I highly doubt it. Both history and personal experience would suggest that the success rate and ability to turn struggling teams around by turning up the intensity in practice has proven to be effective. It could even be argued that player injuries increase as practices become less physical. The new collective bargaining agreement agreed to in dramatically changed the landscape of how teams practice, reducing the length of the offseason program, eliminating two-a-days and cutting down the number of padded practices.
What are players to do when the messages they get from coaches about practice habits fly directly in the face of their instincts? Most football players and coaches will tell you that a large portion of injuries come from guys who hesitate or slow down.
Amidst the confusion and uncertainty, those adversely affected the most are guys fighting for their livelihoods, trying to make a good impression without upsetting coaches or teammates.
Trust me, this is not easy to do when you play on the defensive side of the ball. I found this out the hard way as a rookie when I accidentally crashed into Randy Moss during training camp.
I was immediately kicked out of the drill and yelled at by multiple coaches and players. I understand there have to be limits between what you can do to your own teammates at practice and what takes place on game days.
How is this supposed to prepare players especially the younger, inexperienced ones for the likes of talented stars such as RB LeSean McCoy or Jamaal Charles? The answer—it doesn't. The message to the public is clear—the NFL prioritizes proper technique for tackling.
But the reality is much different. Coaches are scared stiff to have their players tackling each other in practice. Despite the camp rule changes in four of the previous five years, Berry says teams have not seen a change in head trauma numbers.
The new policies mean more than one-third of a camp will be noncontact practices. Coaches say it usually takes two weeks of practicing with contact for players to adjust to full speed physicality of the game. Some feel like they have, basically, lost a week of contact. As part of the new rules modifications, officials are also restricting camp scrimmages from three and a half to two. We need that time to develop. You need to teach those guys from a physical standpoint.
The shells conversation aside, holding practices in full pads—helmets and shoulder pads plus hip, knee and quad pads—is a dying tradition.
His teams only tackle to the ground in camp scrimmages but never in practice. At Maryland, Mike Locksley is operating camp in a similar fashion to his former boss, Nick Saban, and he says the new rules restricting coaches to 17 practices in shells is not a huge change. However, the elimination of the board drill is.
Nearly every coach who spoke to SI for this story says his team still uses the board drill, in which two players align inches apart in a three-point or four-point stance and then collide. The drill, coaches say, is less about toughness than the bull in the ring and the Oklahoma, two more violent collision drills that many have already abolished.
The board drill is designed to teach the fundamentals of blocking and tackling, they say. Frustration over its impending elimination is clear across the coaching community. Even a coach like Freeze says his team, despite never practicing in full pads, relies heavily on the board drill. The drill teaches a player good base and pad level, says Calhoun. But there are alternate ways to achieve that simulation without conducting the drill, Berry says.
Coaches need to move away from the one-on-one collisions and instead need to involve a running back and quarterback in the backfield who are executing a play. Enforcing these new rules could be a difficult endeavor, says Paul Johnson, the former Georgia Tech coach whose teams excelled at the triple option for decades. The Alabama compliance person?
Would players report their own coach if they tackled full speed in shells or if they conducted the Oklahoma Drill? If somebody calls into question something, every practice is filmed. Meanwhile, back at Navy, Niumatalolo says he regrets nothing from his plan last August to abolish contact in the name of safety. Now teams are allowed 14 practices in pads each season, once a week through the first 11 weeks. The other three are parceled out over the final six weeks, preventing a coach from hording sessions for December.
A coach can put his team in pads twice in one week only once during the first 11 weeks, and players help monitor whether teams follow the rules. The change eases the pounding on linemen, running backs and linebackers the most. Titans linebacker Wesley Woodyard likes the limit — and counting down to that final padded practice. Planning those final three practices can be challenging. Coaches have to gauge the wear and tear on their players' versus the upcoming schedule.
Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer is saving two padded practices because his Vikings ran the ball 39 times in a win at Atlanta on Nov. Now his Vikings visit Arizona on Thursday night, a short turnaround, making a padded practice impossible.
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