http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...return-of-peytons-arm-strength-still-far-off/ With the Dolphins desperate to put asses in the seats and the Broncos apparently desperate to find a way to kick Tim Tebow’s *** out of town, the question of Peyton Manning’s arm strength has gotten lost in the scramble to sign him. Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports, citing three unnamed sources, reports that, while Peyton’s arm strength is improving, a full recovery is “still far off.”
That NFL.com article says a lot of what I have been saying for months now. Three NFL sources that have seen medical reports on quarterback Peyton Manning say the improvement of his arm strength appears to be going at a promising pace, although a full recovery is still far off. “So far, so good,” said a source with one of the many teams that is interested in signing Manning. “The question is still where is it going to stop, but the progress over the past month has been steady and that’s what you’re looking for.” There had been some fear in late January that Manning’s recovery had stalled. While that appears to be a subject of interpretation at this point... “Some of this stuff is in the eye of the beholder,” another source said. “I don’t think there’s anything there that would discourage you from going forward, but you’d have to consider the risk. “Is this a situation where I would hand the guy [a lot of guaranteed money]? No, I would be hesitant because there’s still a ways to go … All three sources said the concern at this point is all about the nerve and strength regeneration in Manning’s right throwing arm. The cervical fusion in his neck is solid enough to continue playing football.
This summarizes it well imo. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-400_162-57394434/doctors-mannings-issue-arm-strength-not-neck/?tag=stack
Manning's surgically repaired neck will be able to take a hit just fine once the fusion is healed, with the bone actually stronger than others in his neck. Nerves are delicate, however, and only time will tell if they'll recover enough for the 35-year-old four-time NFL MVP to be the quarterback he once was. "Nerves are just wires and the muscle is where the wire plugs into," said Dr. Charles Bush-Joseph of Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush University, team doctors for the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox. "Obviously he's got all the intelligence and the skill set. It's a matter of strength. Can he get his arm to do what his mind and eyes want him to do?" While there's no guarantee Manning will ever fully recover, Bray said nerves tend to heal more and for a longer period of time when patients are young and healthy. These quotes from the article above are more of what I have been saying for months. I added that in the dozens of nerve injury cases I've seen and the hundreds that the medical professionals I spoke with had seen, there had not been a single case of 100% regeneration. People sometimes had enough connections to function, but to continue the analogy above, all the wires didn't reconnect to the right muscles. Our technology has not reached the point that we can make the nerves regenerate and we can't direct where they reconnect. So if a nerve connects to fast-twitch muscle fiber when it was supposed to connect to slow-twitch muscle fiber there is a loss of efficiency. The muscle will not contract as hard or as consistently. It doesn't matter what your work ethic is. The biggest determinant seems to be age. The younger you are, the greater chance that you get a higher percentage of reconnections. So a college kid is far more likely to recover than a 36 year old. The closest parallel that we have all seen was Marino, who was 38 at the time of his pinched nerve. He suffered from inconsistent arm strength in his return. Anybody who paid attention in 1999 could see that he'd fire it in on some plays and on others the ball would flutter out there. Now one thing that hurt Marino was that he had a previous achilles injury so he may have had less ability to compensate with his legs. But, on the other hand, Manning's nerve injury was much more severe than Marino's. Bear in mind that Marino's arm strength was reportedly 95% to 100% back. (His doctors reported 95%, while his team mates reported 100%). It's not about that single estimate. That's why all those statements about how an 80% - 90% Manning is as good as most QBs are hogwash. The issue is whether enough correct connections are made. In the cases I've seen about 75% do not regenerate enough correct connections to avoid having inconsistent arm strength. As I said above, I've never seen one that regenerated 100% of the connections. I have heard of 100% of the connections being re-established, but never in cases where there was a long dormancy period for the nerve like you have in Manning's case. The other point that I repeatedly brought up was that the recovery would take time. I said that barring a miracle, Manning would not be back to NFL levels by FA. The articles above saying that Manning is still far off seem to support that. Those articles also are finally admitting that there is no way to predict how much the nerve regeneration there will be. There's no due diligence you can do beyond confirming that his surgery went fine and that there's at least been some progress. If you sign Manning now, all you can do is hope that he'll eventually be ready.
Long time John! It was great eating with ya at Seau's a few yrs back. Hope all is well. Manning is intriguing...can't wait to see how this all plays out.
Raf, just a question...when Bray refers to 'patients that are young and healthy' does he mean young as in 35yrs old compared to 55 yrs old or is he referring to sports ages ??
I wondered about that myself. 36 is ancient in NFL years, but about middle age for the rest of us. I don't know the answer to what Bray meant. I just see Marino as the closest example we have to go by.
Good to know, then, that it was Marino's lower body that did him in, not his upper body, the neck surgery was successful in Marino's case, as it is in Manning's.
I work with a sports medicine doc. 36 is considered young in the profession. So hopefully he was referring to manning as a patient in general and not an NFL 36 years old.
Not in '99. That was the pinched nerve that did him in that year. After that he said he could have come back but his legs were shot.
44. I remember a few instances that last year where it was obvious that Marino scanned the field, didn't like what he saw and just threw it away towards the sideline. The problem was that he couldn't even make it to the sideline. That was despite seeing him drill passes just like the Marino we remember at other times that year. That inconsistency in his arm strength is what killed him that year.
I'am very confused as to why Manning is interviewing with these teams without thinking he should throw, and these teams are willing to sign him without seeing him throw...shady man...on both ends..
ESPN radio reported earlier today that the two front runners are Denver and Arizona. Miami got no mention at all.