How much did injuries affect the Eagles?
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How much did injuries affect the Eagles?
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
My general feeling on NFL injuries is this:
They are part of the game, and every team deals with them. They should not be used as an excuse, except for specific cases. Building depth and finding players to fill in is part of being a successful organization.
So the obvious question here is: How much can the Eagles use injuries as an excuse for their season ending in the wild-card round against the Cowboys?
Which brings us to a great breakdown from Rick Gosselin of The Dallas Morning News.
Gosselin takes a look at the injuries suffered by every NFL team and calculates which squads were most hurt by players going down.
The Eagles ranked fourth, with 70 games lost by starters. The Buffalo Bills were first (103); the St. Louis Rams second (75); and the Jacksonville Jaguars third (71).
It should be noted that the two teams playing in the Super Bowl - the Saints and Colts - ranked fifth and sixth, respectively. Just behind the Eagles.
Of the 10 teams who were most hurt by injuries, four made the postseason.
The Cowboys and Vikings were the two healthiest teams in the league, having lost starters for 14 and 16 games, respectively. Of the 10 teams who stayed the healthiest, six made the postseason.
Obviously, there's no newsflash here. Staying healthy is a key to advancing far in the postseason. It's interesting to see it all broken down though by the numbers.
Gosselin also names a key injury for each team. For the Eagles, it should come as no surprise that he chose Stewart Bradley.
The Bradley injury was a dagger for a number of reasons. One, he was playing at a high level last season. But maybe more importantly, the Eagles could never adequately fill the middle linebacker position. Sean McDermott tried pretty much everything. Omar Gaither (who also went down with a seaosn-ending injury), Akeem Jordan, Will Witherspoon, Chris Gocong, and Jeremiah Trotter (am I missing anyone?) all got chances, to varying degress of success.
Update: Yes, I forgot Joe Mays. Thanks for the heads-up.
Elsewhere on the defense, the injury situation wasn't bad. The defensive line, in particular, stayed relatively healthy. Sheldon Brown playing at far less than 100 percent was a factor. And Jordan's four-game absence definitely hurt. Actually, more than the games he missed, Jordan's level of play when he returned (not entirely his fault when they tried him in the middle) hurt the D's performance.
Offensively, the most devastating injury was probably the Jamaal Jackson one, not so much in Week 17, but moreso in the wild-card loss, when the line looked completely confused.
At guard, I thought they were able to fill in when Todd Herremans missed time, but he was obviously an upgrade on the left side when he returned. Jason Peters missing time generally created problems, although Herremans was capable of sliding over.
Donovan McNabb, DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Michael Vick and Brian Westbrook all missed time. But I didn't think any of those injuries killed the Eagles.
So what's your take? On a scale of 1-10, with a 10 being "injuries were the main reason they lost in the first round" and a 1 being "injuries had no effect on the outcome of the season," how would you rank it?
I think I'd put it at right around a 5 or a 6.
Demps ankle kept him off the field also, and we lost Hobbs too. Whether it was injury or regression Gocong, Demps, Mikell all really hurt let the defense down, that along with the losses of Bradley and Gaither kept the defense searching for an identity. Throw in a Rookie Defensive Coordinator while were at it. Cole and MJG are backups who should not have seen the field, injuries and whatever you make of the Andrews sisters scrambled the offensive line, the only good thing is we found out that Justice is a descent player.— skak- 7. Put in Shawn Andrews, Jamaal Jackson, Stacy Andrews, Stewart Bradley, Akeem Jordan, and Sheldon Brown at full speed, and this is maybe a different season. Still, they would have been very young at receiver and running back, and safety.— tacklinjoe
- the number # 1 factor on defense was the loss of Jim Johnson. i would call it a life ending injury.sometimes you can replace players (which we never could at mlb), but you can't replace the spirit and mind of such an outstanding coach. #2 was the bradley injury. on offense "the sisters" were key, #2 was the loss of j.jackson.offense was never the same after jamaal went down.— edseagles
- If you watch the games where the OL was healthy compared to where they did the 'shift' to compensate for any injury it is obvious that the OL injuries hurt the Eagles a lot. They need to have backups at each OL position instead of shifting players to fill out the OL. McNabb had great protection when everyone was healthy, when anyone was hurt he was harassed and abused. When that happens, his accuracy drops like a rock!— jpweisel
- I'd say about a 4.— HandNik
- The Defense as a whole, could barely keep it's head above water. There was no single unit that played to AT LEAST an NFL-Average mark. This happened because of three factors: 1) The unfortunate, and truly tragic, loss of Mr. Jim Johnson. 2) The loss of Brian Dawkins' presence on the team as a whole, and the intangibles he brought to the defense. 3)The loss of Stu Bradley was devastating. It started a chain of events that just ruined our LB play all year. Our offense carried the load for the most part, even though our O-Line was constantly being shuffled. I TRULY believe that if The O-line can be stabilized, and the defense as a whole can play at a slightly Above-NFL Average for the whole season, we WILL be in the Conference Championship game. Don't know if we WIN it......but hey!....We'll be there!— TBear
- Somehow the patched together offensive line held for the season but when Jackson went down the house of cards collapsed. You can't rate these things 1 to 10 without considering the timing, or the effect on one unit.— al personal foul
- Where do you begin with the key and emphasis on key injuries that happenned to this team,when only one of your projected 5 starting offensive linemen is left standing at years end,when the absolute key to your defense,mlb goes down,projected starting running back,along with a dozen or so other players miss significent time with injuries,the effect is rippling,reid did a fantastic job of winning this year,his drafts,play calling,time management was atrocious,did trevor laws see the field this year?— soliteryman
- If we are healthy next year on the O-side, we should do pretty well. That's counting on Shawn coming back, which seems REAL iffy. Then if we could draft a really good safety in the 1st round and a really big D-lineman who can get a push, we'd not have to rush 5 and 6 guys and can cover better.— 4thand10
- Fokou also played middle linebacker, which means about every linebacker was tried there. Bad coaching right? Someone had to marginally better, but you have to take your losses and try to have some continuity. But it also matters when injuries happen. Against San Diego, Hobbs was injured the week before, Hanson suspended, and Brown pulled his hamstring in the first quarter. Westbrook concussion and Peters also out --can't win on the road like that. Injuries may be excuses before games, but in the off-season valid to evaluate your team through them. Particularly to see why no quality wins -- McNabb at NO, and the Jackson disaster at Dallas. No one going into the season would have though much of Cole (who was not even a center in college), jean-giles, and Justice— Amir Everette
Even if Bradley and Johnson were around, the Eagles still would have not gotten past any of the last 8 teams in the playoffs. Reason: QB and coach. Until they change, the Eagles will be perennial champions of the "Better Than Average" Bowl. WooHoo!- Whats our excuse for next year?— bigphillydad
- Let's hope Brett Favre retires, as that will require Minn to go out and get a QB. John Clayton from ESPN is reporting that McNabb would be 1st on the Vikes wish list given the history between 5 and Childress. We can hope.....retire Brett, retire. Let the Kolb era begin.— Tar Heel 1
- Agree with FKD215. After Andrews' continuing injury and Bradley's injury, I thought the Eagles would be a middle of the pack team, 8-8 or 9-7. No one can complain that Westbrook was hurt. Considering his injury history, you have to take that into account before the season even starts.— p-diddy
- Everyone deals with injuries. They are part of the game. This team has one too many pansies on it and they are lead my the biggest of all, Dnabb.— t_bones8
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