Today’s question comes from Trent Wiebe in Federal Heights. To get your question in, e-mail jlegwold@denverpost.com:
Q: It seems to me the Broncos have been among the most injury-prone teams in the NFL for a number of years now. I’m not necessarily seeking opinion or explanation, but it’d be nice to hear or read about inquiries as to correlation between team fitness programs versus injuries. There doesn’t seem to be much of an equilibrium in Denver. Isn’t it time, especially now with the (Elvis) Dumervil situation as a catalyst, that the team authorities were prompted to examine and render insight as to the impact of conditioning on elevated injury rates?
A: Trent, you led the host of folks who wondered, in light of Dumervil’s injury, if the Broncos are conducting their training camp any differently than other teams and if there are some things they need to do differently.
The Titans, for example, aren’t having any formal two-a-days and the only time they will practice twice in a day is if one of the practices is a special-teams workout, only that doesn’t include the full squad.
Through the first week, I would say the Broncos haven’t hit as much in camp as they did last year. But they have certainly had more injuries than they did at this point last year.
Some have been strange. Knowshon Moreno’s injury was noncontact — he was in the open field in a basic 7-on-7 drill and his leg buckled after he caught a pass.
Dumervil was in a 1-on-1 drill that is done countless times in every NFL training camp and would have been done if the Broncos practiced only once a day for 45 minutes. Those 1-on-1 drills are staples, and no other pass rusher has been injured in those drills in this camp.
Teams, the Broncos included, always scout themselves about their workouts, and certainly the Broncos will be forced to look at the way they do things once again after this camp is over to see if anything can be changed.
They’ll also have to look at how they structure their offseason workouts, whether they’re trying to do too much.
There would probably be more concern, as far as locating an empirical trend, if there were one type of injury that was happening more than others.
But these injuries have been all over the place.
Moreno’s is a leg, Dumervil his chest, Correll Buckhalter his neck/upper back, tackle Chris Kuper hurt his ankle and Jarvis Moss fractured a bone in his hand. That’s both soft tissue and bone injuries across a variety of people and a variety of positions.
Some teams have more injuries because they’ve either taken risks on players who are a little older or they have had extensive injury histories in their past.
The Broncos do have some players who fit both of those categories. Kenny McKinley finished the season on injured reserve with a knee injury in 2009 and injured the same knee in this training camp.
Safety Josh Barrett had extensive shoulder problems in college and those problems have resurfaced in his pro career.
Football is a game that will always bring injuries. And because there are few ways to become better at it than to actually play it, teams are going to always have to risk injury to get themselves ready.
But you are correct, the Broncos will have to sit down at the end of the season and make sure there isn’t a common denominator in all of this. On the surface, it doesn’t look like there is right now.
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
