Camp Injuries: Which Ones Matter?
August 20th, 2002
As the pre-season heats up, one of the most vexing aspects of fantasy football begins to rear it's ugly head - injuries. How much concern should a fantasy football GM have over an ankle sprain suffered during routine drills in training camp? How relevant is a player's injury history in reference to the coming year's campaign? These and many other questions weigh upon the minds of fantasy GM's everywhere. In the discussion below we will look at four different categories of camp injuries (and draw distinctions between them): injuries that constitute no worry; nagging injuries that deserve some concern; chronic injuries that seriously limit a player's value; and, finally, injuries that eliminate a player from consideration.
First off, let's consider injuries that shouldn't concern fantasy players at all. Minor injuries come in two distinct flavors - the obviously minor injury, and those injuries that appear serious at first, but later turn out to be minor. A good example of the first sort of occurrence was recently provided by LaDainian Tomlinson. On 8/02/02, ESPN reported that Tomlinson was going to be out for a couple of days due to a sprained ankle suffered in practice. It was a precaution taken to protect the player during training camp. No worries here.
However, sometimes a camp injury can appear a lot more serious than it really is. Consider the knee injury suffered by the Lion's offensive lineman Jeff Backus (a major part of the Lions' - and running back James Stewart's - line). At the time his injury first occurred, the reports sounded quite ominous. Backus collapsed on the field. He was taken off on the cart, with his leg immobilized.
Upon further review, however, it turns out that Backus had suffered a painful (and audible) injury - the bones in his left knee impacted each other with a loud pop. Understandably, Backus was scared by the loud sound (Full Story), but it was not actually a serious injury.
The point is, always follow up on the initial injury report before downgrading a player on your draft sheet (or upgrading a back-up). Sometimes the best case scenario does occur.
The second sort of camp injury is one of the most difficult to evaluate - the nagging minor injury. Such injuries are usually treated by rest and attention from the team trainer, and don't require invasive medical procedures like surgery. The Bronco's rookie wide receiver Ashley Lelie provides us with an excellent example of this type of recurring injury. Lelie hurt his left hamstring on March 25th, just before the NFL draft. Then, he hurt his right hamstring in a June mini-camp. Most recently, Lelie has missed practice time due to re-injuring his right hamstring on July 28th (Full Story). Clearly, Lelie has tender hamstrings and may have trouble staying on the field for portions of the regular season.
A few players, like Isaac Bruce, manage to overcome such difficulties and move on to highly productive careers. However, many players are unable to do so. The question you as an owner need to ask is "How important is the pick I am sacrificing to acquire this player?". If the pick is relatively low in value, then go ahead and roll the dice if you like. Even then, if there are solid, non-injury prone players of the same value available at the pick in question, the best bet is not the guy nursing a nagging injury.
The third type of injury that shows up during pre-season and training camp is the chronic injury (also called degenerative conditions). Certain players have simply worn out their joints or ligaments during the course of their NFL careers, and have constant "flare-ups" in the affected limb that require multiple surgeries or other medical interventions (constant cortisone shots to a knee joint, regular draining of the affected area, etc.). Exhibit "A" of this sort of injury-hampered player is Denver's Terrell Davis. T. D. was an absolute stud during the Bronco's recent championship years. He helped cap John Elway's career with Super Bowl glory.
Sadly, the Terrell Davis of old is but a distant memory. Consider what Gale Sayers had to say on 8/02 in an interview on Denverpost.com.
Then, remember his surprise knee surgery just before mini-camps opened this year. T. D. has now officially retired - but there were clear warning signs that the end of his career was imminent well before he hung up the cleats. This is the type of information that should make you very wary of drafting an aging player who exhibits a chronic/degenerative condition.
When nostalgia tries to sucker you into a bad move on draft day, you have to fight it. No matter how much you'd have liked to select Terrell Davis, there were other, better options available at that particular pick. If you let someone else take the risk on T.D. draft day, you are definitely in a better position now.
Finally, there is the easiest-to-evaluate camp injury - the season-ending injury. If you are paying attention to the camp news, simply remove the affected player from your draft list and decide where his replacement belongs in your rankings. Jamir Miller (torn Achilles tendon), the stud linebacker for the Cleveland Browns, and Dominic Rhodes (torn ACL), the capable back-up running back in Indianapolis, illustrate this unfortunate situation.
One of the most important parts of assembling a championship caliber fantasy football team is avoiding players with extremely high injury risk during the draft. There is nothing worse than drafting a guy who doesn't stand a chance to help your squad due to a recent injury you didn't hear about - or due to a chronic injury that you ignored or overlooked. So stay informed, and have a great season!
Mark Wimer
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