KellysHeroes
Footballguy
That's terrible
No but you can buy a tear.![]()
![]()
![]()
My God, can we BUY a break?! GEEEEEZ
Jerome Harrison might do the trick.He's still out there, I think.Detroit has issues here. There is really no one on the free agent market anymore that fits the power back bill that Leshore had. *IF* they decide to bring in another back, their best move is to bring back Kevin Smith who at least knows the playbook. I wouldn't be surprised if they just stick with Morris and Brown for the most part. In addition, they also have Ian Johnson on the roster.
K Smith seems like the best solution. He is two years removed from the ACL and still young. Probably needs some kiss and make up with a fat paycheck from the Lions. Give the man a "prove it" contract with big incentives.Kevin Smith?Ok, so who do they bring in...they need someone at RB.
He is.. I just don't see him fitting the power back mold as a complement to Best.Jerome Harrison might do the trick.He's still out there, I think.Detroit has issues here. There is really no one on the free agent market anymore that fits the power back bill that Leshore had. *IF* they decide to bring in another back, their best move is to bring back Kevin Smith who at least knows the playbook. I wouldn't be surprised if they just stick with Morris and Brown for the most part. In addition, they also have Ian Johnson on the roster.
Wow, a poster at FBG who actually knows the word to use is complement and not compliment. I knew there had to be one or two out there somewhere. Congratulations.He is.. I just don't see him fitting the power back mold as a complement to Best.
Wow, a poster at FBG who actually knows the word to use is complement and not compliment. I knew there had to be one or two out there somewhere. Congratulations.He is.. I just don't see him fitting the power back mold as a complement to Best.

Mike Bell maybe? James Davis?Ok, so who do they bring in...they need someone at RB.
He is not a pro-level RB. Harrison proved he can perform. Harrison may not be the best complement to Best, but at least he is someone who is a legitimtate NFL threat and can take some load off of Best. Hart just does not have the speed to do it.By the way, Colts released Mike Hart, former U of Michigan star. He'd be on the short list I'd think to replace LeShoure.
Fairly is a franchise type player who the Lions were wise not to pass up. Teams will be sorry they passed up Fairly. Leshshoure was a much needed workhorse at RB and was a huge upgrade over Morris. Young was a reach and should not have been picked that high. If any of the picks should have been a Offensive Lineman it was the Young pick. I think the Detroit organization was more happy with their offensive line than outsiders. But now that it is banged up, the lack of depth there is going to show.The Lions were fine with Morris last year. Where they are not fine is Oline, something I was shocked they didn't address with the higher draft choices in their draft.They drafted Fairley, T Young and Mikel Leshoure, all 3 guys are not practicing right now. Everyone gave Day 1 an A grade back at the draft and I scratched my head at it. Don't they have a franchise QB who's been plagued by injuries they need to protect? Didn't they draft Best in the 1st round last year? Don't they have Calvin Johnson and Burleson at WR and burn enough high picks on WR in the past decade?Everyone kept saying Fairley was so much value, was he not value for the team that passed on him at 12? If he represented so much value, then why not trade back with the tons of offers they must have been getting for Fairley since he represented value.The truth is the 1st round pick and two 2nd round picks will not be helping the Lions much at all this 1/2 season, and from there we'll see.I feel bad for Leshoure, I'm sorry he has to go thru this and the incertainty this brings to his career.
OMG the fans would eat that up if he brings the attitude!Bring in Mike Hart!By the way, Colts released Mike Hart, former U of Michigan star. He'd be on the short list I'd think to replace LeShoure.
Tatum Bell, I hear he's motivatedOk, so who do they bring in...they need someone at RB.
He did have a nice game when he went over 100 yards, but his last two games were 12 rushes for 22 and 12 rushes for 21. He was playable, but not someone I would want to go into the season expecting to play a large role.Morris did pretty damn well in place of Best last season.
