How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 season?

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

We all saw an improved McCourty after he came back in week 13 to play Safety

What I question was,was it really the change of position that improved his season after being consistently beaten at CB earlier in the year?...or maybe his shoulder had been an ongoing issue all year long and possibly was playing in pain longer than we think?

If Devin's shoulder was injured earlier in the season then that could explain why he struggled so badly at corner after such a great rookie year.

If he comes back to corner and remains healthy and returns to rookie form then maybe he is not the one year wonder so many of us think he might be.

BostonHerald.com - Blogs: The Blitz» Blog Archive » Devin McCourty says shoulder is ‘getting stronger’

 

[DarrylS]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

The shoulder injury, no offseason, no OTA's, abbreviated TC and many injuries all contributed to having a bad year.

We will see if it is a bump in the road, or a harbinger of things to come.. he was too good, to have just gotten this bad.

 

[Gronkandez]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

His rookie season he played zone...and excelled. Last year the team moved to more of a press man coverage and he failed miserably. Had nothing to do with his shoulder except if you want to argue that if he was healthy he would have learned better technique as the year went on.

 

[Simple Jack's Brother]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

Glad somebody posted this...i was suspicious the whole year about whether he was hiding an injury from us. We all knew he injured his shoulder, but i wasn't sure if he was at 100% when he came back. I'm sorry, but you don't just go from a Pro Bowler as a ROOKIE to getting burned every single game without something being wrong.

Here's to hoping a healthy McCourty and Ras-i make life difficult for opponents this year and the future.

 

[PatsWSB47]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

His rookie season he played zone...and excelled. Last year the team moved to more of a press man coverage and he failed miserably. Had nothing to do with his shoulder except if you want to argue that if he was healthy he would have learned better technique as the year went on.

I agree with this. Injuries have some impact of course but a sore shoulder doesn't cause you to not know when to turn around.

 

[Kontradiction]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

His rookie season he played zone...and excelled. Last year the team moved to more of a press man coverage and he failed miserably. Had nothing to do with his shoulder except if you want to argue that if he was healthy he would have learned better technique as the year went on.

Agreed. He looked like the thought of having to turn his head in coverage absolutely horrified him. That's why his play improved with the move to safety.

 

[Marqui]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

His rookie season he played zone...and excelled. Last year the team moved to more of a press man coverage and he failed miserably. Had nothing to do with his shoulder except if you want to argue that if he was healthy he would have learned better technique as the year went on.

Unfortunately this is most likely the truth. I know some people wishfully think that McCourty played poorly only because of some hidden injury, but if you watch the tape, his biggest problem was his complete inability to play press man coverage. At Rutgers they mainly played similar zone coverages to what the Pats ran in McCourty's rookie year which is probably why he excelled that year. The good news is that to me he seemed to improve his man technique towards the end of the season and into the playoffs. Hopefully by the start of this season he'll have the technique down.

 

[Simple Jack's Brother]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

To be fair, Asante could never play man coverage, and he turned out ok as a player....just happened to be a terrible human being as well.

 

[mayoclinic]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

Unfortunately this is most likely the truth. I know some people wishfully think that McCourty played poorly only because of some hidden injury, but if you watch the tape, his biggest problem was his complete inability to play press man coverage. At Rutgers they mainly played similar zone coverages to what the Pats ran in McCourty's rookie year which is probably why he excelled that year. The good news is that to me he seemed to improve his man technique towards the end of the season and into the playoffs. Hopefully by the start of this season he'll have the technique down.

I wouldn't expect the shoulder injury to explain everything, but don't you think that it might have impacted his ability to play press man coverage effectively? It's hard to give receivers a good bump if you're shoulder is injured.

I'm guessing that McCourty's struggles were due to several factors. Being switched to man coverage when he didn't play a ton of it in college and when there was a short offseason in which to be coached up on techniques, while simultaneously having an injury that made him not 100% physically fit, would have been a demanding challenge. The fact that he persevered through it all and improved is a promising sign.

We'll have to find out how much of his problems are correctable with a full year under his belt and an offseason to polish his techniques, and hopefully a healthy shoulder. I'm guessing he will be significantly better than the 2011 version.

