These injuries are bulls***

I'm tired of these injuries.
I watched a number of plays yesterday where the safeties/CB's led with their heads, and hit the head or shoulder of the RB or receiver.
They all are okay... except some guys they hit got concussed.

Nick Collins?
He was just sitting down and a guy tried to jump over him and his soft fat *** bumped the top of Collins HELMET, and Collins' career ends? What crap.

Now we lose Bulaga for the season, not getting hit, tackled, rolled into, anything? Just a weird step, and that's it?

Nick Perry hurts his wrist in week one, and a month+ later, he need surgery on it, season over, IR for him too?

Don't forget Derek Sherrod still out for the year -so far- after being rolled into last year in KC snapping his leg.

These are our LAST 3 FIRST ROUND PICKS.
Don't forget Benson was a very high first round pick too, and he's gonna miss at least 2/3rd of the year for us. And now Matthews, another first rounder, might miss games for us.

Maybe I am biased, but aside from KC last year, I don't know anyone who has worse luck with injuried than we do.

He is supposedly off the PUP and going to play in a couple weeks.

Well it certainly does suck.

Benson was not a high round draft pick for us. I was thinking the same thing though about how many of our high picks have succumbed to injuries. Don't forget Neal who was a second rounder. Seems we're snakebit.

You can add Jordy Nelson, Greg Jennings to that list if we start to include 2nd rounders

He's practicing.

Someone run down the 49ers and Bears defense injuries, starting with their top guys.

Patrick Willis & Novorro Bowman, hmm, both starting ILB's just fine. Our Dez Bishop, DJ Smith, out.
Bears Brian Urlacher & LanceBriigs, just fine. Peppers? Fine. Charles Tillman? Fine. Charles Woodson? Broken.
Nick Perry, out.
Nick Collins? Forced to retire.

If this ends up like 2010 did, that will be sweet. But it's a lot to ask to beat other great teams when we're missing a lot of our best players time & time again.

Yeah someone mentioned 2nd round picks: Jennings, Jordy, Collins was too.

Raji and Worthy missed time this year too. Woodson, a former first round pick - though a long time ago - will mist a significant amount of time. It really goes to show the importance of the draft, and how well TT has done in getting quality and talented depth in the mid- to late-rounds. We did a piece on this before the draft this season (http://wp.me/p29VCs-7I), analyzing the draft results and trying to put some statistics to how well TT has done. Needless to say, he's hit on a lot of talent in the 4th (Sitton and Lang) and 6th rounds (Bishop, D.J. Smith, and Crosby).

Yep. And we are 1 injury away from having no choice but to play him

This is a whiney thread

Now you sound like the Viking's fans saying "the Packers get all the calls!"

(leans against a tree - smoking a pipe): "Every NFL team is in a boat - and "fate/injury bug man" is the German Machine Gunner - .... that boat door drops open and them bullets come knocking...."
(grabs a knife - sharpens a stick):
"Some teams go un-shot at - we happen to get every damn bullet coming toward us - like one of our guys has a magnet on him or something...."
(grizzled chuckle of a man who's faced death more times than once): "4 of our best linebackers miss games this season, 3 on IR - two of our best Defensive lineman miss several games. We're taking a crash course at Adversity University."
(stares off toward a faraway horizon): "Perhaps .... It's Tom Cruise testing our faith?"

I echo that sentiment!

no one has mentioned the possibility of bad conditioning vs bad luck.

The only positive thing I can say on this topic is that opponents don't have a lot of tape or experience with a number of guys we're putting on the field. Their weaknesses, tendencies and "tells" are largely unknown. That can work for little while. In the end, we must have Matthews on the field to get deep in the playoffs.

That's a great point about knowing opponents' "tells." All teams self-scout to determine what tells they are giving to opposing teams so new players always have a slight advantage until there is enough tape to establish tendencies.

Poor conditioning is kind of a broad, yet bold statement. I don't think that you can honestly look at Clay Matthews and say that he's got poor conditioning. He's got a bad weak hamstring. He also utilizes his hamstrings in a way that mother nature never intended, and those of us sitting in offices (or planes like me) never come close to replicating.

Shields getting kicked in the shin. Bulaga dislocating his hip. Woodson breaking his collarbone. Draw me a diagram as to how this equals poor conditioning. (Sorry - the airplane wine is potent) Injuries happen. If we were seeing a rampant level of groin pulls and muscle pulls, I could start agreeing to conditioning. This is a violent game. We all demand ultimate competition and big hits....injuries will continue to happen.

I never competed beyond high school, although to this day, both of my torn rotator cuffs have tears and both are partially separated. I played against folks much bigger than me and regularly lost. Clay is doing the same thing. You can't regularly go against 300+ pounders and not expect your body to fail intermittently. The Jerry Rice's are the exception versus the rule.

I know you are comparing injuries but I'm dubious about the same outcome of our season.

Its not just Clay. Kuhn and Jordy both had pulled muscles as well. It doesn't necessarily have to do with the actual conditioning but more with what they are doing with their stretching and injury prevention program.

What can happen with injuries is either 1) the team folds up like a cheap suit, or 2) the injuries allow backup players to step up, play beyond their supposed abilities, and use the opportunity to secure themselves a starting position.

In 2010 the latter happened. This year it again "appears" like the latter might also happen. If we can get some sacks without Matthews in the mix and play some solid D, I think we may prove to be unstoppable. If. Cause if we can make the playoffs with Jennings, Matthews, and Nelson back in the mix, look out.

Personally, I think it is a good coach that makes the latter happen. We have a good coach.

Yes, but they can't all be bragging & boasting......

By the way, similarities with 2010: we lost at Detroit that year, as a heavy favorite..... just sayin... check this out> http://espn.go.com/nfl/picks

Maybe we should look into getting a new straight and conditioning coach or something.

Seems like all of our guys are made of glass.

I don't know why these guys work out to lift massive amounts of weight. If you can lift 350, you can toss pretty much anybody in the game if you get leverage. There is no need to get so jacked you start tearing muscle. Combine makes you bench 250 to start. Granted, 350 consistently is rough

Not to nit pick but they bench press 225 at the combine. I would think that being as strong as possible is important since these younger kids coming up are consistently getting stronger out of college. I feel like something is going on with the trainers during the week where the job isn't getting done well enough. It's becoming too common that a good amount of our guys are going down each year with something they can't play through. As far as lifting I don't think that they are trying to gain too hard in the weight room throughout the season specifically to avoid injury.

There are more muscle/tendon injuries now for whatever reason, maybe strength training, maybe creatine--nobody knows. The concussions are the most worrisome thing for the game. Some are unavoidable; but the purposeful head-to head contacts that result in a concussion should be penalized by the player causing it be suspended until the player injured is back on the field. End of most of the problem.