The Green Bay Packers have become synonymous with injuries and according to head coach Mike McCarthy, he’s only had two healthy seasons since coming to Green Bay in 2006. In both of those seasons (2007 & 2011), the Packers had extreme success during the regular season and made the postseason. In 2007, they reached and hosted the NFC Championship game.
It goes without saying that teams who win deep into January generally also enjoy good fortunes when it comes to the availability of their players. Ironically, the Packers are one example that bucks that theory, as they won the Super Bowl after the 2010 season with 14 players on injured reserve (IR).
In 2011, the Packers had six total players on IR, only four of which were regular contributors. In 2012, the Packers finished the season with 13 players on IR and last year, they had a whopping 16 players land on IR by season’s end. That doesn’t include games missed by guys who didn’t miss the whole season or land on IR and those are aplenty in Green Bay as well.
It’s a wonder that the Packers have been able to sustain the success that they have with these unfortunate mishaps constantly occurring.
This year, the team decided to take a different approach and got technology involved. They have been using a company called Catapult Sports, based out of Australia, to help them study and monitor player injuries. Some of that technology involves GPS among other methods of measuring player exertion and fatigue.
In the short amount of time that the team has been back and practicing in a more physical environment, they have managed to avoid any major injuries. As of Thursday and after that camp practice session, the Packers had no players left on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. Linebacker Nick Perry, who had not participated in any offseason work, was the last and final player on the list who was cleared to return to the field. The Packers have yet to see any work from defensive linemen Letroy Guion or Jerel Worthy, but neither are on PUP at this point.
Preseason games begin on August 9th and that is typically the time when most injuries tend to take place before the season starts. That’s where we will see if the Packers are truly on a better path with regards to player health. So far, signs are pointing in the right direction and if they can keep most of their current players available, this year’s team stands to benefit greatly in the win/loss column.
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Jason Perone is an independent sports blogger writing about the Packers on AllGreenBayPackers.com
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Well hells bells they’re finally making a change.(which is very scary) TT and MM are making a scary change, oh dear. So happy to see they finally get it. It may have taken the most part of a decade to get it. Better late than never. If the average bear gets it in one season, plan on about 7 seasons before MM and TT get it.
Sarcasm aside, you are 100% correct.
Some NFL teams (the 49ers in particular) have way fewer injuries and train to prevent them. I am glad the Packers are now realizing that many of these injuries were preventable.
ALL teams train to prevent injuries! You guys aren’t very bright if you don’t knoe at least that much. Packers have made adjustments each year aimed at that purpose. This year they just took another step further by hiring another company to assist them w more details.
It certainly is too early to ascertain if these changes will help long-term. I for one, am optimistic. Looking forward to a successful season and hopefully with fewer season-ending injuries.
Way too early to comment in the team’s health for this year. I would be thrilled if we can get to our opening game without any injuries. Until then I am just taking it one day at a time. I wish that we didn’t have to play any pre-season games. They mean nothing and only cause unnecessary injuries. The league should switch to scrimmages and everyone will be better off. I am surprised with the money invested in players by today’s greedy owners that they allow their star players to be exposed to such an unnecessary risk. Go Pack! Injury Free! Thanks, Since ’61
Worthy and Guion are out and we lost our 2 5th rd picks today, WR Abby and C Lindsey. It’s only the first week of practice and we are another week away from our first preseason game. Than another 4 weeks of practice and preseason games until we hit a 16 game schedule. I’m trying to be optimistic about injuries too , but it’s way to early for this article. I hope you didn’t jinx Abby and now he has a torn ACL, which the premature rumors are now suggesting. Boy, I hope he’s ok
Thank you all for reading, as always.
As I’ve said many, many. . many times before, this is a discussion site. Yes, occasionally we report news but it’s rarely ever “breaking” and most of you have already heard what we’re reporting from Twitter, beat writers, etc. More often than not, we’re mostly trying to promote discussion amongst our readers. As long as there are comments, the article was worth writing.
Over the last three seasons, the Packers have come into camp with more injuries than the have this year. Sure, 2 new ones emerged today but let’s see what they really are before we deem the entire discussion topic null and void?
Oh God, please don’t jinx us
I probably already did, I’m sure it’s an ACL for Abby. (No, I’m not serious). More to come.
Jason as always I enjoyed your article but I respectfully disagree with head coach MM. 2011 was a bad year for the Packers, solely based on the fact that Nick Collins had his career ending neck injury during the game against the panthers. The Packers defense still has yet to recover from that devastating blow.
Collins was a HUGE loss in 2011, I was talking solely about the number of guys hurt.
Who you lose is FAR more important than just numbers. Packers proved it in ’10 when they had more injuries and still won the SB. However, in just the next year only a couple players injured derailed their SB chances.
Care about who got hurt not how many!
I just green-thumbed Stroh. I feel dirty…
Did you really post this?
Come on man! You know better than to put that in writing. (He’s made 49 straight free throws….clang)
Oh, woops, Abby with an ACL.
AAAHH
No, I didn’t. I have no idea how some imposter got my credentials and put this up but I’ll track him down or break a leg trying!
It will be unfortunate if Abby is indeed done for the year with the ACL but let’s remove the Badger-colored glasses and ask ourselves how key he was likely to be this season and as far as we know today? We won’t likely get the chance to find out, but today, right now, it’s not a devastating loss.