I think this is an excellent point. The offense should be pretty decent and Pettigrew has the pedigree to do it. Word play intended.'FantasyTrader said:As an aside, this can't be horrible news for Pettigrew and the receivers around the goal line.
The Lions were fine with Morris last year. Where they are not fine is Oline, something I was shocked they didn't address with the higher draft choices in their draft.They drafted Fairley, T Young and Mikel Leshoure, all 3 guys are not practicing right now. Everyone gave Day 1 an A grade back at the draft and I scratched my head at it. Don't they have a franchise QB who's been plagued by injuries they need to protect? Didn't they draft Best in the 1st round last year? Don't they have Calvin Johnson and Burleson at WR and burn enough high picks on WR in the past decade?Everyone kept saying Fairley was so much value, was he not value for the team that passed on him at 12? If he represented so much value, then why not trade back with the tons of offers they must have been getting for Fairley since he represented value.The truth is the 1st round pick and two 2nd round picks will not be helping the Lions much at all this 1/2 season, and from there we'll see.I feel bad for Leshoure, I'm sorry he has to go thru this and the incertainty this brings to his career.
Fairley was a reach, when they need o line help, but were talking lions hereThat is about as heart-breaking of an injury a player can suffer. I was really looking forward to seeing what he could bring to the Lions. Really disappointed when I heard this.Man, you have to feel awful for Leshoure. The poor guy has probably spent most of his life dreaming what it would be like to play in the NFL and once he finally gets here, he suffers an injury before ever taking an NFL snap, suffering an injury that may never let him play at the level he could have achieved. Damn.
He'll be available more ways than one, trade not needed.'FavreCo said:T. Choice is a trade possibility.

Yeah.. fantasy aside, this is about as bad as it could get for an NFL player. He never even got into a preseason game. Just awful.Man, you have to feel awful for Leshoure. The poor guy has probably spent most of his life dreaming what it would be like to play in the NFL and once he finally gets here, he suffers an injury before ever taking an NFL snap, suffering an injury that may never let him play at the level he could have achieved. Damn.
OMG the fans would eat that up if he brings the attitude!Bring in Mike Hart!By the way, Colts released Mike Hart, former U of Michigan star. He'd be on the short list I'd think to replace LeShoure.
Seems like a no brainer. Surprised he was cut.A medical view of DeMeco Ryans’ recovery from injury
DeMeco Ryans is the undisputed captain of the Texans defense. With the Texans switching to the 3-4 and already being thin at linebacker, there’s obviously a lot of concern on how Ryans has recovered from his ruptured left Achilles tendon rupture. When meeting with the media on Sunday, he talked some about his health.
“I’m good. I’ll get back on the field tomorrow and see what I can do. It’s really exciting to finally be cleared and no more going to see a doctor, none of that, just back to my regular workouts, back to throwing a helmet on and running around the football field.”
(on having any reservations) “No. I haven’t tackled anybody all summer so that’ll be something new that I add in there. Other than that, as far as running, shuffling and changing direction, everything’s been going good throughout the summer.”
In other words, if Ryans doesn’t know how his body will respond, it is unlikely we will either.
You may have noticed a blog post at Paul Kuharsky’s ESPN AFC South blog where he talked about key injuries for teams in the AFC South. He quotes an ESPN Insider article about that talks about the Top 10 Injuries to watch and Ryans is on the list. In relevant part:
“Although he’s still young and is now nine months removed from surgery, it’s no guarantee that Ryans will return to his preinjury form this season: A 2009 study of NFL Achilles tendon injuries found that a returning player’s three-year production after surgery is an average of 50 percent worse than his three-year performance before surgery. If that happens with Ryans, Houston might again find itself as the NFL’s breakout team that doesn’t break out.”
Sounds pretty grim. I saw references to that study shortly after Ryans’ injury and decided to ask a friend of mine to talk about it in more depth. The short version of what he told me is that we are all our own statistic of one.
