more successful franchise?

After a while, it stops being just "bad luck."

Or possibly a micro-sized scouting department?

 

(06-22-2021, 08:40 PM)BengalChris Wrote: Or possibly a micro-sized scouting department?

 

Not real sure what a small scouting department has to do with this?

(06-22-2021, 11:37 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: Not real sure what a small scouting department has to do with this?

Probably nothing at all. I'm sure missing out on the healthier prospects was just bad luck and had absolutely nothing to do with a lack of homework being done on the players.


 

(06-27-2021, 08:07 PM)BengalChris Wrote: Probably nothing at all. I'm sure missing out on the healthier prospects was just bad luck and had absolutely nothing to do with a lack of homework being done on the players.

Plenty of injuries to perfectly healthy players.

Like I said before.  If you only draft players with no injury history then you are going to miss out on many of the best players in the draft.

And, finally, scouts are not doctors.  No matter how small our scouting department is I am sure the Bengals check out all the same medical records that other NFL teams do.

(06-27-2021, 08:07 PM)BengalChris Wrote: Probably nothing at all. I'm sure missing out on the healthier prospects was just bad luck and had absolutely nothing to do with a lack of homework being done on the players.


 

In the study referenced more weighting was given to losing more significant players - losing 7th round pick back-up, back-up guard Rod Taylor to a broken leg will have barely registered (if at all). My recollection is that that study showed that the Bengals didn't have more players on IR so much as they had more valuable players on IR.

The most significant injuries in recent seasons were probably AJ Green, Geno Atkins and Joe Burrow.

Which of those players wouldn't you draft knowing what you now know?

I suspect the Bengals' issue was the distribution of injuries happened to randomly fall on their better players. The one caveat would be that as a struggling team their best players were maybe less likely to rush back for games where all at stake was draft position.

(06-28-2021, 09:51 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Plenty of injuries to perfectly healthy players.

Like I said before.  If you only draft players with no injury history then you are going to miss out on many of the best players in the draft.

And, finally, scouts are not doctors.  No matter how small our scouting department is I am sure the Bengals check out all the same medical records that other NFL teams do.

Sure, but no reason to spend a 1st round pick on an injured player. Sure you might miss out on a good player who will help you down the road. But if you can get a good player who can help you *this* season, then that would be a better choice, IMO. Why lose a year of production, especially for a team with so many damned holes.

(06-28-2021, 11:00 AM)TJHoushmandzadeh Wrote: In the study referenced more weighting was given to losing more significant players - losing 7th round pick back-up, back-up guard Rod Taylor to a broken leg will have barely registered (if at all). My recollection is that that study showed that the Bengals didn't have more players on IR so much as they had more valuable players on IR.

The most significant injuries in recent seasons were probably AJ Green, Geno Atkins and Joe Burrow.

Which of those players wouldn't you draft knowing what you now know?

I suspect the Bengals' issue was the distribution of injuries happened to randomly fall on their better players. The one caveat would be that as a struggling team their best players were maybe less likely to rush back for games where all at stake was draft position.

Yeah, I don't think we're talking about late round guys though. Ross, Price, Ogbuehi and Jonah Williams were all 1st round guys who arrived with existing injuries. Only Williams appears promising.

Ross over Mahomes, Lattimore, Reddick, Barnette, Allen, McKinely, Watt, Ramczyk. Wow, does that sting.

I've got no problem with them taking RBs Trayveon Williams and Rodney Anderson in the 6th round in 2019.

 

(06-28-2021, 11:00 AM)TJHoushmandzadeh Wrote: The most significant injuries in recent seasons were probably AJ Green, Geno Atkins and Joe Burrow.

Which of those players wouldn't you draft knowing what you now know?

 

(06-28-2021, 06:49 PM)BengalChris Wrote: Sure, but no reason to spend a 1st round pick on an injured player. Sure you might miss out on a good player who will help you down the road. But if you can get a good player who can help you *this* season, then that would be a better choice, IMO. Why lose a year of production, especially for a team with so many damned holes. 

That logic makes perfect sense.  .  .  If you draft guys to just play one season.

You draft the player that will have the most impact over the course of his career, not just who will play the best his rookie season.

(06-29-2021, 12:58 AM)fredtoast Wrote: That logic makes perfect sense.  .  .  If you draft guys to just play one season.

You draft the player that will have the most impact over the course of his career, not just who will play the best his rookie season.

