This may be more of a question for CND. Considering the injuries Savage has had, how many of those injuries really would have put him in IR if he was the unquestioned starter? Lots of guys play injured, or miss short amounts of time and teams are known to stash young players on IR that they want to develop.
The shoulder injury that kept him out in IR for his second season I think doesn't get him put on IR if he was the unquestioned starter. That same kind of hit with the QB being driven into the ground has knocked a lot of guys out for the game but if the Texans thought he wasn't in their plans at that point in time (with Hoyer and Mallet in competition for the starting gig) then them stashing him on IR for the year is easily explained. They were able to keep another player who they thought would see the field by doing that.
The knee in his rookie year was just an injury. It happens. His elbow last year was worrying IMO. The concussion was "who knows". "Incredibly ill-timed" comes to mind. Understandable that it could happen to anyone but damn it really screwed up our ability to clearly see who he was. The question will always be in our minds what he might have done or not done in the playoffs. We'd have had a great chance to see what he could bring there. Now we're more in the dark than ever.
A grade 2 A-C separation in the throwing arm, which Savage sustained, would be a very tough injury for a quarterback to return to play in a short period. An athlete with a grade 2 separation is ready to return to throwing when he has full range of motion of the shoulder and can tolerate the level of pain. Yes, pain tolerance is part of this, but there is a significant mechanical component too. Remember, even Tom Brady had surgery to deal with what was reported as a grade 2 injury after he played through a quarter or so of pain. An A-C separation is far from a couple week recovery.......it can easily be a 6-8 week or even longer rehab to be a fully function QB. If Savage were an established starter at that time, the Texans may have tried to have waited the rehab out............and still he may have not made it back good enough to sustain whatever would have been left of the season.............and meanwhile, the Texans had significant holes in their roster and waiting could have very well been a double whammy.
Here's a piece that can illustrate that it is not smart to return too soon from an A-C separation if you are an establish elite starting QB.:
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Brady undergoes shoulder surgery
By Michael Smith, Globe Staff | February 26, 2004
It's clear now, six weeks later, why some of the Patriots seemed to take exception to the talk about how tough the Tennessee Titans were, particularly quarterback Steve McNair and running back Eddie George. For one, the Patriots aren't allowed to talk about their injuries. New England's players play hurt, too, starting with quarterback Tom Brady.
Like McNair, Brady, as it turns out, can play at a high level without the benefit of practice. The two-time Super Bowl MVP recently underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder to "alleviate some lingering soreness," according to a statement released by the team, from a separation suffered near the end of the 2002 season. Apparently Brady is not the superstitious type, as the procedure was done in Boston Friday, Feb. 13. It took 30-45 minutes.
Brady, who is wearing only a small bandage on his shoulder indicative of a minor operation, is looking at about a six-week recovery period. In their statement, the Patriots characterized the quarterback's prognosis as "excellent."
Brady originally injured his throwing shoulder Dec. 16, 2002, at Tennessee. Attempting a pass at the end of the first half, Brady suffered a first-degree separation on a hit from Tennessee's Jevon Kearse. Brady completed 14 of 29 passes in that game (48 percent), one of three games in 52 career starts in which he has completed fewer than half his attempts. He was limited the following week in a home loss to the New York Jets, in which he completed 19 of 37 (51 percent). In the victory over Miami in the 2002 finale, Brady reinjured the shoulder, this time sustaining a second-degree separation.
Brady rehabilitated for several months the following offseason rather than have surgery. He played in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and participated in the "Quarterback Challenge," winning the distance competition with a throw of 62 yards. And he looked sharp in the 2003 exhibition season, throwing six touchdown passes and no interceptions.
But it wasn't all good for Brady. He was on painkillers and anti-inflammatories all last season. It was so bad, in fact, that the Patriots, in an attempt to preserve their franchise quarterback's arm, held Brady out of Wednesday practices. Some weeks, he only practiced on Friday.
Things got worse in Week 2 when Brady banged his right elbow on another player's helmet. His elbow swelled to the size of a grapefruit and bothered him for some 10 weeks.
The shoulder pain, meanwhile, never went away. He could hear the joint clicking when he threw. Teammates heard him grunt after passes. It hurt to lift his right arm. Throughout the year he wore a protective sleeve that extended from his wrist to his shoulder.
"He couldn't throw," one offensive teammate said. "A lot of people didn't know how bad it was. He was hurting." Brady also took a helmet to one of his thighs in the regular-season finale against Buffalo. Fortunately for him, a bye week followed. And then there was the bum ankle he played with for part of the year.
But Brady's physical problems rarely manifested themselves in the team's results. Brady finished third in league MVP voting and led New England to a 17-2 record (including postseason), including 15 consecutive wins to end the season. He won his second Super Bowl MVP award by completing 32 of 48 attempts for 354 yards and 3 touchdowns.
"In a team sport you don't want to let anybody down," Brady said in September, after aggravating his elbow injury against the Jets in Week 3.
A week after the Super Bowl, Brady continued to play through pain -- in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He barely could swing his golf club. According to a report in Wednesday's Palm Beach Post, he did not play in the Dan Marino Foundation Celebrity Invitational because of surgery less than two weeks ago.
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His ACL is almost an initiation for a QB, as is an A-C shoulder separation. Furthermore, understand that an A-C shoulder separation does not have the same serious long term implications that a shoulder dislocation carries...........a distinction that many nonmedical people do not tend to make.
Finally, Savage's elbow problem was an infected bursa sac (not of the joint). This condition can occur following any injury at the end of the elbow if there is a skin break, such as an insect bite, scrape, or puncture wound, where bacteria can enter the bursa sac and cause an infection.
To conclude from these injuries that Savage is "injury prone" or that he is ikely to have long term effects from any of them at this point is probably somewhat disingenuous.