For the longer version, I’d like to introduce you to the writing avid and involved Texans fan and medical doctor, Dr. Jean Cukier. He is a Houston Medical Center board-certified Plastic Surgeon, who has had extensive experience in trauma and reconstructive surgery. Over the years, he has treated many collegiate and professional athletes and their families. I asked him to put down his thoughts about the 2009 NFL Achilles tendon injury study and he graciously agreed (any formatting errors on me). This might be more depth than you care to know but given how important Ryans is to this defense, I found it pretty interesting.
Dr. Jean Cukier:
The background of the study.
The study that you have referenced is quite an interesting one. It was originally published in a small “local” publication, i.e., The University of Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Journal (2008). It was picked up and essentially re-presented as a December 2009 article in FOOT AND ANKLE SPECIALIST ONLINE JOURNAL. A review/update analysis of the study was then presented online in 2010 in LOWER EXTREMITY REVIEW. The study was a cooperative effort between members of the University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, University of North Carolina and Saint Louis University School of Medicine orthopedic surgery departments.
The authors must be congratulated for their valiant effort to present some useful and predictive information about NFL players unfortunate enough to have suffered an Achilles tendon rupture. To date there have been no other publications evaluating the performance outcome of this injury in NFL players.
Main points of NFL Achilles Study.
I will attempt to present to you some of the more interesting and important points brought out in the context of this study of NFL players.
*This seems to be an injury of mostly elite high-motor athletes
*Those at greatest risk are those exerting maximal effort with the most explosive acceleration and with sudden changes in direction
*The average age of the players at time of injury was 29, which was older than the average age of all players in the NFL (26.5)
*There was suggestion that this is an injury of veterans, since the injuries occurred on average 6 years into a player’s career
*Injuries occurred essentially equally in offensive and defensive players
*~1/3 occurred in preseason (almost half in practice), while ~2/3rds occurred in regular season (none in practice)
*19% of injuries occurred during preseason play, while another 18% occurred during the first month of the official season.
*During regular season, 30% occurred in the 1st quarter and an additional 40% during the 2nd
*Weather conditions, indoor vs. outdoor stadiums, and grass vs. artificial surface all were not a factor
*In the year of injury, players averaged playing 4 games prior to incurring the injury
*Of those that returned to play, they did so at an average of 11 months
Looking at the impact of these injuries on performance.
Now that we have essentially reviewed what is referred to as the epidemiology of Achilles tendon ruptures in the NFL, let’s turn our attention to the quantifying of the impact of these injuries upon player performance, when those players were able to return.
To do so, we must understand the POWER RATING FORMULAS that were established. It should be mentioned that this formula’s validity was confirmed by a test-retest probability of >0.75. It suggest that there is an excellent agreement beyond chance that the power ratings are reliable.
Here are the two basic formulas which led to the conclusions documented in their study.:
**********************************************************************
PassYd = number of passing yards
RushYd = number of rushing yards
RecYd = number of receiving yards
PassTD = number of passing touchdowns
RushTD = number of rushing touchdowns
RecTD = number of receiving touchdowns
DefensePR = Tackle + Int
Int = number of interceptions
Tackle = number of tackles
*************************************************************************************************
*Power ratings in the 3 years prior to the injury and the 3 years following the return to play were calculated according to the above.
*There was a postinjury reduction of 88%, 83%, and 78% in power ratings for wide receivers, running backs, and tight ends, respectively, over the 3-year postinjury period.
*There was a 95%, 87%, and 64% postinjury reduction in power ratings for linebackers, cornerbacks, and defensive tackles over the 3-year period*Linebackers suffered the greatest reduction in power ratings of all types of players, both offensive and defensive
*The control group used for this study was a group of uninjured running backs and wide receivers.
In summary, this study concludes that an Achilles tendon rupture can be a career altering injury as almost 36% of players NEVER returned to NFL play……….and of those who did return, they experienced over 50% reduction in their performance as demonstrated by their power ratings. During that same period, the control players averaged a 5% increase.
*In the 3 years preceding injury, players played an average of 11.67 games per year, dropping all the way down to 6.7 games per season postinjury.
