Will Dissly Fantasy Outlook Following Achilles Tendon Rupture

Will Dissly was my starting tight end during the first 6 games of last year; and he was saving my fantasy football season. That was until he ruptured his Achilles tendon in a week 6 matchup against Cleveland. Up to that point, Dissly had 23 receptions 262 yard and 4 touchdowns. Sadly, injuries have been the story of Dissly’s career with him rupturing his Patella Tendon in 2018 and then his Achilles in 2019. The good news is, all reports have Dissly back participating in Seahawks camp and he is expected to be active for week 1. In this article we will discuss the recovery process following an Achilles rupture and my fantasy outlook for Dissly.

What is your Achilles Tendon?

The Achilles tendon is the largest and thickest tendon in the human body. It attaches your soleus and gastrocnemius (calf muscles) to your posterior heel. This tendon is responsible for 93% of all plantar flexor forces. This generation of force is critical for all jumping, running, cutting, pushing activities.

How do we Rupture our Achilles?

Although our Achilles is incredibly strong, it is subject to extreme forces. Almost all Achilles ruptures occur during sport participation that places excessive eccentric force onto the tendon(think landing from a jump). Football players make up 8.4% of all Achilles injuries that are related to sport. This is due to football players embodying many of the known risk factors. Man are significantly more likely to tear their Achilles. People who have excessive weight are also at much greater risk due to the inherent forces that they experience.

How do we treat Achilles ruptures?

For athletes, almost all Achilles surgeries are treated surgically. Dissly got surgery to repair his Achilles in October of 2019, putting him ~10 months post-op at the publication of this article.Research has found the mean return to sport following Achilles surgery for NFL players is 339 days. Attached below is a sample Post operative rehab protocol.

Post-Op protocol

What does the Data say?

The majority of research on return to sport following an achilles rupture is in basketball players as it is the most common source of injury. In the basketball population, “More than a third (36.8%) of players either did not return to play or started in fewer than 10 games in the remainder of their career, with 21% of ruptures leading to retirement” The Player Efficiency Rating also declined by an average of 2.9 points for those who did return. The NFL data that is available says over a quarter of the players never return to play another NFL game. The Data also suggest that linebacker and running backs have significantly worse performance following their achilles rupture.

My Fantasy Outlook:

The dumb sport’s fan in me will blindly take Will Dissly for the next 5 years just because he had a couple good weeks for me. However, the experts are not as kind. ESPN currently does not have Dissly ranked as one of their top thirty tight ends.FantasyPros.com has Dissly ranked as #30 on their tight end rankings.This low ranking is due in part to his injury history and for that the Seahawks signed veteran tight end Greg Olsen.

Pros for Will Dissly:

– At 24 years old he is still very young and is more likely to have quicker recovery

– He returned very well following his Patella tendon rupture

– He has Russell Wilson as his Quarterback

– Greg Olsen has his own injury history

Cons for Will Dissly:

– This is his second major injury to his lower extremity

– Greg olsen is a very reliable and capable replacement

– The Seahawks are expected to slowly progress him back into the offense

Will Dissly will always have a spot in my fantasy heart. With that, he will be a week 3-4 waiver wire pick up target. I also don’t believe Olsen will be the same player he was in his prime and Dissly will be able to take over the majority of the snaps. I also believe Dissly will be a good enough redzone target with lack of competition from other players on the team that on the low end Will Dissly is a spot starter depending on matchups in fantasy football this year.

Disclaimer:

  • Success of rehabilitation is highly dependent on how an individual is responding to treatment; I have zero insight into how Dissly has been progressing in rehab.
  • NFL players are a different breed, people should not be able to be as big and athletic as they are.
  • NFL players receive treatment and rehab from world class doctors and trainers
  • This is being sent to my fantasy football league, so I may just be trying to fool them

Can the fitness industry please share the truth, instead of their typical nonsense?

To start this story, I was researching for an article on the claims made by @moveu about high waisted leggings “deactivating” your core(look out for this article next week) when I stumbled upon this post on my timeline by @fastreps

Immediately my mind resorted to every physiology and nutrition course I have ever taken, trying to comprehend what logic or evidence supports the claims made in this post. Trying to give Mr @fastreps the benefit of the doubt, I commented

After failing to provide any evidence to back his claims, and knowing that his entire page is built on selling the idea of Intermittent fasting I decided to do the research for him.

How does Fat loss/Fat Gain occur?

No matter what any fitness “guru” tries to sell you, body weight changes all stem back to the first law of thermodynamics, conservation of energy. (Hall 2012)

Calories In vs Calories Out

Calories In = Food that you are eating

Calories Out are influenced by many factors including:

For anyone who argues against the idea that calories in vs calories out, I could point them to pretty much every textbook and majority of research studies, but for more fun I send them to the story of a teacher who only ate Mcdonalds and lost 56 pounds. He did this by eating 2,000 calories a day and working out 45 minutes 5 days per week to maintain a considerable caloric deficit.

