Bengals are going to address surpluss of injuries

In his latest, Geoff Hobson writes that Marvin Lewis and Mike Brown are "concerned with the club-record list of players on injured reserve this past season and the team plans to examine the issue."

This is very interesting and long overdue. While the issue is the amount of injuries suffered last season, which could be equally attributed to practices, the Bengals have dealt with a surplus of injury issues for some time now. It's well known that the Bengals placed 23 guys on injured reserve; which doesn't include Stacy Andrews and Carson Palmer. In 2007, the Bengals lost several linebackers to injury, notably Ahmad Brooks, Caleb Miller and Lemar Marshall; the story line that season was the team's inability to keep linebackers (David Pollack and Odell Thurman were already out for the year), which opened the door for Dhani Jones.

In 2006, Chris Perry hurt his knee. He was very frustrated with the training staff saying, "They checked it out and said nothing was wrong with it and came back and told me something was wrong with it. Same with the ankle. That's why (rehab) took so long. If they had told me about it in February, it would have happened in February. I knew it was hurting, but to the extent that it was, I had no clue. I didn't know that (until) I went and got a second opinion and found out how hurt I really was."

Then in 2007, Levi Jones had a serious problem with the coaching and training staffs who kept him from playing with an injury that he said was healed. Willie Anderson has spoken likewise in the past. During the 2006 off-season, Carson Palmer didn't let the medical staff treat his knee during rehab as Jason Whitlock claims that players don't trust the medical staff.

So what's up? Is there an issue in which the players are treated, or prepared? Is this an issue with lacking basics, such as stretching, preventative maintenance, or the way players are practicing. Whatever it is, the team needs to find ways to improve it, or else we'll be stuck using the injury excuse for a long time. Hey, at least they're looking to address it.