What injury reclamation projects have actually worked out?

[jefmblrd]

Great question to consider...Dion Lewis comes to mind if he can come back and stay healthy (but that's the question, isn't it!). Gaffney might be a great find as well; we'll just have to see.

The team has taken shots on guys being able to come back from injury through waiver claims, free agency, etc, and most of the time they don't work out, but it speaks to the larger point of due diligence and what if they do work out. Either way it's a low risk gamble.

As stated in an earlier post, the Pats' success puts them in a more challenging position when it comes to team building through draft and waiver claim position, so they have to be ready to take advantage of every opportunity: signing injured players is but one.

UDFAs have been a goldmine for them, so here's hoping guys like Lewis and Gaffney come back strong in the injured players category.

 

[primetime]

Actually the reclamation projects have turned out to be more healthy than some of the draft picks (Ras-IR, Dobson, Crable, etc.)

Dowling (and Wheatley before him) was an injury reclamation project from college. If not for his injury history, he probably would have gone in the middle of the first round.

 

[Brady6]

Last season Akiem Hicks stands out.

Others on our current roster:

• Dion Lewis prior to injury.
• LeGarrette Blount had just 151 rushing yards the season before we traded for him.
• Pat Chung when we brought him back after his stint with the Eagles.
• Alan Branch was cut by the Bills and a street free agent when we signed him during the season in 2014.
• Rob Ninkovich was a bottom of the roster player for the Saints when we signed him.
• Jabaal Sheard had just 2 sacks in 2014 with Cleveland.

To a lesser degree Jonathan Freeney, Keshawn Martin, Michael Williams, Rufus Johnson, and LaAdrian Waddle.

In prior years:

• Andre Carter
• Mark Anderson
• Randy Moss
• Corey Dillon
• Jonathan Casillas
• Danny Woodhead
• Deion Branch (second stint w/us)
• Aqib Talib

 

[Julius]

What about Steven Neal?

I think we waited two years for him to get healthy.

 

[BTTA]

A more narrow question is about the "red shirt season: who has been injured in their first year, put on IR, then come back to make the team and be a contributor in the second year?

We have hopes every year coming in to camp, and they rarely seem to pan out.

 

[jah]

Last season Akiem Hicks stands out.

Others on our current roster:

• Dion Lewis prior to injury.
• LeGarrette Blount had just 151 rushing yards the season before we traded for him.
• Pat Chung when we brought him back after his stint with the Eagles.
• Alan Branch was cut by the Bills and a street free agent when we signed him during the season in 2014.
• Rob Ninkovich was a bottom of the roster player for the Saints when we signed him.
• Jabaal Sheard had just 2 sacks in 2014 with Cleveland.

To a lesser degree Jonathan Freeney, Keshawn Martin, Michael Williams, Rufus Johnson, and LaAdrian Waddle.

In prior years:

• Andre Carter
• Mark Anderson
• Randy Moss
• Corey Dillon
• Jonathan Casillas
• Danny Woodhead
• Deion Branch (second stint w/us)
• Aqib Talib

Not talking regular reclamation, but specifically injured players.

 

[fnordcircle]

Curtis Martin

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Curtis Martin

First name that came to my mind. He fell to us in the 3rd round d/t an injury his senior year and is currently the 4th leading rusher of all time.

Gronk was a similar home run pick.

Dion lewis until he .... Got injured :/

 

[Joey007]

Mark Anderson/Andre Carter were big reclamations in 2011.

Anderson, especially. Who had been pretty much off the map for about 5 years.

 

[Bill Lee]

Curtis Martin?

 

[Fencer]

Curtis Martin?

Beat me to it!

McGinest, IIRC, was once seen as a chronic-back-injury disappointment kind of guy. But we're not talking something as severe as is really meant in this thread.

Jim Plunkett is something of an example too, in college and the pros alike, but I'll leave that one to folks who have been Pats fans for a lot longer than I have.

How about Adrian Peterson?

 

[Ring 6]

A more narrow question is about the "red shirt season: who has been injured in their first year, put on IR, then come back to make the team and be a contributor in the second year?

We have hopes every year coming in to camp, and they rarely seem to pan out.

Ben Watson.

 

[Ring 6]

Mark Anderson/Andre Carter were big reclamations in 2011.

Anderson, especially. Who had been pretty much off the map for about 5 years.

