Patriots let go of Harold Nash (Strength & Conditioning Coach)

Hire Chip Kelly's guy. They had the least amount of players lost to injury for the past few years I think. Its proven to work. Maybe its Chip. I'm not sure.

dannydyn said:

you think it has something to do with the staggering number of injuries?

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Oh no no, I have it on good authority (Patsfans forum) that every team has injuries and the idea the Patriots suffered from an above average number of them relative to other teams this year is hogwash.

Glad to see the Patriots make these positive moves. The rate at which players were getting injured this year was ridiculous. Hope we never see that again!

luuked said:

How in the hell can you even make the assumption that Blount, Dobson and Easley were IRd because of issues with strength/conditioning ? Seriously, we dont even know the exact reason Blount and Easley ended up on IR but in all three cases we have tape that shows that it was not a non contact injury.

How would a better strength/conditioning coach prevent the ankle injury Dobson suffered ?

Seriously, claiming things without any evidence whatsoever is pretty irresponsible.

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Part of the strength and conditioning/training staff's job is to evaluate players' physical makeup spotting weakness and imbalances that could precipitate injury and then train them accordingly. It could be that after learning the specifics of injuries to players like Blount, Dobson and Easley, BB concluded they possibly could have been prevented (or rendered less severe) with properly administered strength and flexibility training, etc.

denverpatsfan said:

Hire Chip Kelly's guy. They had the least amount of players lost to injury for the past few years I think. Its proven to work. Maybe its Chip. I'm not sure.

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IIRC he had a former Navy Seals guy as his "strength coordinator"; I'm sure he'll bring him to San Fran. People down here in Philly rag on Chip's methods now (SMOOTHIES REALLY HELPED US EH CHIP) but a lot of them worked. Make them a little less fascist (sleep monitoring) and they probably can work in the NFL.

Personally I would rather see them go in that direction than Alex G....

Also, I wonder if Gronk's issues in DEN were a catalyst. The fact that your best offensive skill player couldn't stay hydrated/had breathing problems for huge swaths of the second half probably didn't sit well with BB...

Tunescribe said:

Part of the strength and conditioning/training staff's job is to evaluate players' physical makeup spotting weakness and imbalances that could precipitate injury and then train them accordingly. It could be that after learning the specifics of injuries to players like Blount, Dobson and Easley, BB concluded they possibly could have been prevented (or rendered less severe) with properly administered strength and flexibility training, etc.

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I am aware of that but by that logic basically all injuries that happened could be somehow attributed to deficiencies in training. Especially also non contact injuries like ACLs. I very much doubt that any scientist and especially not BB will be able to gain any conclusions in the majority of our injured players as to how much they were caused by insufficient prep. We are not talking about a dozen hamstrings here.

The OL could get pushed off the front steps by a Girlscout selling cookies, so I am not surprised by this move.

Given the sheer quantity of injuries that the team suffered (and seems to suffer every year), I'm not surprised. Most of them you can't pin on strength and conditioning, but at a certain point when your guys keep getting weird muscle injuries (Easley, Collins, Solder, Jones, etc.) I can see the rationale for maybe switching things up.

I dunno, strength and conditioning is such a behind-the-scenes thing that I'm comfortable just letting my opinion be 100% informed by Belichick's. If he thought they were doing a good job, I'm not going to second-guess. Now that it's clear he didn't think they were doing a good job, it's pretty easy to look back and spot reasons why.

luuked said:

I am aware of that but by that logic basically all injuries that happened could be somehow attributed to deficiencies in training. Especially also non contact injuries like ACLs. I very much doubt that any scientist and especially not BB will be able to gain any conclusions in the majority of our injured players as to how much they were caused by insufficient prep. We are not talking about a dozen hamstrings here.

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Not all injuries of course, but possibly enough of them to warrant a change in strength/conditioning staff. That apparently is what BB has concluded. I'd think the non-contact injuries would be especially telltale.

denverpatsfan said:

Hire Chip Kelly's guy. They had the least amount of players lost to injury for the past few years I think. Its proven to work. Maybe its Chip. I'm not sure.

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Cheating?

We were the most injured team two of the last 3 years. So yeah, later man.

I'm also up for a new WR scout, if anyone is keeping track.

ChrisR2223 said:

Gronk being dehydrated would that be on him?

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Guessing that had more to do with altitude than anything. The more muscle you have, the more oxygen your body needs. When you're playing as hard, as fast, and are as yoked up as Gronk, the thing air could have more of an effect on you than others.

Anecdotal evidence; my best friend is training to be a firefighter, and a mentor from the academy told him to be careful not to add too much muscle before the fitness test. He said a lot of guys come into the test being absolutely carved up, but are so big that when they're lugging stuff up a stairwell, the body's simply not getting enough oxygen.

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The Turk is back!

On a serious note ... quickly scanning the injuries and it appears that every leg type injury occurred on turf fields. Mr .Kraft should seriously consider going back to a grass field. The reason they had lousy grass before was they did not have at least an 8" base of loom ... in fact they had only a few inches if that of it. I posted about this in depth at the time they changed ... they practice on grass when outdoor which is great ... but the turf field needs to go. Soccer players hate turf fields ... with very good reason at that.

cupofjoe1962 said:

The OL could get pushed off the front steps by a Girlscout selling cookies, so I am not surprised by this move.

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hey, cookie-selling girl scouts are mean.

Simple Jack's Brother said:

Guessing that had more to do with altitude than anything. The more muscle you have, the more oxygen your body needs. When you're playing as hard, as fast, and are as yoked up as Gronk, the thing air could have more of an effect on you than others.

Anecdotal evidence; my best friend is training to be a firefighter, and a mentor from the academy told him to be careful not to add too much muscle before the fitness test. He said a lot of guys come into the test being absolutely carved up, but are so big that when they're lugging stuff up a stairwell, the body's simply not getting enough oxygen.

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I remember I went to a gym once in Denver. I was in great shape, but could not even bring myself to complete my regular workout. Was as bad as being severely hungover and took me awhile to figure out wtf was going on.

Jlaff said:

I remember I went to a gym once in Denver. I was in great shape, but could not even bring myself to complete my regular workout. Was as bad as being severely hungover and took me awhile to figure out wtf was going on.

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I was late for an event in Denver nad ran across the parking lot - and couldn't catch my breath for quite a while.

Biggest home field advantage ever.

Salt Lake City is way worse, by the way. A couple thousand feet higher and the salt in the air sucks the water out of you.

50-yard-line said:

hey, cookie-selling girl scouts are mean.

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Yeah but the cookies are good, so it's worth the risk.

ChrisR2223 said:

If the receivers failing was due to a intricate system and demanding QB then I agree I think its more talent- injury related.
If the system is that complicated we should be simplifying it.
If we cant have nice things like Allen Robinsons or Martavius Bryants of the world then the system needs to evolve.
Also how much do you wish we didnt cheap out on Emanuel Sanders damn.

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Instead we have nice things like five (5!) AFCCG appearances in a row, and a collection of Lombardi Trophies other teams covet.

How many championships and Super Bowl rings do Robinson and Bryant have?

Steady as she goes!