We call Injuries as our excuse every year. The problem is we are not deep in personnel at all and injuries do hurt us worse than other top teams due to that lack of depth. That lack of Depth is Ozze Newsome's fault. He's been drafting like he's a girl scout for years. We don't have room for injuries. Our schedule was cupcake and we couldn't get it done. It's not a player problem, it's a ownership problem. Our owner is not a smart football man. He thinks he is, but he is pitiful. Let him reap what he is sowing.
No, most legitimately cite injuries in a year like 2017 or 2015 when the roster is absolutely decimated top to bottom.
We're not talking just losing a few role players or fringe starters... we're talking star impact players, multiple quality starters, and at several positions groups 3+ players.
There is no team that can regularly withstand that type of impact. Definitely not hit the ground running after the run of them.
And yet, after sustaining those injuries the team got on a roll. Yes bc of some of our key players balling, but also bc the depth stepped the fuck up. Alex Collins, Buck Allen, and Patrick Ricard is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Levine, Onwuasor, Chuck Clark, Canady and Humphrey having to play as much as they did down the stretch is scraping the bottom of the depth barrel. Especially playing the safeties that much in coverage. And not many teams can sustain losing a top end guy of Jimmy Smith's caliber to begin with.
Skura, Jensen, and Hurst playing as much as they did and Eluemenor having to play at all was scraping the barrel. And not many teams can sustain losing guys of Yanda's and Wagner's caliber in the same offseason, let alone 4 starters from the previous years line and having a frequently injured LT. But they did, and thats serious depth.
Chris Moore, Campanaro, and Nick Boyle having to be reliable targets was not supposed to be any plan.
Now the LB group needs depth. And it hurt us. And trying to alleviate that concern with a rotation of safeties i think hurt us more.
But a team relying on depth across the board, and in a lot of places the depth to the depth to the depth, that was one of the hottest teams down the stretch (the offense was depleted but rolling for 6 weeks, and they didnt play the backup QB so dont give me that). And almost made up for a horrendous start.
Again its not an excuse. They could have and SHOULD have made the playoffs even with all the injuries. But its a really shitty argument to say the FO sucks bc we dont have depth.