Redskins Mailbag: No. 2 corner, critical wide receivers, Alex Smith, and more

Training Staff Question

BRuss: What have or what is the training staff doing combat the trash of injuries we went through last season? New methods, new stretching programs, acupuncture?

To be completely honest, I’m really not sure. I wish I had more information about this topic, but in terms of what the training staff is specifically doing to combat the injuries we dealt with last year, I’m not exactly certain.

What I do know is that part of Jay Gruden‘s philosophy this offseason has been to prevent injuries, and there is one way that he tried to do that. He moved practice times to the morning in order to allow the team a full day to recover after training sessions.

That may not seem like a huge change in the grand scheme of things, but the fact is that since practice ends midday, that incentivizes players to spend time doing preventative maintenance for injuries as opposed to just wanted to get out of camp when the day is done. That’s just my opinion, but I do think that the practices being earlier has been a net positive for the Redskins so far.

If any more rumors about their injury prevention techniques arise, I will make sure to write a piece on it and let you guys know. For now though, the only thing I’m aware of is the change of practice time, which at least shows a shift in organizational culture that values injury prevention.