miami dolphins injury report

miami dolphins injury report

The Importance of the Miami Dolphins Injury Report

1. Introduction

The significance of this essay comes from the current effect the Miami Dolphins injury report has on the projected outcome of an NFL game. Whether it is from knowing if a star player will be able to play, or considering how a certain injury might affect a player’s performance, the injury report holds a lot of weight for the outcome of specific matchups. Given the fact that the injury report is not a mandatory part of NFL teams’ operations until said player is actually “probable” for the game, ambiguity and loopholes in the injury reporting process have been created and have even called for more strict policies from the NFL. They have done a lot in creating an official statement concerning the rules of injury reporting and fines for not being transparent about a player’s injury. The process is very complex and often not fruitful due to the fact that the same injury could make different players respond differently or players might play through an injury even though it is at the expense of their performance. All of these variables make it hard to come to a concrete conclusion of how an injury will affect an individual player or the game as a whole.

2. The Impact of Injuries on the Miami Dolphins

Jay Fiedler, having undergone hip surgery in the offseason, was placed on the physically unable to perform list, meaning he would miss at least the first six weeks of the season. This may prove less harmful than last year since Fiedler’s surgery was to relieve chronic irritation in his hip, something which contributed to the injury he sustained. Chris Chambers, Miami’s star wide receiver, is another player listed on this year’s injury report. He broke his right index finger in mid-August during practice. Chambers is expecting to play the season opener wearing a protective cast, after which he will test out a smaller yet less protective one. It may affect his catching ability, but not as much as last year when he had a concussion in week 2 at Indianapolis. In a game against Kansas City, Chambers received a hit from linebacker Mike Maslowski that had him spit blood and taken out on a stretcher. He was diagnosed with a severe concussion and was forced to miss the next two games. This latest injury by far isn’t as damaging and may take some weight off the fact that Miami’s other starting wide receiver David Boston was suspended for the season due to drug abuse.

Last season, the Miami Dolphins’ fate became obvious soon after losing their star quarterback. As it turned out, their record while Jay Fiedler was playing was 9-6. Once he was injured, and backup QB Ray Lucas was forced into the starter role, the Dolphins lost the last two games of the season, missing the playoffs. Once that happened, Lucas retired. According to this year’s injury report, a backup QB might not have been necessary.

3. Key Players on the Injury Report

DE Jason Taylor has recently been added to the injury report after suffering an ankle injury. Taylor is one of the Dolphins’ most valuable players and was the 2006 NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Taylor suffered an ankle injury and was unable to use crutches due to an ensuing foot injury. This injury has caused Taylor to miss the game against the Buffalo Bills and worries are increasing as there are doubts to whether Taylor will be right to play in coming games. A timeframe of 2-3 weeks has been set by Miami’s medical staff although there is no certainty for this. Ankle injuries can be very troublesome and if not rehabilitated correctly Taylor may find this injury haunting him throughout the 2008 season.

This section is dedicated to providing information on injuries to key players on the Miami Dolphins’ team. Information has been compiled from the Miami Dolphins Injury Report, the official word on the injuries being offered by the team. Topics to be discussed for each player will be the significance of the player to the team, the nature of the injury, effects of the injury in games to date and expected return date for the player.

4. Strategies to Minimize Injuries

The use of such information has the potential to decrease the amount of training-related injuries and the overall player workload. This will provide a competitive advantage, and the cumulative fatigue testing is a very feasible and non-time-consuming strategy.

A further study by Gabbett supports the use of the acute:chronic workload ratio for injury prevention. It uses a training program’s changes in ratio to successfully manipulate player injuries. The Miami Dolphins will use cumulative fatigue testing and monitoring to measure the acute:chronic workload ratio and foresee any increases in injury risk. An extra 5 minutes will be added to the start and end of each training session. Players will individually rate their perceived wellness and physical preparedness for that day’s session. This information is used to calculate training load tolerance and each player’s individual acute:chronic workload ratio. It will enable the coaching staff to manipulate the training programs for players dependent on their injury risk and develop an understanding if player injuries are related to training load.

It is essential to distinguish the point at which the training load is no longer beneficial to the player’s performance and the point at which it begins to put the player at risk of injury. The acute:chronic workload ratio provides this information. It is calculated by dividing the acute workload (the training performed over the last week) by the chronic workload (the average training over the last 4 weeks). High risk of injury is associated with a ratio of acute:chronic workload lower than 0.8 or higher than 1.5. A recent study completed with elite rugby union players found that the risk of acute training-related injury increased 3.5 times in individuals with a ratio of >1.5. This provides evidence that sudden spikes or drops in a player’s training load can increase their risk of injury.

Football is a physically demanding sport involving high levels of both training and competition. A player’s training load can be defined as the cumulative amount of stress placed on the body from training and competition. Every player’s tolerance to training and competition varies. The training is only beneficial if the load is within the player’s tolerance and a suitable amount for their physical development. Exceeding a player’s training load tolerance can lead to the onset of fatigue and underperformance. In severe cases, it may develop into overtraining syndrome or lead to injury.

Proposition 1: Cumulative Fatigue Testing and Monitoring

5. Conclusion

If any up-to-date information has been accepted by the legal system, it is hard to dispute something that has been taken into law. The damage, such as in the situation of a court case ruling on compensatory damage, and then how it was described by the attorney involved in the case (ofs1), is binding. Any disregard of divulging this information can have serious consequences. As a Miami Dolphins fan or simply in the cases of fantasy football, this injury list directly impacts every game played by the Dolphins and how the game will be later interpreted. With this cumulative information now being public knowledge, labeled in the form of the official list, it can be considered an injury board to the head advertised by the National Football League. There can still be consideration of teams hiding specific injuries for strategic reasons. A default example used is Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots. But the compelling need of loading one’s injury to this list will override and have a distinguishable difference in game plans on the following Sunday morning. With the information difference between the two teams playing being relatively public, it is going to have an increased effect on a team already scheduled to play against a team with a lower amount of injuries. At a point, it can be accepted as simple common sense that an injured player should not be playing. But this is going to allow more leniency in stakes of substituting a hurt player for a healthy player with the knowledge the healthier player can resume the original player’s position the further he is from full strength. This will not be a specific code of conduct, but there will be many cases where coaches are going to know it will be the better choice.