Jimmy’s got a compound fracture! The Green Bay Packers annual parade of guys to injured reserve begins this year with running back DuJuan Harris.
Harris injured his knee during Friday’s game with Seattle, which was also his first game of the season. After the game Harris said the injury wouldn’t be an issue, but that was obviously a faulty assessment. After hearing what the Packers medical staff had to say, Harris got a second opinion.
The Packers announced they were putting Harris on injured reserve today, which means he’s gone for the season.
Although coach Mike McCarthy proclaimed Harris his starter earlier in the preseason, that role was eventually going to be filled by second-round pick Eddie Lacy. Now, there’s really no question who the top dog is.
Harris’ injury also has other ramifications. The Packers were going to be hard-pressed to keep both Alex Green and James Starks in addition to Lacy, Harris and fourth-round pick Johnathan Franklin.
Now, one of those guys probably gets the roster spot vacated by Harris. Our guess is it’s Alex Green since Starks didn’t even get a carry on Friday.
Close the book on DuJuan Harris as a Packer.
With 2 rookies up-and-coming, the chances of him ever playing in a meaningful game with the Packers again are bleak.
Hopefully, this gives Franklin more opportunities. It also saves the day for either Alex Green or James Starks.
It seems obvious to me now. You’ve already lost 1 RB and have a history of losing RBs during the season. So, you keep them ALL – Lacy, Franklin, Green, Starks and Kuhn. Congrats. You all just made the roster.
DuJuan Harris is on the injured reserve list. They aren’t getting rid of him. It would be a stupid move if they did.
Get off your high horse, iltarion.
Of course they aren’t getting rid of him.
By time he comes back, Lacy and Franklin will likely be the established 1-2 punch, and there will be little chance of him getting either spot back.
Assuming Lacy and Franklin become a legitimate 1-2 punch (which would be fantastic), Harris will not be our of a job as he is a legitimate back (yeah, he’s had a limited sample size, but just watching him, he passes the eye test with flying colors) and is likely better than Starks or Green. If TT and MM believe he has a legitimate shot to recover the ability that he flashes in those 6 games, he will earn a spot, likely no lower than the no. 3 RB.
Now Now…Lets give iltarion some slack…..From what he tells me, he knows everything….Just ask him.
Damn. DuJuan was the quickest RB on the roster, but ran downhill much better than Green or Starks. It’s amazing that he’s smaller than the rest of those guys, but seemed to be much more powerful. I liked the way he would make quick decisions and keep his feet moving through the hole.
wow…not good
!!!!
Is Sam Gados number still in the Packer player directory?
Can we just not play anyone in the last pre-season game?
Here is part of what I wrote Homer re injuries:
The issue is not the loss of DuJuan Harris per se, but rather the unremitting plague of injuries this team suffers, year in and year out. With 2011 as an exception, this Packers team has suffered an unusually high number of injuries. This does not happen in the absence of negligence. Something is afoot. Something is rotten in Denmark. It reminds me of that scene from Casino where Robert De Niro fires that his floor manager after two slot machines give up the jackpot, stating he is either in on it or irretrievably stupid.
For this reason, I wrote in a couple of weeks ago calling for the formation of a blue ribbon panel of experts to conduct a comprehensive investigation and review of our medical and training staff and our training and conditioning programs. Alex Petakis was rather smug, mocking my call for an investigation, while Thunder suggested that ACL tears are more of a freak accident (even though these accidents have been happening consistently for the better part of four years now), whereas things like Hamstring injuries and what not are more about training and conditioning. Well we have plenty of those, too—three this past week! Hear me now and believe me later–something needs to change. And until something does change with our medical and training staff and training and condition programs, these injuries will continue to adversely affect our prospects for capturing another Lombardi. And THAT is something I cannot abide by. Because ANYTHING that hampers our beloved Packers’ quest for the Lombardi is anathema to me.
GO PACK! BELIEVE IN THAT G!
do you ever see “Vijay” in the waiting room ?
It is absolutely on the training staff. So many of these have been ligament and muscle injuries. And it doesn’t just seem like we are the most injured team over the last couple years, it is a fact. By a wide margin.