Now, the above picture is not a very pretty one……………and there have been no comparable studies to refute the present findings.
The limitations of the study.
Let’s take a look, though, at some of the LIMITATIONS of this study.
*This is a RETROSPECTIVE study entirely based on the review of available ONLINE RESOURCES (such as KFFL.com)which they reference) identifying all NFL players having sustained complete Achilles tendon rupture
*The study included a total of only 31 NFL players (although the number of NFL players sustaining such injury has been constant to date per year (5.2 per year)
*The study gleaned the NFL rosters of the years 1997-2002
So, the only information given the authors for their analysis and conclusions were limited to ONLINE. There were no personal medical records made available for prior injury history to other joints, such as hips, knee and contralateral ankle or any other injuries which would have precluded return or decision to return or ability to optimally rehab. Records were not available to assess in any way important parameters, such as prodomal (pre-existing chronic problems with calf or tendonitis) conditions that could have been treated before extensive destruction finally followed by rupture of the tendon vs. clean one incident rupture.
A chronic rupture scenario is full of post treatment problems for elite athletes. There were no records to assess surgical vs. non surgical treatment. Although for these documented complete ruptures, I would assume that at the NFL level, surgical treatment would have been chosen in most if not all cases….even in 1997. Non surgical treatment of these ruptures at the NFL level can almost be a revolving door invitation to increased incidence of chronic problems and re-rupture.
The surgical techniques and rehabilitation armamentarium available is vastly superior today than they were in 2002, let alone in 1997, from which time frame the cases were drawn. Finally, their method of assigning power rating and assignment of controls are unique and will therefore be questioned by many, especially in light of the lack of the players’ full medical records.
Now, what can be said about more recent reports of higher return to play (as high as 90%) and less reduced post injury performance? The reports are usually a mix of collegiate football and professional players of various sports. In light of the requirements of size, strength and explosiveness, it can hardly be argued that there are extreme demands on the repaired Achilles tendon of the NFL player compared to most of the other categories.
That being said, there have been improvements, especially in the approach to rehabbing these players. It used to be that there was a long immobilization and non-weight-bearing period where there would develop extensive scar formation and shortening of the gastrocnemius muscle. This would lead to difficulties trying to overcome these problems and thus significantly prolong the rehab period, and potentially compromise the ultimate anatomic and performance results that could be attained. On the other hand, rehab must be carefully balanced to not overly stress the Achilles tendon too soon and over stretch it such that it creates another just as worrisome problem. In the later case, the ability to perform strong push off maneuvers on the field are seriously affected. As an aside, re-rupture rates following surgical repair is probably close to 5%. These usually occur early. Regardless of treatment, it takes approximately one-year for the healed tendon to mature and strengthen back to a normal tensile strength.
For the average person, 4 months of rehab is usually enough to fully return to normal activity. For a player to return to typical non-professional sports activities, 6 months is sometimes adequate. For a professional football player the total strength rehab is usually closer to 11 months, but this will probably not be to the peak of performance which may not occur until the next season.
Steph Note: Join me in thanking Dr. Cukier for letting us know what is what as far as we know. I also like to thank him for using the word “armamentarium” in a football blog. You don’t see that every day.
Now back to your regularly schedule training camp, free agency news of the day. Questions or comments about all the stuff going on, please leave a comment below. And because just about an entire off-season is being smushed into a couple of weeks, I suggest also following my Twitter feed @StephStradley. It’s like a bunch of micro blogs about mostly Texans stuff.
Yeah, call me a kneejerker, but I'd say he's pretty much dropable even in dynasty formats. Unless you want to wait for him to come back with less explosion...thus making him average at best.
http://blog.chron.co...ry-from-injury/
*The average age of the players at time of injury was 29, which was older than the average age of all players in the NFL (26.5)
Plus, the stats were taken 3 years after a 29 yr old player suffers a season ending injury. Natural regression of a 32-33 year old in a skill position I would assume is close to 50% of the player's prime.Yeah, call me a kneejerker, but I'd say he's pretty much dropable even in dynasty formats. Unless you want to wait for him to come back with less explosion...thus making him average at best.
http://blog.chron.co...ry-from-injury/
*The average age of the players at time of injury was 29, which was older than the average age of all players in the NFL (26.5)
per the huge show from Lions training camp. He said that the Lions expect Leshoure to be back next August at 100%.UPDATE on Leshoure's injury.
