The Death of "Next Man Up"

[HoosierCat]

Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me? Once upon a time -- like, as late as last season -- "next man up" was the standard response to injuries. But has anyone heard that, or its cousin, "injuries are no excuse," lately? I haven't. Instead, I've heard lots of stuff like this today from His Lordship Brady I (talking about Edelman going down):

Quote

“There’s nothing that’s really seamless when you lose a great player. When it’s someone that’s been the leading receiver on your team for multiple years and you lose them, it’s not like you go, ‘OK, well, let just put someone else in.’ He’s too good of a player for that." 

Now, I don't disagree with His Lordship. I fact I've argued for years that "next man up" is bogus coach-speak and that teams know perfectly well that you just can't replace an AJ Green or Tyler Eifert or Geno Atkins with some guy off the bench and roll on. But we've always been told to siddown and shaddup with that talk, that's for losers, winners do just that. Yet this year, as seemingly tons of key players get knocked out by injury, it's an excuse everywhere! In Denver, Baltimore,Indy, Pittsburgh, Dallas and now apparently New England among others. The popular, big-market teams get hit with injuries and it's time for a pity party. When it happens here, well, suck it up, Bengals.

Jut thought it was interesting how fast things change.

[gregcook68]

2 hours ago, HoosierCat said:

Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me? Once upon a time -- like, as late as last season -- "next man up" was the standard response to injuries. But has anyone heard that, or its cousin, "injuries are no excuse," lately? I haven't. Instead, I've heard lots of stuff like this today from His Lordship Brady I (talking about Edelman going down):

Now, I don't disagree with His Lordship. I fact I've argued for years that "next man up" is bogus coach-speak and that teams know perfectly well that you just can't replace an AJ Green or Tyler Eifert or Geno Atkins with some guy off the bench and roll on. But we've always been told to siddown and shaddup with that talk, that's for losers, winners do just that. Yet this year, as seemingly tons of key players get knocked out by injury, it's an excuse everywhere! In Denver, Baltimore,Indy, Pittsburgh, Dallas and now apparently New England among others. The popular, big-market teams get hit with injuries and it's time for a pity party. When it happens here, well, suck it up, Bengals.

Jut thought it was interesting how fast things change.

I couldn't say this last year without being blasted as a 'homer', but with the loss of M. Johnson, Burfict, M. Jones, Eifert, Green (for 6 or 8 games), and Atkins just a shell, I thought it next to a miracle that they not only made the playoffs, but were playing for the division title in the last game of the year!

[HoosierCat]

19 minutes ago, gregcook68 said:

I couldn't say this last year without being blasted as a 'homer', but with the loss of M. Johnson, Burfict, M. Jones, Eifert, Green (for 6 or 8 games), and Atkins just a shell, I thought it next to a miracle that they not only made the playoffs, but were playing for the division title in the last game of the year!

Same here. And as late as the playoff game vs. Indy last January I recall seeing (not here but on twitter and at CJ) some fans complaining before the game that all the injuries the Bengals suffered were going to give them a built-in excuse to keep Dalton around another year if they lost. And that would be BS because "injuries are no excuse." But this season, all that kind of thinking has vanished league-wide.