Anderson was off the map because he wasn't very good not because he was injured.
I don't think carter was injured before he came here. He got injured while here and never made it back despite attempting to

 

[patfanken]

Also, I'd be really surprised if Keenan Lewis has anything left in the tank. I think the downward spiral of his career started in 2014 when he hurt his knee, got carted off, then came back and tried to play through it. His knee ended up looking like this:

Which brings us to today, and the Saints eating a $7M cap hit just to free up his roster spot. It was cheaper to keep him than cut him and they cut him anyway, which is a pretty enormous red flag re: the potential of him being in any shape to play football this year.

I have mentioned how much I would LOVE to see even a 90% Keenan Lewis's CB skills on the Pats this season (at the vet minimum of course). We really NEED at least one big CB's skill set to go along with all our quick munchkins, 0r we will see a LOT more of what Alshon Jeffery gave us in the first quarter. Sometimes, even with good CB coverage, size does matter.

Unfortunately your post makes way too much sense, and I will sadly have to put my fantasies on this topic to bed.

 

[Joey007]

Anderson was off the map because he wasn't very good not because he was injured.
I don't think carter was injured before he came here. He got injured while here and never made it back despite attempting to

If I remember right with Carter, he was in Washington, who was running a 3-4 system at the time that really didn't suit him well at all. So his issues were more schematic.

He thrived here once he got back into more a 4-3. (kinda like Sheard's issue in Cleveland in 14)

 

[BradyFTW!]

First name that came to my mind. He fell to us in the 3rd round d/t an injury his senior year and is currently the 4th leading rusher of all time.

Gronk was a similar home run pick.

Dion lewis until he .... Got injured :/

Yeah, if we count guys who were injury reclamations from college to the pros (and I don't see why we wouldn't), then Gronk is probably the all-time greatest reclamation project.

 

[BradyFTW!]

But how much does it save them in the long run? The short-term hit may have been worth it.

That's definitely a consideration, and is almost certainly why they cut him instead of IRing him. If they'd cut him next year, it would've carried a $3.6M cap hit, so they basically gave up $1M this year and a year of Keenan Lewis to save $3.6M next year. Which is essentially them signalling that they're so confident he won't be worth even $3.6M (cb3-4 money) next year that they'd rather pay $1M now for the privilege of avoiding that hit. In other words, they think his career is effectively over.

I think that's usually the case when a team is willing to cut a player with enough guaranteed money left that it raises his cap. It necessarily means that a) they felt good enough about him recently enough that they gave him a bunch of guaranteed money that he's only started to earn, and b) that something happened that dramatically reversed their opinion of him. In the Saints' case, they restructured his contract just last year to guarantee a bunch of his 2016 salary, and that was well after he sustained the injury in question. So I think we can safely say he was still part of their long term plans then. But over the past year of rehab, they've seen enough to make them so confident he's done that they'd rather pay $1M extra just to free up his roster spot this year than wait and see if with 2 full years of healing his knee might heal enough to make him worth backup CB money.

 

[Ring 6]

If I remember right with Carter, he was in Washington, who was running a 3-4 system at the time that really didn't suit him well at all. So his issues were more schematic.

He thrived here once he got back into more a 4-3. (kinda like Sheard's issue in Cleveland in 14)

Well carter was a 43 guy stick in Washington when they switched to 34 which he didn't fit just like haynrswortj(for different reasons). Carter was a 10+ year vet who was always a good player so I don't think getting away from a team that used him wrong is reclamation.

 

[Ring 6]

Last season Akiem Hicks stands out.

Others on our current roster:

• Dion Lewis prior to injury.
• LeGarrette Blount had just 151 rushing yards the season before we traded for him.
• Pat Chung when we brought him back after his stint with the Eagles.
• Alan Branch was cut by the Bills and a street free agent when we signed him during the season in 2014.
• Rob Ninkovich was a bottom of the roster player for the Saints when we signed him.
• Jabaal Sheard had just 2 sacks in 2014 with Cleveland.

To a lesser degree Jonathan Freeney, Keshawn Martin, Michael Williams, Rufus Johnson, and LaAdrian Waddle.

In prior years:

• Andre Carter
• Mark Anderson
• Randy Moss
• Corey Dillon
• Jonathan Casillas
• Danny Woodhead
• Deion Branch (second stint w/us)
• Aqib Talib

You are kinda just listing people who were free agents

 

[Brady6]

You are kinda just listing people who were free agents

We traded for Talib, Casillas, Branch, Moss, Blount and Hicks. That is 6 of the 14 players I listed. I did overlook the “injured” aspect so the players I listed to do not all apply anyway but I was not listing just free agents.