Ravens coach John Harbaugh likes having a bunch of young players. He’d like it a lot more if they were actually on the field.
Harbaugh took on the role of the grouchy old man complaining about millennials, when he offered his thoughts on the soft-tissue injuries that have caused rookie tight ends Hayden Hurst and Mark Andrews to miss five practices combined.
“One thing I’ve noticed: Guys coming out of college aren’t as callused up as they used to be,” Harbaugh said, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com. “We used to practice twice a day in full pads. And those players know — I’m talking to you out there who know, who’ve played in the National Football League or played in college 10, 15 years ago — [that] it’s not even close to the same thing.
“There’s a certain type of ‘in shape,’ certain type of football fitness, certain type of callusness — muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments — that kind of toughen up. They callus up a little bit, and you can practice all day and run all day. Then our guys coming in right now, most of them don’t have that.”
But Harbaugh wasn’t just shaking his fist and yelling at the sky, he actually had a plan to help with what he sees as a problem. He said having a week to work out and get warmed up before camp starts would help decrease the number of injuries early on. Of course, that’s sort of what he has, as the Ravens reported a week earlier than the rest of the league, with rookies having the place to themselves for the first few days.
The injuries still came. And without the two rookie tight ends, the other two on the roster (fourth-year players Nick Boyle and Maxx Williams) have had to take nearly every rep.
“They’re not batting an eye. Why? Because they’re callused up, because they know how to practice, because their bodies are just tougher,” Harbaugh said. “There’s a physical toughness to it. They’re mentally tough. But you have to practice football to be able to practice football the right way.”
Getting players to agree to any increase in work time will be a serious concession in the next round of CBA negotiations, something teams will have to pay for financially or otherwise.
So until then, if they’d quit listening to their terrible music, put down their avocado toast and get off Harbaugh’s lawn, he’d appreciate it.
