Was health the biggest reason for our 2016 success?

for like 15 straight seasons, it was nice to be healthy for a change.

played a major role. The Giants won by a very small margin and if you think about if the Giants dont convert a 4th and 1 vs the ravens in the 4th quarter they would have lost 4 straight and been 2-4. The season may have easily unraveled.

Without the health they had hard to imagine they win by the small margins they did.

health of a team is serially underrated as a key to a team's success.

I've pointed this out before, but since 2000, there's only been 2 times a SB did not have at least one participant that was in the top 5 of health - and those two SB's were both Giants-Pats SB's.

And while they aren't always one-year flashes in the pan, teams like Carolina, Arizona, and the Niners made SB's by being the healthiest teams and then disappointed the following year when they weren't at the top of the pack.

In my opinion, team health is the best determinant of success as it correlates to winning. There has only been one year in the past 10 where a team in the Top 5 of health finished in the bottom third of the league in overall record. The probability of that happening is very small. Furthermore, every playoffs since 2000, has had at least three of the Top 5 teams participating in it, with like I said above only twice has there not been a top 5 team represented in the SB.

Probably the only other statistic that might have as much sway is top defensive teams, as I'd imagine a Top 5 defense has had excellent representation in the playoffs.

It was telling that the playoff loss came in part because one of the defensive starters at a crucial position (DRC) got hurt and his replacement was inadequate. I was an advocate in the offseason for spending at the CB position because of that.

The defense was as good as it was primarily because of two factors: Snacks and the excellent secondary. They were able to weather JPP's absence at the end of the year well enough, but when DRC got hurt the defense had a major exploitable flaw in it.

better game management, they didn't often contribute to beating themselves as they did the season before.

some of the changes in the strength and conditioning program, including the coach. Coughlin seemed a bit behind the times in that regard

the decrease in injuries, of course

you also need to see a continued trend.

A couple years ago, somebody here was touting how the Golden state Warriors had developed new health techniques and that was part of the reason for their good health, then the following year they were torn up by injuries and went from being the healthiest NBA team to one of the most injured.

However, the Giants run of being the most injured team defied any reasonably probabilities.

I'd say that would have to go to the offseason acquisitions. And the emergence of Collins didn't hurt.

It's always a few things good or bad. Injuries, free agent signings, schedule, better drafts,new coaches

And I think it will be a major determinant of what happens to the Giants this season. With the Giants having to play 4 teams coming out of bye weeks...if the Giants are not healthy...they are going to be in trouble.

the team made the playoffs - but there is perspective here. Instead of being the most injured team, they were the 7th healthiest team. Whereas I believe that the injuries prevented them from being a playoff team in at least one or two of the previous seasons, being healthy isn't the only reason they succeeded last year and their health shouldn't be overblown.

What they were effectively able to o last year was avoid cluster injuries and a blow that took out Eli, OBJ or Collins. They could end up with the same injury rate as last year, but if they lose one of the three above - they are fucked.

of course health plays a big part.

Wake me up when these hacks say something meaningful and insightful.

but not number one....

Quote:

Evan Engram could be a fine tight end prospect, but even the league's best tight ends rarely make a serious impact as rookies. Since 2000, first-round tight ends have averaged 29 catches for 317 yards during their freshman campaign. There has been only one tight end in the past 25 years to make the Pro Bowl as a rookie -- Jeremy Shockey in 2002, then of the Giants.

Engram doesn't have to make the pro bowl to help this offense. Why not dig deeper and see if it's possible for a rookie TE to HELP his team win games? Pro bowl? How many rookie CBs make the pro bowl? Rookie WRs? Rookie OTs? Rookie QBs? Not many i'd bet.

That's just lazy.

had a good or great QB throwing passes? How many first round TEs were out of the SEC?

Every situation and player is different. It's also a vastly different NFL than the 2005 version.

catches even 35 passes with 4 TDs and gets slightly better or more comfortable down the stretch we will take that and run. If Ellison is the junk yard lunch pail presence at TE the Giants signed him to be, we will dramatically better at TE. If Marshall is Marshall the WRs are better. If Shepard takes the usual leap from year one to year 2 the slot just got a lot tougher to defend. These aren't even IFs. These are whens.

My take is simple. If the league doesn't get better at handling the Giants in 2017 things are going to very very interesting with this team. The Giants are not on the way down.

the team finished games.

Now, they need to integrate the new parts on offense and generate consistency, begin to dictate tempo, and take some load off the defense.

...teams that were wracked with injuries and an expanding IR was a recurring theme with the Coughlin teams from the get-go. Ironic considering he came in touting not being like that coming off the equally oft-injured Fassel era

funny how Reese was criticized for acquiring players that got hurt too much

TC leaves and his S & C team with it
ben mcadoo brings in modern forward thinking S & C team
and suddenly no injuries and Reese looks like a genius .

big end-of-game improvements

but not nearly as important as key signings.

A healthy Marcus Kuhn was not the answer -- it was signing Snacks.

In comment 13544560 jnoble said:

Quote:

...teams that were wracked with injuries and an expanding IR was a recurring theme with the Coughlin teams from the get-go. Ironic considering he came in touting not being like that coming off the equally oft-injured Fassel era

Coughlin's S&C person -- Palmieri -- was incompetent. 12 years of that clown. Also, my sense is that Coughlin thought injuries were a state of mind more than anything else, and didn't seem to have a clue about advancements in S&C. And when he wanted to reduce injuries he kept the same boob in that job.

Aaron Wellman was McAdoo's best hire.

having more points than the other team.

Usually is critical to team success...

For their lack of success in 15?

In comment 13544996 joeinpa said:

Quote:

For their lack of success in 15?

They had around 22, 23 guys end up on IR, so injuries were certainly a factor.

In comment 13544996 joeinpa said:

Quote:

For their lack of success in 15?

2015 team if healthy had a limited ceiling. That was still a young team that had holes. If everything breaks right they could have won 9-10 games but only if everything breaks just right. Turns out early everything broke wrong and the team lost 10 games.

I think depth is the deciding factor quite often

only a part of it. If you have cluster injuries like the Giants suffered, there simply isn't the possibility to add that much depth.

It's seems like forever since we had a season where we
stayed this healthy two key guy's went down JPP and DRC
the defense were on the field far too much .
The offense was putrid now it seems we have the weapons
but the elephant in the room is the O-line ok we got
Fluker added a few prospects but to see Flowers making the
same mistakes with his technique was about the last thing
you want to here this early on .
Would you give up a pick or two to man the LT spot and move ?
Flowers to the other side ? To me at this point we should won't matter what weapons we have if we can't pass protect or run the ball to have an effective play action . I look at it like time to win is now Eli has a ton of miles on that arm .

Without healthy players, what else is there? Losing DRC was a critical point of the Green Bay game. Many consider it the turning point.

Sure, the front lines are pretty stellar, but without quality depth, we're probably below average overall. Teams that win are teams that stay healthy, or teams that have adequate depth to overcome the loss of a piece. Systems help with this as well.

I think at least in the last three Coughlin years we led the league in man games lost to injury. NYJ have generally been much healthier over that span, almost leading the league in health. We play in the same damn stadium!

It's a silly question because every other factor of a team's success is, more or less, predicated on the good health of quality professionals. It's my biggest concern every offseason and on every Sunday. Losses can be overcome, but serious injuries, usually not.

I like McAdoo's direction, but I want another couple seasons of good health before buying in that it wasn't an outlier. Maybe we can also surgically remove that Jets tumor one day, too.

...was the biggest reason.