 

[Gronkandez]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

He didn't get hurt until Week 10, so he played 8+ games when healthy. That's a pretty good sample size. One game that stands out to me is the first Buffalo game. IIRC he was getting torched left and right.

That said he seems like a hard worker so maybe he can turn things around a little this year...but I don't expect another year like his rookie year.

 

[Sciz]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

In theory, a shoulder injury would most impact a CB's ability to play in press coverage and break up passes. Those are both areas where McCourty struggled.

 

[mayoclinic]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

He didn't get hurt until Week 10, so he played 8+ games when healthy. That's a pretty good sample size.

That's a very annoying argument.

That said he seems like a hard worker so maybe he can turn things around a little this year...but I don't expect another year like his rookie year.

Who knows? I've generally felt that most of us over-estimated McCourty based on his rookie year and under-estimated him based on his sophomore year. But time will tell. At least if he reverts to his rookie form you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Marqui]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

I wouldn't expect the shoulder injury to explain everything, but don't you think that it might have impacted his ability to play press man coverage effectively? It's hard to give receivers a good bump if you're shoulder is injured.

In theory, a shoulder injury would most impact a CB's ability to play in press coverage and break up passes. Those are both areas where McCourty struggled.

Those are good points. Although I would then question why he was even out there if he was so injured that it would make him the worst CB in the league (based on yards given up).

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

In theory, a shoulder injury would most impact a CB's ability to play in press coverage and break up passes. Those are both areas where McCourty struggled.

IIAC Didn't Ellis Hobbs have a similar injury to his shoulder that reared its ugly head when Plaxico went by him untouched for the easy winning TD in SB42?

I think Hobbs struggled that season too although he never had a season in NE like McCourty's rookie campaign.

 

[mayoclinic]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

Those are good points. Although I would then question why he was even out there if he was so injured that it would make him the worst CB in the league (based on yards given up).

Presumably because he was better than the alternatives. Though Gronkandez' point that the injury didn't occur until week 10 is awfully hard to argue against, damn him. :violent:

One thing to consider in how bad the secondary was last year was that because of the lockout, until last July 25 there was no contact between the team and players. Not only did that affect offseason teaching and cause teams to make sudden schematic changes without normal preparation - which may well have affected guys like McCourty and Jermaine Cunningham, both of whom played much better as rookies than they did in their 2nd year - but it also didn't allow the team to properly evaluate the health of key personnel. Remember how shocked we all were when Leigh Bodden and Ty Warren were cut because of ongoing injuries? In a "normal" offseason the team would have had a much better read on their health going into training camp. Bodden was a very good man press CB in 2009, and if he had returned to form our secondary would have been very different. The team may not have planned to push McCourty into man coverage so precipitously, but when Bodden came up injured and Ras-I Dowling got hurt as well they didn't have many options.

 

[supafly]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

IIAC Didn't Ellis Hobbs have a similar injury to his shoulder that reared its ugly head when Plaxico went by him untouched for the easy winning TD in SB42?

I think Hobbs struggled that season too although he never had a season in NE like McCourty's rookie campaign.

I think the thing that 'reared its ugly head' the most was the choice to send the house and blitz, thus leaving little 5'9" Hobbs one-on-one with 6'5" Burress.

If you remember after the play, all Hobbs could really do was look to the sidelines and shrug his shoulders like "what the hell did you expect to happen?"

I honestly didn't remember Hobbs' injury being as costly as you're claiming, but I could be wrong.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

If he has another suck year..it may be time to move him to S

 

[Triumph]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

Sort of a make or break season for McCourty at CB.

Another performance like 2011 and he might go the way of Brandon Dinglewether and permanently move to Safety. The Pats are still drafting CBs so that should say a lot about the current bunch on the roster. Arringtons the only sure bet at this point and hopefully he doesnt go South.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

The Pats are still drafting CBs so that should say a lot about the current bunch on the roster.

Seems we always have a CB designated for the IR...if not more than 1. BB will pretty much plan for IR incidents so it doesn't stop the team from winning with a single player gone.

 

[zoostation]

Re: How much did the impact of Devin McCourty's shoulder injury affect his 2011 seaso

To be fair, Asante could never play man coverage, and he turned out ok as a player....just happened to be a terrible human being as well.

I was never a big fan of his game, but 'terrible human being' is a bit harsh......

Just curious....what do you base that on?