Michael Jordan is Working Out With Willie Anderson

[*ochocincos*]

(03-05-2021, 09:04 AM)TJHoushmandzadeh Wrote: I think it would say more about the collective bargaining agreement than about the Bengals coaching staff. 

The modern day NFL player is far more dependent on outside coaching than on the team staff, whose contact time is severely curtailed. The regular season is just 17 weeks long, players need recovery time and need to do strength work, they need to prepare leaving very little time to work on technique mid season and the repetition that is required to embed it. Instead during the season is far more filmwork than actual hands on coaching.


Out of season the coaches rarely get their hands on the players either. Teams get just 9 weeks for off season workouts. The first two of these are strength and conditioning only. You then get 3 weeks of on-field workouts


On-field workouts may include individual player instruction and drills as well as team practice conducted on a "separates" basis. No live contact or team offense vs. team defense drills are permitted.

Then you get 4 weeks which sounds like a lot but in reality 
Teams may conduct a total of 10 days of organized team practice activity, or "OTAs". No live contact is permitted, but 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills are permitted.


That's why so many O-linemen work with people like Willie or Duke Manyweather when you can work on a single aspect of your game for weeks on end, constantly drilling it in with repetition. That doesn't happen during the season. It doesn't really happen in team workouts which aren't tailored for an individual's needs. It happens in the off-season in the player's own time away from the auspices of their team. 

I didn't think about that being an issue because other teams seem to be able to get OL acclimated, but maybe that's what it is. Perhaps those players who are succeeding are going to (better) outside training sources since there are so many limitations to how much time can be spent with NFL coaches on the field.