The Shaq Lawson shoulder condition that supposedly wouldn’t need surgery but that suddenly needs surgery happened last week during offseason workouts. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Lawson aggravated the condition during a bag drill. Despite the fact that the drill induced an injury, such activities don’t fall within the scope of prohibited “live contact” during the offseason program. Unless Lawson suffered injury while tangling with another player in a full-speed blocking or tackling drill, there was no violation by the Bills.
That said, the fact that Lawson suffered the aggravation not long after the end of the pre-draft process tends to validate the approach teams like the Jaguars and Dolphins are taking. Recognizing the increased injury potential for football players who haven’t practiced or played football in months, Jacksonville and Miami deliberately have gone easy on incoming rookies.
While no one ever will know whether Lawson would or wouldn’t have suffered the same injury at some later point in the offseason, training camp, preseason, or the regular season, the mere fact that the injury occurred raises a fair question as to whether the shoulder would have held up for the year (which the Bills had intended) before surgery.
As it now stands, Lawson may miss all or most of his rookie season. At a time when some have reported that G.M. Doug Whaley and/or coach Rex Ryan could be fired if the team doesn’t make it back to the playoffs for the first time since 1999, getting little or perhaps nothing from the team’s first-round pick isn’t the best way to fulfill the apparent up-or-out mandate.
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If that's the case Lawson would've inevitably aggravated it later in training camp which is tougher to deal with from a timing standpoint. Better now. Our philosophy is to negate catastrophic, unique/freak injuries like blown knees, ruptured Achilles, etc. to avoid what happened for example to Dante Fowler last year. I like it personally, but not sure Lawson is a good example since that's a lingering injury anyway.
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Watkins is going to miss preseason, as well.
I think it's a wise, if not, plain old realistic approach from Gase. These guys have been scrutinized for months. If there ever is a time to chillax it's right after the draft. Plus, rookies want to impress. Dallas had a scare with Ezekiel Elliott trying to do just that.
I don't think it's being reported that Lawson will miss the entire year, though. -
Or, with the extra time to heal AND to get to get the body closer to playing shape, it wouldn't have happened later in TC.Pandarilla and eltos_lightfoot like this.
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I would move forward with some balance,no extremes either way but not drill work, drill work is what they've been doing since after the season getting ready for combine, prodays and individual workouts.
I would go class and field work, getting the plays in the huddle and just simply going half speed on their individual assignments..Let players take what they learned in the class work and apply to their movement..
hitting fu##in bags and running threw cones at this particular time is pretty silly if you ask me.. -
Wouldn't Lawson be perfect, as giving him more time to heal might have prevented the surgury?
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That's what a medical staff is for. We're talking about surgery on a shoulder with a preexisting condition. The Bills have to do the due diligence before clearing him. No doubt rest probably would've benefited him if diagnosed properly IMO. It's also possible that Shaw Lawson benefits more from an early surgery to fully heal, or heal as much as possible heading into the season to ensure it doesn't happen or get worse during the season, like we handled Parker's situation, albeit the Bills' hand was forced. Us, we did our due diligence and decided to be proactive.