The Chicago Bears 2016 injury report was almost comical. It genuinely felt like half the roster occupied it at one point in time. Not just the typical bumps, bruises, sprains and strains either. Significant ailments that in many cases were season-ending in nature. People loved to blame head coach John Fox for the 3-13 debacle the year became. The thing is it’s hard to win in the NFL when 21 players end the season on injured reserve.
That’s not even counting the other guys who were playing hurt. The regime believes this team is capable of competing for the playoffs after hanging tough in so many tight games. They just didn’t have the manpower to finish most of them. So the obvious question comes up. What can they do to correct this problem and keep more of their players on the field in 2017?
Ensuring the Bears 2016 injury report never repeats
Turn out anything and everything they can think of. GM Ryan Pace is nothing if not a man who learns from his mistakes. He and others have gone into painstaking detailed study about how they might be able to prevent a repeat of what happened last season. Already they’ve begun to institute some interesting changes, starting with the practice schedule according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Bears will not practice against another NFL team during camp, the way they did in coach John Fox’s first two years.
“If you travel to work against somebody, you’re uprooting, you’re getting out of routine, you’re getting out of your recovery system, you are traveling,” Fox said at the NFL owners meeting this week. ”And that’s proven to be a little hazardous to your health, albeit part of football.
“If you don’t have to do it, avoid it, even to that point.”
In camp, the Bears will have a softer practice every third day. Fox said injuries are starting to catch up with the collective-bargaining agreement that limits in-house workouts, as well as NCAA rules that cap the weekly hours of college players.
It doesn’t end there though. They go even deeper into the exploration. Everything is on the table from the equipment the players use to the equipment the trainers use on the players. More than ever the utilization of computers and data is becoming prevalent. No tool is going unused to ensure they’ve done everything in their power.
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In their meetings, the Bears discussed ways to cut down on high ankle sprains. They examined the benefit of tape, no tape, different support devices and even shoe technology.
“There are a lot of different things we’re looking at to educate our players and hopefully turn the tide,” Fox said.
The Bears have learned to streamline data, too, and hope it will help shape their practices. When Pace arrived, the Bears began wearing Catapult sensors, which monitored players’ physical states during practice.
It’s worth noting that six teams who finished among the bottom 12 in fewest players injured were the playoffs. Two of them (surprise, surprise) were the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons. The Super Bowl participants. Often it’s not the coaching or the sheer talent differences that decide the outcome of playoff vs. non-playoff teams. It’s which ones are able to stay healthy when it matters.
For two-straight years the Bears have failed in that endeavor. Something clearly has to change. One can’t just sit back and blame it on luck. If they are going to keep losing, they’d rather do it knowing they were at least close to full strength doing so. Otherwise they’ll be left with nothing but questions of what-if.