Actually, Jair, we’re not THE most injures team in the past few years. Top ten, yes, but not número uno; perhaps check your facts before you make such damning assertions.
Whoever is responsible for these, deserves the damning assertions.
tough call, but I think we keep all 4 plus Kuhn. Franklin will need to polish his 3rd down back role cause we are going to use him there.
Would a 203 pound back have really been the go-to guy this season?
While a good stop-gap solution late last year — would he really have survived the entire season, after other teams game-planned for him? In the past, we’ve had miracle guys that looked awesome for a few games before fading.
Talk of him as the starter didn’t really pass the sniff test. Of course, listening to McCarthy it’s a wonder our noses work at all.
He wouldn’t have been the “go-to-guy” he would have been one of two RBs awarded the lion’s share of the carries.
As he is currently on IR and in all probability finished for the season, your question is inconsequential.
Also, it’s not just the Packers who are withholding in their relationship with the Media and subsequently, the fans; the majority of the teams in the NFL effect this M.O. If you’d like to know why, I have 5 words for ya: Rex Ryan, New York Jets.
That’s just fucked up. He was just coming off an injury and now he is out again. Guessing he tore his ACL or something. He’s got to be the saddest guy on earth. He sounded really enthusiastic about coming back to play.
Our training staff sucks. Or, God hates the Packers, which cannot be. So, I can conclude that our trainers and doctors fucking blow.
Nice to see the Scientific Method being put to good use.
Poke holes in the logic, I dare you.
Well there’s the assumption of the existence of an omnipotent, omnipresent GOD for one, assuming such a being does exist, why would IT be concerned with solely this planet, this species, sports in general, football, and this teqm specifically?
The Packers’ head doctor was the primary associate of Dr. James Andrews (you know, one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the world?) prior to acquiring this job; the point reduced to idiomatic form-birds of a feather flock together, like begets like, etc.
The Packers, for all their injuries the past 3 years, are just inside the top 10 most-injured teams, and there are a handful of teams close behind them. That means about 40% of the league has been affected to the same, greater, or slightly lesser extent than the Packers. Furthermore, the incident of reported injuries has steadily risen over the past 4 decades.
Based on this information, it is quite apparent that this a
(somewhat) leaguewide plight and is not constrained to a single team. Moving forward, one could assume that this is the result of a confluence of factors, primary among them the abbreviated structure of offseason workouts which has resulted in more intense and exhaustive workouts, an increase in PED usage which results in muscles so large and strong that the tendons and ligaments required for their proper function are often unable to withstand the force the muscles exert, and increased sensitivity to injuries as a reaction to the surfeit of lawsuits files by firmer players and the associated familial/public outcry.
Furthermore, it is possible that zemblanity may also play a role, in that TT has drafted a significant amount of players with bodies prone to suffer recurring injuries, even if no such injuries manifested at any other level in their careers (I do not subscribe to this hypothesis, but it is a [remote] possibility).
All this being said, I do believe the training staff bears partial responsibility in one form or another, but to assert that they are solely accountable for this rash of injuries is illogical at best.
The Packers
What is your source. If I have looked for statistical analysis ranking teams by injuries. Have not found it. I know few teams had as many injuries as 2009, 2010, 2012, and this year is off to a bad start.
Please cite your sources.
With reference to total games lost, Football outsiders has this article covering the past 2 seasons:
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2013/2012-adjusted-games-lost
*Note: Comment #8 in the comments section, made by DisplacedPackersFan has a fantastic table presenting, among other data, the Packers’ injury ranking dating back to 2008.