Good news, the surgery is reported to be successful.
My link
19 minutes ago - by John Kreger - Leshoure's surgery successful
RB Mikel Leshoure ’s surgery to repair a torn Achilles’ tendon was successfully performed by Dr. Bob Anderson in Charlotte, NC. Leshoure posted news of the procedure on his blog. He intends to return to Detroit to begin a rehab program. Lions RapidReports
Title is wrong and needs to be changed. It's Achilles not ACL. Achilles is much worse.
This is a horrible injury for any athlete but for a RB even worse.The Lions have been snakebit with high draft picks Stafford , Best, Pettigrew, and now Leshoure all being hurt.gl for an athlete to come back 100% from an achilles injury.per the huge show from Lions training camp. He said that the Lions expect Leshoure to be back next August at 100%.UPDATE on Leshoure's injury.
Good news, the surgery is reported to be successful.
My link
19 minutes ago - by John Kreger - Leshoure's surgery successful
RB Mikel Leshoure ’s surgery to repair a torn Achilles’ tendon was successfully performed by Dr. Bob Anderson in Charlotte, NC. Leshoure posted news of the procedure on his blog. He intends to return to Detroit to begin a rehab program. Lions RapidReports
I thought it was a little weird myself. Maybe it was just a small tear.gl for an athlete to come back 100% from an achilles injury.per the huge show from Lions training camp. He said that the Lions expect Leshoure to be back next August at 100%.UPDATE on Leshoure's injury.
Good news, the surgery is reported to be successful.
My link
19 minutes ago - by John Kreger - Leshoure's surgery successful
RB Mikel Leshoure ’s surgery to repair a torn Achilles’ tendon was successfully performed by Dr. Bob Anderson in Charlotte, NC. Leshoure posted news of the procedure on his blog. He intends to return to Detroit to begin a rehab program. Lions RapidReports
He's too slow.By the way, Colts released Mike Hart, former U of Michigan star. He'd be on the short list I'd think to replace LeShoure.
I think it's a morale thing more than anything. For LeShoure and the team as a whole...I thought it was a little weird myself. Maybe it was just a small tear.gl for an athlete to come back 100% from an achilles injury.per the huge show from Lions training camp. He said that the Lions expect Leshoure to be back next August at 100%.UPDATE on Leshoure's injury.
Good news, the surgery is reported to be successful.
My link
19 minutes ago - by John Kreger - Leshoure's surgery successful
RB Mikel Leshoure ’s surgery to repair a torn Achilles’ tendon was successfully performed by Dr. Bob Anderson in Charlotte, NC. Leshoure posted news of the procedure on his blog. He intends to return to Detroit to begin a rehab program. Lions RapidReports
Both are solid pickups. I applaud the Lions for being so aggressive. This organization is showing they want to win.Harrison and Bell. Ho hum.
In this context, I think successful means the tendon was reconnected and the patient didn't die.I thought it was a little weird myself. Maybe it was just a small tear.gl for an athlete to come back 100% from an achilles injury.per the huge show from Lions training camp. He said that the Lions expect Leshoure to be back next August at 100%.UPDATE on Leshoure's injury.
Good news, the surgery is reported to be successful.
My link
19 minutes ago - by John Kreger - Leshoure's surgery successful
RB Mikel Leshoure ’s surgery to repair a torn Achilles’ tendon was successfully performed by Dr. Bob Anderson in Charlotte, NC. Leshoure posted news of the procedure on his blog. He intends to return to Detroit to begin a rehab program. Lions RapidReports