Is practice/pre-season even worth it?

[Dave Gray]

With the amount of injuries that an average team gets, is it even worth it to have camps?  These guys know how to play football already.  Are they really getting that much better at the cost of losing a bunch of your guys?

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Obviously 32 coaches disagree with you every team has the ability to forgo contact drills yet none sem to be even considering that.

[Phishfan]

You have to have the camp in some fashion. Every sport does. Otherwise your rookies get no experience and you cannot evaluate new talent. The NFL has already scaled back the practices a lot from what they formerly were and players train more in the offseason than they did in the past. So I agree to a point that they are not as important as it once was for the conditioning but as far as building your team chemistry it is absolutely imperative.

[CF DolFan]

Injuries are going to happen. Like Gase said ... these are injuries you can't predict. It isn't like they could have worked out harder or done more squats etc. They just happen and unfortunately they are happening to us quite frequently.

[Dave Gray]

Obviously 32 coaches disagree with you every team has the ability to forgo contact drills yet none sem to be even considering that.

That may be because it's the right thing to do.  But it's also at least partially because NFL coaches are a good ole boy network where you have to have these old ideas to get put in a position to be a head coach in the first place.

I always go to punting as an example of this.  These coaches punt WAY too much.  But they all do it, so there's no way to change it.

[VidKid]

It may not 'really' be worth it from a fan standpoint, but I feel a little game time practice/scrimmage is good for players.

I know that when I played in that flag football league last season, the first game or 2 felt fast. I mean, when was the last time we all played. Sure, probably longer than an offseason, but still, that first game or two really helped me get back to playing.

You can't predict an injury, you just play smart and hope. But a game or 2 can be beneficial, IMO.

[Pappy13]

First off, remember that Ryan Tannehill got hurt on a non contact play, so it's really not even part of the discussion.

So what if McMillan got hurt on his first punt coverage in the first game. What difference does it make? The reality is that football is a dangerous sport and becoming and more and more dangerous as the players get bigger and faster. The way the Dolphins are approaching it is the way that you have to approach it which is that players are going to get hurt and you just have to deal with it. Teams that are deeper are able to adjust to losing players better than those teams that are pretty much all about the starters. As fans we tend to only consider the starters, but in reality the team is 53 players deep and all of them are important.

[Tenshot13]

First off, remember that Ryan Tannehill got hurt on a non contact play, so it's really not even part of the discussion.

So what if McMillan got hurt on his first punt coverage in the first game. What difference does it make? The reality is that football is a dangerous sport and becoming and more and more dangerous as the players get bigger and faster. The way the Dolphins are approaching it is the way that you have to approach it which is that players are going to get hurt and you just have to deal with it. Teams that are deeper are able to adjust to losing players better than those teams that are pretty much all about the starters. As fans we tend to only consider the starters, but in reality the team is 53 players deep and all of them are important.

Which makes who they drafted and picked up in free agency that much more important.  A lot of those guys were for depth.  There was a lot of criticism because of that, but look where they are sitting now?  Next guy up.

[BuccaneerBrad]

You have to have the camp in some fashion. Every sport does. Otherwise your rookies get no experience and you cannot evaluate new talent. The NFL has already scaled back the practices a lot from what they formerly were and players train more in the offseason than they did in the past. So I agree to a point that they are not as important as it once was for the conditioning but as far as building your team chemistry it is absolutely imperative.

This is especially true when you have a new coach and/or new coordinators.  Any time you install a new scheme/system, it makes that training camp that much more crucial

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I think each coach should carefully consider how much practice/drills/risk is right for each player.

For a guy like Tom Brady or Drew Brees you probably want him to only play, participate in padded drills enough to dust off any cobwebs before the first game.

On the other hand an UDFA QB you are concerned has trouble avoiding the blitz you might take the attitude of not having him wear a red shirt at all in practice either he will learn to avoid the sack or he will wind up on IR, but he is of no use to us on the 53 man roster if he can't learn to avoid being sacked. 

Of course those are the extremes many players falls some where in between.  But for many players the need for them to improve thru practice and/or the need to evaluate them outweighs the risk of injury. 

Here is the approach I might take.  You need to reduce 90 players down to 53.   Say you start camp with 35 vets you know are making the roster (unless they are on IR or something else crazy happens) and 55 players are rookies or are competing for the last 18 spots. 

With the 35 you want to work on conditioning, skill improvement but injury avoidance is more important than evaluation or getting them use to NFL intensity. 

With the 55 -- who gives a shit if a dozen of them get hurt, improving their skills and evaluating them is more important than keeping them healthy, unless they can take it to the next skillswise they aren't going to be on the team anyway.