For the better part of the past decade, the New York Giants have either led or were near the top of the NFL when it came to players and games lost to injuries. It has been the culprit of lost seasons and has cost the last four head coaches their jobs.
On Monday, the Giants opened their offseason workout program and incoming head coach Brian Daboll was asked what he and his staff intended to do the stem the tide of injuries.
“We’ve had plenty of meetings on that,” Daboll told reporters. “Look, we’re going to do whatever we can do as a coaching staff and as an organization to help that — whether that be soft tissue injuries, whatever that is, that’s what our job is to help the players in that regard. But we’ve had plenty of meetings in that regard. Went back the last few years and took a look at it.
“You look at how you schedule practice, how you ramp guys up when they get here for phase one, to phase two, the hydration portion of it, the teaching aspect of it, we’ve looked at really all the areas that encompass injuries. You’re never guaranteed, but we’re certainly going to try our best to make sure that our players are as healthy as they can be for us on Sundays.”
That will be the key to Daboll’s success here with the Giants. No team, regardless of the depth of their roster, could have succeeded with the amount of injuries the Giants incurred over the past eight seasons.
Other teams have managed this aspect of the business, so it can be done. For those making the argument that the turf at MetLife Stadium is the culprit, that claim has been debunked by NFL officials.
The Jets, who share the venue with the Giants, have not had as many injuries, so the focus will be on what the Giants have been doing in-house the past decade.
