any smart coach will bench his top RB when he gets a big lead, so as to give him a rest and not overuse him. Look at how much Michael Turner has carried the ball in the 2nd half of games the last few seasons. It's a credit to Marty Schottenheimer.
Overusing Martin is what heavily contributed to his decline. If he wasn't going to get in otherwise, leading the league in 2004 and not doing much after, as opposed to several more seasons would not put him in. If I were Shanahan? Shanahan was in a tough situation because of the playoffs. Did I attack Shanahan? No, I'm attacking Herm Edwards for being a moron.
What's not true that running backs don't get killed on passing plays or that Fisher didn't use George like a mule?
Martin fall off the cliff at age 32 and than got hurt. He may have declined anyway, the initial injury may have ended his career anyway. Neither you or I have any way to determine that. The odds that Martin would be anymore than an overpaid secondary back at 33 is highly suspect. In 1998 Shanahan had the division wraped up in the 10th week of the season and the No. 1 seed by week 14. He ran Davis like a mule anyway even with the playoffs locked.
Running backs don't take the kind of punishment on receptions that they do on running plays. Think of who you're getting tackled by. Think of the number of tacklers. Think of where it occurs on the field. Think of the fact that when catching the ball, you can often get out of bounds. Think.
re: 25- Makes what I wrote in post #23 wrong. I am surprised by that Johnson quote. I can't think of a player in any sport who complained about too much action. Johnson, unlike most players, appreciates the history of the NFL. I'm sure he is aware of what happened to guys like Earl Campbell. He also may want the ball less so that he'll be healthy when it comes time to get a huge contract. But then, with fewer carries, that means there are fewer opportunities for him to gain yardage and score touchdowns. In turn, fewer yards and fewer touchdowns = less money. Whatever. I'm done trying to figure all that out. Edwards and Johnson are both screwy with this. The rest of this thread looks interesting. I'll post some stuff later.
This has nothing to do with serious injuries. It's about the punishment players take on said plays. This is a proven fact. Look at the data. I linked you an article about this.
Parcells and Herm had two very different situations... Herm had a more than viable back-up to spell some of those carries and a much older Martin. Obviously Herm isn't the only one to ride his workhorse, but the fact that his RB destroyed the record for carries certainly makes him the best example of abuse.
I read the article and what I saw was a hypothsis with some data to back it up. Hardly proof of anything. I've been watching the game for 40 plus years. The average life for an NFL player is about 4 to 5 years. The truth is it's a brutal sport. Guys get major injuries with and without contact. It's a game where you burn the candle at both ends and it ends quick. Great players are counted on to carry their teams to champoinships and they aren't going to be around for very long. If you look at the Chiefs they have a very good but old QB. They have a very short window before they go into complete rebuild. Johnson is going to be a FA and he is clearly a head case. If I was in Herm's shoes, I would get every once I could out of LJ while Trent Greens window of high caliber play is still open. The Chiefs are in with a solid top 10 QB and one of the top 2 or 3 backs in the game. The league right now is wide open, if he doesn't take the shot now, when? Herm, who was underqualified, got a 5 year deal here and than weasled his way to a better deal with KC. I was very glad to see him leave because frankly, I think he is at best a mediocre HC and ultimately the Jets needed a HC with a building plan to get us to the next level. Herm may not be a great HC but the guy is far from stupid.
There are always ecuses made but BP in NE had a much better passing game to take carries away from Curtis and in NY he had Leon Johnson as Curtis' backup but kept feeding Curtis even though he was playing hurt all through '98 and averaged 3.5 YPC and in '99 he had bernie Parmalee. He had good enough backups to get them carries and take some of the load off Curtis. Curtis only had 1 incredibly high # of carries in a season under Herm and that was '04 when he led the NFL in rushing.
No, I believe Woody, Bradway and Tannenbaum allowing Chrebet to suit up last year was criminal because he clearly wasn't able to make a decission based on past head injuries. LJ, to my knowledge hasn't had his head scrambled and is perfectly capable of taking himself out. It's called personal responsability. These guys are men and they are proffessionals, they have to take care of their bodies and their future. Coaches are paid to win and field the best team they can. If LJ thinks he is being overused he can stop it in 2 seconds.
That would permanently land you in a coach's doghouse. Pulling yourself out of a game? It isn't LJ's choice. It's the coach's. And any responsible, intelligent coach would not run a RB into the ground like Herm does.
hehe, ok. I was about to point you to an article about Parcells's view on this (shanahan/parcells). Cheers.
Some people in this thread, and in many other threads on this website through the months, have complained that Martin had 371 carries at the age of 31. John Riggins had 375 carries in 1983 at the age of 34. His head coach, Joe Gibbs, is in the Hall of Fame. Walter Payton had 381 carries in 1984 at the age of 30. ___ I don't know how we can say for sure that Martin got injured in 2005 because he was overworked in 2004. He was 32 years old during the 2005 season. Let's suppose Martin sat out the 2004 season due to a contract dispute. (Now, we know Martin is a classy player and would never have done such a thing, but for the sake of the argument...) He sits out the 2004 season and remains in excellent shape. Does he still get injured in 2005? I think he does. I think he's 32 years old in 2005 and he's breakin' down no matter what. If Martin had only 300 carries in 2004 and Jordan had 164 (I took 71 from Martin and gave to Jordan), is Martin still playing today? I don't think so. I think he'd still have gotten injured in 2005.
