McCarthy Speaks
McCarthy says training camp schedule is 'smart'
By Pete Dougherty / greenbaypressgazette.com
Posted September 6, 2007
Though the final decisions for next year's training camp won't come until after the season, Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy thinks the early returns on his modified camp schedule this year mark it a success. McCarthy, in his second season as coach, made perhaps an unprecedented move among NFL coaches by giving his players the day off on the first three Wednesdays of training camp so they'd have extra recovery time. He said he met with his training and medical staffs after camp, and they reported half as many "fatigue-type" injuries in camp this year as the average of the previous five camps. Generally, fatigue injuries are pulled muscles such as hamstrings, groins and calves.
"We've taken the workload and broke it up," McCarthy said. "It's not something genius. I just think it's smart. You talk to any expert in strength and conditioning, rest and recovery is a key component. You train your football team all offseason with recovery, so why would you not do it in training camp? That's why we did it. It's as simple as that."
McCarthy thinks his schedule of conducting one long practice (about 2½ hours) in pads every day — he had only seven two-a-days, with one of those workouts not in pads — allowed his team to get the hard, physical work needed for getting in football shape. What happens in pro football camps, there's a mental toughness to overcome the rigors of training camp," McCarthy said. "I'm of the opinion that you don't have to lose your legs to gain toughness. I'd rather have the football team out there competing every day to get better. I think we accomplished that. I think it's clearly evident in the condition of our football team. Our conditioning, particularly the no-huddle situation and some of the things we did in the preseason, we felt very good about what we did on our side of the ball. I think our football team is in shape. I think it's a product of our schedule."
The Packers finished training camp with seven players on injured reserve, though no starters: punter David Lonie (broken ankle), halfback Noah Herron (knee), safety Tyrone Culver (shoulder), fullback Ryan Powdrell (knee), linebacker Abdul Hodge (patellar tendinitis), guard-center Tyson Walter (toe) and tight end Tory Humphrey (broken ankle). It's no surprise the players liked the Wednesdays-off schedule. Cornerback Frank Walker, who played the previous three seasons for New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin, said McCarthy's schedule was far superior to Coughlin's for keeping players healthy. Walker said Coughlin's practice schedule was consecutive days of two practices, followed by a day of one practice, then two days of two practices and one of one practice, and so on. He said most practices were in pads, and all were long. "(This year's schedule) kept players who may have had a mild groin or something Tuesday, they rested Wednesday and all of a sudden they're ready by Thursday," Walker said. "I was one of those players."
Commiserating QBs
Quarterback Brett Favre said he understood some of Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb's concerns after the Eagles used a second-round draft pick this year on a quarterback, Kevin Kolb. McNabb, who will lead the Eagles against the Packers on Sunday, reportedly was upset by the move in April because he thought the Eagles might be pushing him out of his job. McNabb has been one of the NFL's top quarterbacks the past six years when healthy, but the 30-year-old missed 13 games the last two seasons because of hernia and knee injuries. The Packers drafted quarterback Aaron Rodgers with their first-round pick in 2005, in part because Favre had been talking publicly about possibly retiring for several years. "You wonder, you question," Favre said. "I'm not surprised (the Packers) took Aaron. I think Aaron's going to be a fine player — I think he is now. I'm further along in my career than Donovan is. Fortunate for me, I haven't had the injuries. But when Donovan has played, he's been outstanding. Publicly, he's not really (complaining), but sometimes you go, 'Hey, is this the first step in the phase out, or what?' At some point, they have to bring in someone else, either by draft or free agency or whatever. But once again, Donovan has nothing to worry about. If it's not there, it's somewhere else. He's a fine football player, he's beaten us plenty of times and has produced at a high level."
Injury update
The three key Packers players injured this week all had limited participation in practice Wednesday and appear to have at least a decent chance of playing Sunday against Philadelphia. The NFL's new injury-report guidelines require teams to announce on Wednesday and Thursday whether a player is out, which means he won't play in the game; didn't practice, though he's not necessarily out for the game; had limited participation in practice, which means he didn't take his normal workload; and full participation. Running backs Brandon Jackson (concussion) and Vernand Morency (strained patellar tendon), and receiver Donald Driver (sprained foot), all were listed as limited participation. Jackson, though, was cleared to practice Sunday and appears ready to be the starting halfback this week. In the portion of practice that's open to reporters, before 11-on-11 drills, Morency appeared to be running well but hasn't played since the first day of training camp, so it's unclear how much he will play in his first week back if he's cleared. Driver appears to be running OK after missing last week's preseason game. He had limited participation in practice Sunday and Monday also. Also listed on the Packers' report as limited participation were newly acquired halfback Ryan Grant (hamstring), safety Aaron Rouse (hamstring) and tackle Tony Moll (neck stinger). Defensive end Michael Montgomery (knee) is out for probably another month.
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Published by PackerPundit On Thursday, September 06, 2007 at 3:27 PM.
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