Bryan Bulaga - another china doll????

[Patler]

2011 - Bulaga seemed to be on his way to starting as a rookie at LG until an injury took him out of the last couple weeks of TC and the first couple weeks of the season. Of course, he eventually came back and took over at RT.

2012 - missed 4 games with two different injuries.

2013 - played 9, but now ????

I know injuries are a part of the game, but absent a catastrophic injury, like a knee, young O-linemen tend to be fairy resilient. Bulaga is showing a disturbing tendency.

[pittstang5]

2011 - Bulaga seemed to be on his way to starting as a rookie at LG until an injury took him out of the last couple weeks of TC and the first couple weeks of the season. Of course, he eventually came back and took over at RT.

2012 - missed 4 games with two different injuries.

2013 - played 9, but now ????

I know injuries are a part of the game, but absent a catastrophic injury, like a knee, young O-linemen tend to be fairy resilient. Bulaga is showing a disturbing tendency.

Just curious - did he ever miss any time in college. I know that doesn't mean anything, just wondering.

[wootah]

Sitton & Lang battled their share of injuries as well, Patler, so the right thing to do would be to blame Campen.

Just curious - did he ever miss any time in college. I know that doesn't mean anything, just wondering.

I don't know his full medical report, but I'm sure he was out for some games with a thyroid condition at Iowa and it affected his play afterwards.

[Patler]

Just curious - did he ever miss any time in college. I know that doesn't mean anything, just wondering.

In three years he missed 5 games with a shoulder injury and three with a thyroid condition..

[Fritz]

2011 - Bulaga seemed to be on his way to starting as a rookie at LG until an injury took him out of the last couple weeks of TC and the first couple weeks of the season. Of course, he eventually came back and took over at RT.

2012 - missed 4 games with two different injuries.

2013 - played 9, but now ????

I know injuries are a part of the game, but absent a catastrophic injury, like a knee, young O-linemen tend to be fairy resilient. Bulaga is showing a disturbing tendency.

Damnit, Patler, I knew it. You're from the future, and that's why you're so smart.

Quit teasing us. What's going to happen in 2014 to Bulaga? Err, what did happen?

[Patler]

Sitton & Lang battled their share of injuries as well, Patler, so the right thing to do would be to blame Campen.

I agree about blaming Campen, it is the proper thing to do for whatever ails the Packers.

But Lang and Sitton actually support my point. Young O-linemen have their share of injuries, but are generally resilient enough to keep playing. Sitton missed 2 games last year, but started all 16 in 2010 and 2009. Sitton may have started as a rookie too, but for a TC injury. A missed game or two every couple years doesn't concern me. Being unavailable for 3 or 4 weeks three years in a row (maybe more this time) makes me a little concerned about the direction his career will go as he gets older. Certainly nothing conclusive, but not a positive sign either.

I guess I was spoiled by the likes of Chad Clifton, As beat up as he was, for 11 seasons from 2000 through 2010 he played every game from when he took over in his third game as rookie except for the 6 games he missed in 2002 after the Sapp hit, one he missed with a severe case of the flu, and one when he had an allergic reaction to a pre-game injection. He was always on the injury report, had off season surgeries year after year, but was on the field for games. Tauscher was much the same way for 7 or 8 seasons, with only the ACL injuries keeping him out. Marco Rivera was another who had long strings of injuries, but played virtually every game for years.

Bulaga's career is not starting well on the injury front. Typically, it gets worse as they get older.

[Patler]

Damnit, Patler, I knew it. You're from the future, and that's why you're so smart.

Quit teasing us. What's going to happen in 2014 to Bulaga? Err, what did happen?

That's what happens when you deal all day with projections and are constantly referring to 2013 as current (and when you get old)!

[Iron Mike]

Sitton & Lang battled their share of injuries as well, Patler, so the right thing to do would be to blame Campen.

FIRE CAMPEN!!!!!!

[Old School]

Looking at the big picture, are more serious injuries becoming the norm for the NFL landscape? It seems to me that every year more teams are losing key players to injuries for extended times. If true, I guess the question could be are the players not as tough, poorly trained, or poorly coached? Maybe it's none of the above.

It might be bigger and bigger bodies moving ever faster creating extreme collisions - sudden stops. I've also heard it said that highly conditioned athletes have muscles that contract so violently, they literally tear themselves apart.

I'm no expert, but there are a lot of variables to consider beyond, "he sure gets hurt a lot"

[hoosier]

I don't think Bulaga has a fragile gene or anything like that. It's just bad luck. If you replayed the last three seasons a hundred times, Bulaga would probably end up missing around the same amount of time as Sitton, Lang, Newhouse and Sherrod.

[Guiness]

While I fondly remember the O-line of circa 2K as well (I remember Rivera playing through a lacerated hand?), I think things are different now with the increased sizes. I've referenced before the graphic Madden threw about the Cowboys OL - it was an animated caricature of five guys sitting at a table chowing down. He was saying how they were so big, and able to block so well for Emitt Smith. Memory is fuzzy on just when this was, but I do remember a guy around 280, a few in the 290s and one over 300 (Nate Newton?) that Madden circled a few times.

Now, 300lbs is the bare minimum for an NFL offensive lineman, and that has to have an effect. There does seem to be more games missed by them throughout the league.

[denverYooper]

I don't think Bulaga has a fragile gene or anything like that. It's just bad luck. If you replayed the last three seasons a hundred times, Bulaga would probably end up missing around the same amount of time as Sitton, Lang, Newhouse and Sherrod.

I'm pulling this one out of my behind but I feel like Newhouse is going to be one of those guys who ends up sticking around because he's just good enough and he's always available. I think, though some say he has a dumpy body, has natural size, strength, and good feet, characteristics which will help him avoid a lot of the "finely tuned racecar" injuries to which NFL players can succumb.

In that way, I see him end up like CJ Wilson -- a low round player who works hard, is available, and develops into the kind of dependable player a team needs.

[hoosier]

I'm pulling this one out of my behind but I feel like Newhouse is going to be one of those guys who ends up sticking around because he's just good enough and he's always available. I think, though some say he has a dumpy body, has natural size, strength, and good feet, characteristics which will help him avoid a lot of the "finely tuned racecar" injuries to which NFL players can succumb.

In that way, I see him end up like CJ Wilson -- a low round player who works hard, is available, and develops into the kind of dependable player a team needs.

Or, given the body type, a poor man's (and slightly slimmed down) Mark Tauscher?

Bulaga certainly has had a weird year, starting with training camp reports that suggested he was dominating the competition, and then his mysterious early season struggles, and now the injury. But then again, almost nothing about this year's Packer team is like last year. I predict they will either flame out because of the injury epidemic and underperformance, and miss the playoffs altogether, or they will win it all.

[Patler]

While I fondly remember the O-line of circa 2K as well (I remember Rivera playing through a lacerated hand?), I think things are different now with the increased sizes. I've referenced before the graphic Madden threw about the Cowboys OL - it was an animated caricature of five guys sitting at a table chowing down. He was saying how they were so big, and able to block so well for Emitt Smith. Memory is fuzzy on just when this was, but I do remember a guy around 280, a few in the 290s and one over 300 (Nate Newton?) that Madden circled a few times.

Now, 300lbs is the bare minimum for an NFL offensive lineman, and that has to have an effect. There does seem to be more games missed by them throughout the league.

In 1989, when Tonny Mandarich was a rookie, he was the only player on the Packers preseason roster who was 300 lbs or above.

[mraynrand]

Injury Prone!