There is also this article by the Dallas News:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/databases/20130109-nfl-team-by-team-injuries-can-cowboys-use-health-as-an-excuse.ece
Football Outsiders also has these articles identifying the top and bottom 25% of the league by injuries per position or
position group for 2011 and 2012 repectively:
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2012/2011-adjusted-games-lost-team-units
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2013/2012-adjusted-games-lost-team-units
There is also this interesting article by The Harvard College Sports Analysis Collective detailing the rate of injuries per week, and their average severity, over the past 3 seasons:
http://harvardsportsanalysis.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/nothing-has-changed-about-nfl-injuries/
While we’re digging through the vein of statistics, here’s anartice that I believe bot critics and apologists of Capers and his defense will find interesting, I strongly recommend you take the opportunity to view it as well as the associated articles for each season listed in the drop-down menu:
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamdef2012
Here is an article depicting the number of reported injuries dating back to 2004, that is a sufficient sample size (based on the age of injury reports) to allow the extrapolation of the data to previous eras of the sport (and yes, it’s Bleacher Reports, but this is statistics not prognostication, and even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while, yadda yadda yadda):
http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/1296733-are-nfl-player-injuries-up-or-has-reporting-just-improved
Lol at that god paragraph. That is facepalm worthy.
Yeah, I agree with you. Fans are just trying to play the sympathy card for themselves. Compared to most teams, the packers have not been hit hard by injury bugs. The worst injuries from the past few seasons were Collins, Finley and Grant. Collins was easily the worst. He was a superstar and his career ended. Grant was the best running back on the team. Finley is phenomenal, but he was a luxury item on a team stacked with wide receivers.
I would encourage anyone to go look at the list of players who got hurt during the 2010 season. Only Finley and Grant (maybe Tauscher) were real losses. Barnett was notable, even though he ended up being replaced by Bishop who was just as good. Everyone else were third string players or substitute guys. Brandon Chillar? Josh Bell? Spencer Havner? I could go on, but its merely a sample.
The packers were successful that season because the majority of their core team was healthy. And some of the backups played better than the starters who went down. Bishop replacing Hawk and Peprah replacing the rookie Burnett. And they still had Rodgers, Matthews, woodson, williams, etc..
Even if they did away with preseason the packers would
head into the season ‘ banged up”. They open with
SF, Wash and Cincy. Ouch.
And don’t get me started on Bishop.
If it’s not one thing it’s another with these injuries! What the fuck man?? The hit he took didn’t look that serious, or the fall whichever may have caused the season ending injury, shake it off! “Put ME in coach!!”
His season-ending injury wasn’t the result of that play or any other in that game.
Who gives a shit? The guy was average, at best. Just want we needed, another Starks, or Sam Gado (or whatever his fucking name was). We drafted Lacy because we need a real, actual, legitimate RB. Lacy needs to get the ball 90% of the time. Who gives a shit who spells him.
Ba bye Harris, and who gives a rats ass….
Brilliant assessment.
Hahaha… hilarious. Props.
Who gives a rats ass?….Any Packer fan that appreciated him extending drives and his 4.6 yards per carry.
Agreed.
The number of injuries cannot be coincidence. It reminds me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcZHSGyos6g
It has to be the traning staff. It can ONLY be the traing staff. I’m sorry, but some of the comments here sound like a broken record. Do you honestly think that NO ONE ever gets injured? Or do you just wait around until a “popular” player gets hurt to play that card? I don’t hear anyone bitching about Sean Richardson going on the PUP list.
I actually read somewhere that we have indeed lead the league in games lost by starters due to injury two out of the last three years. As far as a link, fuck that, I said it, therefore… It’s true.
1st last season, 17th in ’11, 3rd in ’10, 25th in ’09, 16th in ’08.
Marshawn Lynch….woulda coulda shoulda
Thanks for the link Phatzgus. I am still very skeptical.
No problem. I can understand why, it’s undeniable that there is some correlation between the Packers’ injury totals and the adeptness of the training staff, personally, I just thinks it’s incorrect and a disservice to true insight to place 100% of the blame on the group.
I don’t place 100 percent of the blame. I just think an inference can be drawn that they are doing something wrong. To me it creates a prima facie case that they are doing something–just like in Byrne v Boadle where a barrel falling off a roof creates a rebuttable presumption of negligence. THat is why I want some sort of third party to come in and see what is going on.
Also, that they rank–according to your citations–consistently above average and sometimes far above average still indicates something is wrong.
I meant to say Bishop replacing Barnett…