The Chargers conduct a study each offseason.

They compare injury data from their team with the rest of the NFL, analyzing how they stack up in such variables as injury-type frequency. Are they ahead of the curve in some respects? Behind in others? They dig deeper for trends and potential explanations. Certain staff members analyze the latest exercise-science advancements to ensure players run stride for stride with modern research.

This study is done every offseason.

Except next time, it will be different.


“I can assure you this year is going to be more in-depth and thorough than ever before,” said John Spanos, president of football operations.

When it rains, it pours. And the only place in dry San Diego that appears drenched constantly is Chargers Park, where the team has lost at least one key player to a significant injury every week. Maybe it’s pure, dumb luck. But if anything else is to blame, the franchise looks to identify it.

This cannot keep happening.

Week 1: wide receiver Keenan Allen, anterior cruciate ligament tear.


Week 2: running back Danny Woodhead, ACL tear; safety Jahleel Addae, clavicular fracture.

Week 3: inside linebacker Manti Te’o, Achilles tendon tear.

Coach Mike McCoy met with reporters on Monday, the day after a Week 4 game against the Saints. His team had lost three starting offensive linemen — left tackle Chris Hairston (groin), left guard Orlando Franklin (knee) and right tackle Joe Barksdale (foot) — during the loss, not to mention saw the exits of inside linebackers Denzel Perryman (shoulder) and Nick Dzubnar (knee) and cornerback Craig Mager (shoulder). But after the first three games, he seemed almost relieved.

No surgeries were being scheduled.


“There is no major injury concern as of today,” McCoy said.

Less than 24 hours later, in walked Pro Bowl cornerback Jason Verrett. McCoy would need an umbrella for this. Verrett reported that he was dealing with soreness in his left knee; it hadn’t felt right for a while, perhaps as early as Week 2. Verrett underwent an MRI.

Week 4: Verrett, ACL tear.

And don’t lose sight of Dzubnar, whose Sunday knee injury is believed to be serious. The core special teams player, who injured the same knee in Week 1, will attempt to tough it out this month. There is no guarantee, however, that he can. He has yet to practice this week and figures not to play this Sunday in Oakland.


McCoy addressed the Verrett development with players in a team meeting.

“You tell them, ‘Hey, it’s an unfortunate situation for anybody,’” McCoy said, “‘but it’s an opportunity for somebody else to step up. Sometimes, another group, another position has to rise up a little bit to help the other group out. We’re all in this together. Everybody on this team, everybody in this organization, we’re all in it together. You find ways to come out and scrap and do whatever you need to do to find a way to win.’”

McCoy has given that speech a lot. This year, in particular.

The Chargers lost one player to an ACL tear the previous two regular seasons (center Doug Legursky, 2014). Verrett, Allen and Woodhead now make at least three in the first four games of 2016. Likewise, the team is believed to have diagnosed no Achilles tears in five straight seasons entering this one, its last in 2010 with rookie linebacker Donald Butler during training camp. In Week 3, Te’o became the third such tendon tear in 38 days after tight end Jeff Cumberland and running back Branden Oliver were injured this preseason in non-contact fashion.


If you run a poll across all 32 fan bases that poses the question, “Do you think the NFL team you follow suffers more injuries than the average one?” chances are the majority of fans from each team will answer yes.

This is beyond perception, though.

Something appears to be happening in San Diego — if not in previous years when there seemed an unusual preponderance of injuries, then certainly now. Too many at Chargers Park, be it veterans like ninth-year safety Dwight Lowery or coaches and executives who have been in the business for decades, say they’ve seen nothing like what’s happened so far.

Dr. Luga Podesta offers an outside perspective.


He is the director of sports medicine at St. Charles Orthopedics in New York. His pro team experience includes 16 seasons as a team physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers and summers as a training camp consultant for the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints.

“That’s a major undertaking to try to look at those metrics and find out where the problem is,” Podesta said of the Chargers’ planned study. “Could it be how they train? Could it be an underuse issue? Could it be an overuse issue? Is it just crappy luck and it is what it is? It’s tough to say. … I don’t think it’s the training staff at all. I mean, it’s difficult to pin it on them because they’re not doing anything that probably would expose them to injury like this.

“If they were doing something in the weight room, these things would happen in the weight room, not just on the field. … I wish I knew an answer for you. That’s an interesting question, though. They’ve got some job ahead of the team to try to figure out what the (heck) it is.”

Maybe it is all bad luck, but the team wants answers.


Like never before, Spanos says, it will search for them.

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michael.gehlken@sduniontribune.com


Twitter: @SDUTgehlken