Thread: NFL on ESPN mentioned BU having been scoped earlier in year.

ah okay, now I remember that play. Thanks for refreshing my memory

man if this is true I guess it makes sense that we extended briggs for one year and we are using the wait and see with urlacher.

If this is true (and I have no reason to doubt it), then no sugarcoating...bad news. There's nothing to "fix" surgically with regard to an MCL/PCL strain. That just heals on it's own with time and physical therapy/rehab. I doubt that's the issue here as it's been plenty of time and BU certainly is dedicated and wouldn't blow off the PT. I can only guess that there's been something else going on. A meniscal tear? A chondral injury (flaking off of some joint surface cartilage)? Repeated adhesion ("scar tissue") formation?

I'm hoping it is the latter which is pretty "fixable". I would doubt the former as even that should be better by now even if a meniscal repair was required last January. A chronic chondral injury is possible ("exposed bone on bone") but we have heard nothing about a microfracture procedure would would commonly be done in this situation. My rose-colored guess is that BU is one of those people who just seems to readily form scar adhesions during times of relative inactivity of the knee. It looks like "clearing cobwebs" inside the joint when viewed and treated arthroscopically. I'm still hopeful that he can play much of the year and do so fairly well.

But it is pretty certain that his "automatic pro-bowl" level of play is probably over. We knew he was getting up there in years & miles. Maybe it was just a bridge too far to think he could go 2-3 more good-great years while we drafted and/or groomed his eventual replacement. There really isn't anything that can be done about that for 2012 at this point. We will know fairly soon whether his "I'll be ready September 9th" talk is over-optimistic bravado or a realistic possibility for him to be at least serviceable.

I'd like to bitch slap Major Wright too but I put some blame on Lovie as well. I remember watching that Minny game in week 17 and screaming at the TV AT THE TIME. Yeah, I know it technically was a RS game and it was vs. a divisional opponent (the NFL often schedules intra-divisional games in week 17 for the purpose of maintaining interest in games that otherwise wouldn't have much appeal). But it was a MEANINGLESS game with ZERO PLAYOFF IMPLICATIONS for either side. And there was Lovie playing his key starters well into the 4thQ to win and save his job. He must have been thinking that "finishing on a 6 game losing streak and under .500 gets me fired". Even the Vikes were playing backups by the 4th. I would much rather have lost and gotten the higher draft picks but Lovie just had to have a pyrrhic victory. I know you're not supposed to think that way or quasi-"toss" a game...but I'm remeinded of week 17 in 2010 vs. Green Bay when the game was meaningless (for us only) and the team clearly mailed-it-in and didn't try all that hard, which allowed the Pack into the POs in the first place. Beating a dead horse, I know.

Back to 2012, it is going to be Roach or DeCicco subbing for BU as needed and DeC is laid up with a groin pull. Those take weeks to heal up as we all know and we don't know if DD would be any better than NR when healthy. He doesn't have nearly the NFL experience that's for sure though he's the better longer-term backup MLB guy imo. Roach isn't anything more than a C+ player at Sam much less directing the D as a 3 down MLB. With this BU situation and Briggs in his 30s as well, drafting a promising LB HIGH next year just leapt to the top of the priority list even if Urlacher surprises us all positively this season.

*@***!##@!!!!!

Originally Posted by short faced bear

I agree with the pyrrhic victory. No matter if some don't believe it. The Minny game was one of those and a "save my job" game for Lovie. I wonder if we draft another safety next year lol.

Yeah, it sure seemed like Minny was treating is a "2012 preseason game" and Lovie was playing it "to win or bust". I know that the injury was not knowable in advance, but that risk to a key, must-have player is always there. Wouldn't the second half of that game been a good time to get some game day work in for guys like DeCicco just like they were doing on O with players like Allen and EWill?

Hindsight is 20-20 they say, except that's no excuse for foresight to be totally blind.

Originally Posted by short faced bear

I agree with the pyrrhic victory. No matter if some don't believe it. The Minny game was one of those and a "save my job" game for Lovie. I wonder if we draft another safety next year lol.

If memory serves, Urlacher was questionable going into the game and should have been held out in a meaningless game.