Injuries 2016 versus 2015: luck or planning?

[K. Dog]

Did the Pats change something to be so injury-free, except for Gronk, by playoff time in 2016, or were we just luckier?

I'm asking partly to try to assess how worried about a 2015 injury repeat one should be at this stage.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Luck. End of thread.

 

[jmt57]

We will see at the end of the year, but from comments made by Bill Belichick it appears that there has been a focus by the coaching staff on preventative maintenance in regards to injuries.

Check out the last two paragraphs from this 11/6/16 conference call:

Bill Belichick Conference Call Transcript 11/6


Mike Reiss had a column on the subject back then:

Bill Belichick pleased with 'significant improvement' on health of roster


The promotion of Moses Cabrera as the Patriots' Strength and Conditioning Coach is hopefully more than just a coincidence with fewer injuries as well.

After five years of bad injury luck, Patriots are finally one of the healthiest in NFL

Patriots were 8th healthiest team in 2016 after changing STR&C coach


Injuries are inevitable so you can't truly base anything on one or even two seasons. Time will tell. Worrying about it would be an exercise in futility.

 

[RobertWeathers]

We will see at the end of the year, but from comments made by Bill Belichick it appears that there has been a focus by the coaching staff on preventative maintenance in regards to injuries.

Check out the last two paragraphs from this 11/16/16 conference call:

Bill Belichick Conference Call Transcript 11/6


Mike Reiss had a column on the subject a week earlier:

Bill Belichick pleased with 'significant improvement' on health of roster


The promotion of Moses Cabrera as the Patriots' Strength and Conditioning Coach is hopefully more than just a coincidence with fewer injuries as well.

After five years of bad injury luck, Patriots are finally one of the healthiest in NFL

Patriots were 8th healthiest team in 2016 after changing STR&C coach


Injuries are inevitable so you can't truly base anything on one or even two seasons. Time will tell. Worrying about it would be an exercise in futility.

Agree.

No question Moses has done a good job and the team has made changes but I think we need 2-3 more years to say it's Moses/program/philosophy change that is making the difference or sheer luck.

 

[Horace's Ivories]

Influence of TB12 conditioning

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

avocado ice cream in the team cafeteria.

 

[Ring 6]

Did the Pats change something to be so injury-free, except for Gronk, by playoff time in 2016, or were we just luckier?

I'm asking partly to try to assess how worried about a 2015 injury repeat one should be at this stage.

We certainly should be spending out time worrying about something that hasn't happened yet and we have no way of knowing how likely it is.

Otherwise we are just sitting around waiting for football.

 

[Joey007]

Some of its luck. But I've gone back and forth endlessly with my brother, a Packers fan, about this. He feels it's all luck, and that only bad luck is the reason the Packers have an excess of injuries seemingly every season recently.

I just don't buy it. I think that, for some teams- if you get hit by the injury bug every year- there is something wrong with the strength and conditioning. Just depends. I do think our 2015 injuries were a bit of bad luck.

 

[TB_Helmet]

Injuries are the only thing keeping us from winning the Super Bowl.

In 2014 and 2016, we were remarkably healthy except for 1-2 starters (albeit important ones). We won both years.

If we had stayed healthy in 2015 I think we win that too. We were devastated and still came really close.

This team, on paper, is better than all three of those teams. If we can stay healthy...it's gonna be a fun Fall and Winter!

 

[K. Dog]

We will see at the end of the year, but from comments made by Bill Belichick it appears that there has been a focus by the coaching staff on preventative maintenance in regards to injuries.

Check out the last two paragraphs from this 11/6/16 conference call:

Bill Belichick Conference Call Transcript 11/6


Mike Reiss had a column on the subject back then:

Bill Belichick pleased with 'significant improvement' on health of roster


The promotion of Moses Cabrera as the Patriots' Strength and Conditioning Coach is hopefully more than just a coincidence with fewer injuries as well.

After five years of bad injury luck, Patriots are finally one of the healthiest in NFL

Patriots were 8th healthiest team in 2016 after changing STR&C coach


Injuries are inevitable so you can't truly base anything on one or even two seasons. Time will tell. Worrying about it would be an exercise in futility.

Thanks for the detailed, helpful answer.

Coincidentally, I was just watching Devin McCourty's interview after training camp today (July 29), and he said something similar: some of it is due to the their process, but also, McCourty concedes, they had some luck, "especially last year".