On Monday, they officially announced that Jerraud Powers and Terence Johnson were placed on I.R. Powers was the only corner worth a damn in the Colts whole miserable secondary. While serviceable, this is the second year in a row the third rounder from Auburn has ended the season on I.R. He was also hurt all throughout his rookie. Quite simply, the man is made of glass and cannot stay healthy. Injured players are useless players, and while I personally think Jerraud is a good guy, the reality is his future with this franchise (and in the NFL in general) is very much in doubt.
Last night, we got the news that rookie Drake Nevis was also placed on I.R. Nevis has been battling lower back pain all season. Much like Powers in the secondary, Nevis was the only defensive tackle who was playing at a serviceable level for the Colts in 2011. With his season-ending injury, combined with the knee injury to rookie offensive tackle Ben Ijalana that ended his season along with the fumble problems that plague rookie fifth rounder Delone Carter, the 2011 draft class for the Colts is looking like the draft classes from 2007-2010 (aka, it's looking like another Chris Polian-inspired war room suckfest).
But, forget this year's uninspiring draft class. Let's focus on the injuries, because it's now obvious that something is wrong in Indianapolis. Very wrong. From 2007 to now, it seems as if the Colts are just utterly decimated each season by injuries other teams tend to avoid or overcome. For the second year in a row, the Colts are the most injured team in football. Even in their run to the Super Bowl in 2009, they dealt with season-ending injuries to key starters such as Bob Sanders, Tyjuan Hagler, and Anthony Gonzalez. They also had a hobbled Dwight Freeney in that year.
I talk to people in the NFL all the time, and all of them say the same thing: Something is definitely wrong with the Colts training and conditioning staff.
Bill Polian has made a habit in recent episodes of his weekly radio show to address the insane amount of injuries this franchise has had to endure over the years. He's tried to deflect blame from the training staff and the player personnel department by saying that the team did an internal study last year that evaluated all player injures. They analyzed the players' medical history along with the nature of the injuries they'd sustained.
Their conclusion to their own study (which they won't publicly share) was that the injuries were just 'fate.'
You'll excuse me if I don't buy that BS, especially when it is coming from the mouth of a man who claims he has conversations with his star player, and then his star player later says those conversations never took place.
If the study were independent (aka, the Colts or the NFL are not fronting the bill) and from a reputable medical firm or institution, I'd buy the excuse. But for this, it's more than just 'fate.' Either these players are not conditioned or strengthened enough to endure the rigors of this violent game, or the player personnel department is not adequately vetting the 'brittle' players from the 'non-brittle' ones.
Again, injuries happen. No one is freaking out because one or two or even five people are hurt. In Indianapolis, entire starting units are going down with alarming regularity, and it seems no one else in this league is having to cope with a medical chart this long.
Bill Polian stated recently that this season is the worst he's ever seen in his entire career, in terms of injuries.
The bottom line is something is wrong. 'Fate' isn't making Colts players drop like flies. It's something else. It's something that is the fault of human being rather than the mythic 'football gods.' It's something the top brass in this organization must fully and completely answer for, because right now the situation has gone beyond ridiculous.
The only other possible explanation I can come up with for the rash of season-ending injuries this year is the front office is intentionally tanking to ensure the No. 1 overall pick. Were Powers and Nevis really hurt to the point where they couldn't play? Or, were they put on I.R. so that the Colts would be forced to field the Brandon Kings of this league in their secondary, thus ensuring the opponents' offenses would score a gazillion points on them?
At this point, who knows. What I do know is problem is not the result of the 'fate.'