Okung in a walking boot

[RiverDog]

Having met the man, and getting some insight into how hard he works, my sincerest hope is that this rash of freak injuries is behind him. The injuries that have kept him out the longest haven't been durability injuries: the Trent Cole injury was from a dirty play, and his foot injury was a phantom one - with no one around him when it happened.

I don't see what getting hurt as a result of a dirty play has anything to do with Okung's being injury prone. Are we not to count an injury because it was sustained due to a dirty play? And are we to draw some sense of comfort because he hurt his ankle when no one was around? I'm a lot more concerned with him sustaining an injury to his ankle under those conditions as it indicates to me that he could hurt it doing almost anything on or off the field. I really don't see any of his injuries as being "freakish" in nature. Ankle injuries, torn pec muscles, turf toe...they're all quite common football injuries.

Dirty plays, ankle injuries, torn pec muscles, turf toe, they're all part of the game and can't be rationalized as 'freakish.'

I fully expect us to take an OT within the top four rounds. Not only do we have a gaping hole at RT, but Okung's contract is up next season and with the Big 3 of Thomas, Sherman, and Wilson signings looming ahead, Russell's going to have to have a Pro Bowl season if he expects us to sign him to a costly extension.

 

[Tokadub]

Yeah it would be quite magical if our multi-millionaires Unger and Ukung didn't get their dookie tossed by literally every team in the NFL other than the Broncos.

I don't even really understand how a toe injury could affect your play so significantly. Are toe injuries even a real thing? Sounds like some old man injury I've never even really heard of that ever...

Does anyone have an example of another professional athlete with a toe injury that causes them to play like crap or miss a ton of games? Okung is the only one I can recall...

I don't even understand how you could hurt your toe in a game, seems like something you would have to be barefoot for in the dark and like slam it super hard into the corner of your bedpost or something, even then I can't imagine injuring your main toe... more likely your pinky toe whatever that's called.

Once again this problem reminds me of losing Golden Tate. Now we may have to draft some receivers instead of offensive line, where if we kept Tate that would have been 110% unnecessary. We should have been able to focus entirely on our weak spot the offensive line, instead we have all kinds of questionable areas to our team now with our off-season moves.

 

[hawknation2014]

Once again this problem reminds me of losing Golden Tate. Now we may have to draft some receivers instead of offensive line, where if we kept Tate that would have been 110% unnecessary. We should have been able to focus entirely on our weak spot the offensive line, instead we have all kinds of questionable areas to our team now with our off-season moves.

Keeping Tate would have cost $5-6 million a year with over $10 million guaranteed. That would have made re-signing the big guns an untenable situation. And they still would have wanted a big WR to replace Rice because we know Tate had issues getting open in the end zone.

We already have Percy Harvin to replace Tate's production and hopefully add to it with more explosive plays. Now it would be nice to add a better red zone threat via the draft.

With such a deep WR class, there's no reason they can't do both: draft a red zone threat AND add depth to the offensive line.

 

[Lords of Scythia]

We played a lot of games this year.

 

[Snakeeyes007]

Having met the man, and getting some insight into how hard he works, my sincerest hope is that this rash of freak injuries is behind him. The injuries that have kept him out the longest haven't been durability injuries: the Trent Cole injury was from a dirty play, and his foot injury was a phantom one - with no one around him when it happened.

I don't see what getting hurt as a result of a dirty play has anything to do with Okung's being injury prone. Are we not to count an injury because it was sustained due to a dirty play? And are we to draw some sense of comfort because he hurt his ankle when no one was around? I'm a lot more concerned with him sustaining an injury to his ankle under those conditions as it indicates to me that he could hurt it doing almost anything on or off the field. I really don't see any of his injuries as being "freakish" in nature. Ankle injuries, torn pec muscles, turf toe...they're all quite common football injuries.

Dirty plays, ankle injuries, torn pec muscles, turf toe, they're all part of the game and can't be rationalized as 'freakish.'

I fully expect us to take an OT within the top four rounds. Not only do we have a gaping hole at RT, but Okung's contract is up next season and with the Big 3 of Thomas, Sherman, and Wilson signings looming ahead, Russell's going to have to have a Pro Bowl season if he expects us to sign him to a costly extension.

Riverdog, having the opinion that Okung is injury prone at this point is a valid and reasonable position. Thinking he needs another Pro Bowl season to sign a costly extension may have some merit, but top 5-10 talent at LT costs a premium, so injury concern would be more a factor than whether he's voted to the Pro Bowl this season or not. As to your challenge of my use of terminology - your logic is invalid. :les:

From Merriam-Webster: "Freakish - markedly strange or abnormal." By definition, 'freakish' is the perfect word to describe Okung's ankle injury. Or do you regularly see agile, NFL linemen collapse from ankle injuries with no one near them to act as the cause? In your words, "it indicated...that he could hurt it doing almost anything on or off the field", which would again be markedly strange or abnormal. That is not normal in or out of the NFL. I'll give you grace and assume you're a soccer fan, where phantom 'injuries' are the norm, and after crying out in agonizing pain and gripping knees/ankles from what must have been horrific injuries sustained by a swing and miss on a sliding tackle or ball attack, guys are miraculously healed after jogging on the sidelines for a couple minutes. Perhaps you're conflating the two sports? But I digress.

Second example. You are correct in this; tearing a pec muscle, not abnormal. These injuries are more common, generally occurring from trying to block other lineman - like Unger, or when making a tackle - like Willis. Tearing a pec muscle from an illegal shoulder throw is however, wait for it...abnormal! The common dirty play in the NFL that results in injuries every season is the low block to the side of the knee. If that happened to Okung, although unfortunate, you could make the declarative - "can't be rationalized as freakish". Or perhaps you're more tuned in to the rash of injuries that have occurred in such a manner as happened to Big Russ. Who else in the NFL has torn a pec in the manner that caused Okung's injury? To recap: pec tear = normal, shoulder throws causing pec tear = abnormal, shoulder throws themselves = abnormal (and also illegal/dirty - perhaps you're conflating this one with the WWE?).

- Cheers