Ya know, I really don't see why drafting a healthy good player somehow limits the guy to playing only one year. You get 4 years or 5 years (with 1st round option) out of him. With the injured guy, you get 3, maybe 4, but since we don't seem to exercise their 5th year option, it's really only 3 years or even less if they miss additional time. Ross played in 27 games. That's less than 2 years of work from him. I'd rather have had a guy whose a good player (and there were many on the board at #9) who would have played for 5 years.

Let's just load up on some injured guys. After all, somewhere down the road they maybe, might, sort of help the team. Who needs wins this season anyways with the job security Mike Brown provides his inept staff.

 

(07-06-2021, 02:42 PM)BengalChris Wrote: Ya know, I really don't see why drafting a healthy good player somehow limits the guy to playing only one year. 

And I don't know why you would want just a "good" pass rusher for 4 or 5 years instead of taking an injured Myles Garret or Anthony Munoz, or Adrian Peterson and getting a superstar.

(06-15-2021, 09:30 PM)Nately120 Wrote: I just assumed we don't mind taking injured players because we think we may be getting a gem at a reduced draft price and unlike most teams we don't have a GM who is worried he won't be around when the gamble pays off. 

I think there's some truth in these words, butt......

It's more - we have a GM who's not worried he won't be around "if" the gamble doesn't pay off.

(06-15-2021, 09:30 PM)Nately120 Wrote: I just assumed we don't mind taking injured players because we think we may be getting a gem at a reduced draft price and unlike most teams we don't have a GM who is worried he won't be around when the gamble pays off. 

Bengals don't take more risks on injured players than other teams.

For example, the same year we took Ross at #9  Myles Garrett, Leonard Fournette, and Christian McCaffery all had serious injury issues and were selected before Ross.

(07-07-2021, 11:46 AM)fredtoast Wrote: And I don't know why you would want just a "good" pass rusher for 4 or 5 years instead of taking an injured Myles Garret or Anthony Munoz, or Adrian Peterson and getting a superstar.

Fred, you went back 1979 to picks 3 outliers NFL wide. Yet, in the past 6 years, the Bengals alone have failed that many times with Ogbuehi, Price and Ross.

I believe you proved my point. Sure some players are good at what they do and an injure is just a temporary set back. But the Bengals haven't been picking those guys. Their prior injury picks have failed miserably.

 

(07-07-2021, 12:35 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Bengals don't take more risks on injured players than other teams.

For example, the same year we took Ross at #9  Myles Garrett, Leonard Fournette, and Christian McCaffery all had serious injury issues and were selected before Ross.

Weren't they both just ankle sprains? They both played with it, and both were healthy and able to run the 40 at the Combine.

I actually can't find where Christian McCaffery was injured in college. I do know he sat out the end of the season, which is an iffy move, but not an injury. It was just to keep from being injured to ensure that NFL $.

(07-07-2021, 12:35 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Bengals don't take more risks on injured players than other teams.

For example, the same year we took Ross at #9  Myles Garrett, Leonard Fournette, and Christian McCaffery all had serious injury issues and were selected before Ross.

My "most teams" part was that most teams don't have the owner as a GM, not that most teams don't take injured players.  My point was that Mike Brown may be more willing to roll the dice on an injured player because he knows he will still be with the team when the pick pays off years down the line.

(06-15-2021, 12:21 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: Flashes dont put wins on the board.

No they don't. It does give a glimmer of hope when they stay competitive most weeks instead of being blown out. 

I'm a Bengals fan. Sometimes hope is in short supply. If I squint real hard I can see a hopeful future for this team, and it starts with playing competitive football.

(07-07-2021, 06:30 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Weren't they both just ankle sprains? They both played with it, and both were healthy and able to run the 40 at the Combine.

I actually can't find where Christian McCaffery was injured in college. I do know he sat out the end of the season, which is an iffy move, but not an injury. It was just to keep from being injured to ensure that NFL $.

Myles garrett missed 3 games with a high ankle sprain.

Leonard Fournette missed 6 games.

McCaffery missed most of a game against Washington State and then sat out the next game against Notre Dame.

Ross did not miss a single game all year and set a 40-yard dash record at the combine.

If you eliminate all players who had injuries in college then you are going to miss out on a bunch of the best players in the game.  And I don't really think the Bengals draft more injured players than other teams.