The Cleveland Browns have managed to stay pretty healthy and while some of this is a matter of luck, the team has actively taken measures to try to keep them that way.
One of the most important, subtle areas the Cleveland Browns are winning is on the injury front and much of that credit goes to Hue Jackson and the team’s management of players in camp. Multiple players took days or practices off, worked to the side with athletic trainers, due to what the team dubbed days where players were most likely to suffer strained muscles as well as non-contact knee injuries.
Related Story: Cleveland Browns: The impact of Myles Garrett
To this point, the Browns have not suffered a single serious non-contact injury, and while that may not draw a lot of headlines, the opposite would. The past few years, the Browns have dealt with a lot of strains and other issues with muscles due to overuse, particularly hamstrings. It has players miss a ton of time and ultimately end up behind in training camp.
Around the NFL, 24 players have suffered ACL injuries to date this offseason/preseason. The Browns have yet to have one. By having players work on the side in some choice practices, sacrificing those reps in the short run enabled the team to be more productive overall.
More from NFL Spin Zone
- Dallas Cowboys made the trade everyone else should have made
- Pittsburgh Steelers rookie sleeper everyone should be talking about
- Anthony Richardson putting jaw-dropping talent on display immediately
- Denver Broncos’ stud wide receiver might be out for a while
- Washington Commanders: Three takeaways from win over Ravens
This is not easy for a coach to do, which is why Jackson deserves a great deal of credit. It’s almost anathema to have players, especially unproven ones, to be healthy and not participate in practice. It’s that much more difficult to then endorse and encourage it.
That sacrifice and listening to their medical staff and accepting and applying research has kept players healthier, have them poised to be as close to full strength as possible. Corey Coleman in particular is a player where he has concerns with hamstring tightness and the management has allowed him stay healthy, continue to improve and he appears poised to have a nice sophomore campaign.
There is no questioning the element of luck that plays into this. The Browns have been fortunate not to have teammates in practice or opponents in preseason go crashing into players knees, but just avoiding the non-contact injuries is important.
Few teams have much in terms of true depth where they can simply afford to lose players and the Browns are thinner than most. There are around a dozen players on the Browns where if they go down for an extended period of time or worse, the season, the team’s relatively meager aspirations for the season tank. Much of the optimism around this team for this year is because they haven’t lost their players to season ending injuries, while other teams are suffering punches to the gut as players go down for the year.
Next: NFL Power Rankings 2017: Preseason Week 4
The fact that this has been so successful is critical. Getting coaches to change and buy in to new concepts is never easy, so having the roster as healthy as it is will likely have Hue Jackson continue with this approach to practices, trying to ensure his players minimize risk for non-contact injuries while still being productive and improving. When the regular season starts rolling, the Cleveland Browns may not be as fortunate when it comes to injuries. For now, this becomes another opportunity for this team to set a trend rather than play catch up with the rest of the league.