Now I do Understand there are other contributing less substantial factors that influence our body composition. One of these factors is what your mama(and papa) gave you; your genetics. The most discussed and possibly most significant factors are a group of genes that are termed the “thrifty genes”. For much of human history these genes were highly advantageous as they control how efficiently we store fat. During times of feast individuals with the thrify genes were able to store more fat, that later could be utilized during times in which food was scarce. However, in today’s world where we have a food surplus, this gene has become more detrimental than beneficial. It has been shown to put people at much higher risk for diabetes and obesity. ( Venniyoor 2020)

Another factor that influences our body composition is our hormones. Anyone that argues against this obviously did not watch baseball during the early 2000’s. Thyroid hormones,cortisol, testosterone, estrogen, leptin, etc all have been shown to influence body composition. However, Mr @fastreps made the claim that hormones are only affected by when and what we eat. He has forgotten about how sleep, sex, age, physical activity enviromental factors, genetics, and stress all contribute to our hormones.( Leproult 2010, Gray 1991)

Argument for Intermittent Fasting

I want to start with full disclosure, that depending on my schedule during a particular semester, I have and will implement intermittent fasting into my diet. I have found it to be extremely useful in times when it is conducive with my life demands, in large parts because I like lunch/dinner foods way more than breakfast foods. When I use Intermittent fasting I typically utilize the 16:8(16 hour fast; 8 hour eating window); however, there are many other intermittent fasting protocols including alternating days, 5:2(5 days per week normal diet; 2 days of fasting) and many more all centered around the idea of incorporating extended fasting periods(Rynders 2019). The idea behind this fasting and eating periods are to simulate the feast famine diet that our ancestors had to experience and adapt to. Up until recent years, most of the research on Intermittent fasting was done on animals models. In recent years more and more research continues to come out in human trials. With limited data, on limited populations, the results have been extremely positive (Welton 2020). Intermittent fasting has been shown to be an effective weight loss tool, increases insulin sensitivity, decreases inflammation and improves cardiovascular function. Although these results are extremely encouraging, when compared to other diets, there are small to no differences in these improvements(Cioffi 2018, Rynders 2019)

Why does the argument for Intermittent Fasting Not Hold Up?

As I stated before, I utilize Intermittent fasting when my schedule and lifestyle are set up to do so. We should choose our nutrition plan based on what our life demands are. People who do not consider their life demands typically have horrible adherence to their diet. Intermittent fasting has an extremely high dropout rate in the research, most likely due to the fact that many people’s lives are not conducive for long periods of fasting. But guess what? That is perfectly okay because almost all research has shown that all other diets(low carb, low fat, small meals, etc) are equally effective at long term weight loss when calorically matched(Cioffi 2018, Rynders 2019). Caloric restriction as a whole has shown to increase insulin sensitivity as well as positive effects on cardiovascular health(Larson-Meyer 2006). Another pitfall with Intermittent fasting is that some research has shown one or few large meals are more likely for food to be stored as fat compared to many small meals. This may be due to the body’s ability to only process a certain amount of certain macronutrients(most notably protein) at any particular time(Schoenfeld 2018). Another downfall within individuals who are not good matches for Intermittent fasting is that some people overeat during the eating period, ruining their caloric deficit. My final issue with Mr @fastreps claims that hormones are what causes fat gain and they are only controlled by what and when you eat is that Mr @fastreps must have forgotten about all other things that influence our hormones that include but not limited to sleep, exercise, age,sex, time of day, time of the month, etc.

My recommendations for accomplishing your body goals

SHOE REVIEW: On Cloudsurfer

Shoe: On Cloud Surfer

Category- Neutral

Weight-11.64oz

Heal to Toe Drop: 6mm

Cost- $149.99

Features-

Speed Board to improve energy return

Soft responsive feel

16 Cloud Pods under the foot

Cushion- Although the shoe is more stiff than alot of other trainers, these shoes provide plenty of cushioning and are most ideal for those middle distance runs(3-6 miles)

Performance- These shoes are little heavy to be considered a true performance shoe, however, they provide more of a performance feel then most traditional trainers. Overall I would compare these to the New Balance 890s as they are more of a hybrid trainer/performance shoe.

When do I wear these shoes

I wear these shoes for my daily runs that typically range between 3-5 miles.

Shoes I would compare these to?

New balance 890

Hoka RIncon

Who would I recommend these shoes to?

Someone who is looking for a daily trainer that still provides plenty of performance. These shoes are very diverse in its capabilities; they can be worn for distances up to half marathon or can be used for speed work. It fits long narrow feet the best(aka why I love it). The cloudsurfer has a tight secure fit through the mid foot and wide toe box. Wider feet may feel as though it is too tight. The heel is little wide, but I was able to fix my heel slipping out by utilizing a runners tie on my shoe. Overall these are one of my favorite shoes and I highly recommend them. People have also found combining these with the Dynamic Run Insoles from Superfeet to be a magical combination.

My overall opinion

Comfort-8/10

Performance- 8/10

Features-9/10

Overall-8/10

Why My Concern For Player Safety Is Much More Than COVID-19

I want to start with the irrational sport’s fan in me is ecstatic and feels as though my prayers have been answered with sports coming back. However, the physical therapist, researcher, and data driven part of me is nervous, scared and critical of the decision. Every day it feels as though a new college athletic department, professional sports team is suffering from the devastating effects of Covid-19. To name a few Clemson University , University of North Carolina, Kevin Durant, Patric Ewing, Nikola Jokic, Ezekiel Elliot, etc. However, there is another player safety concern that the mainstream media and the general population as a whole is not focusing on; These athletes may be at a significantly higher risk to suffer severe career altering injury.

As we all know the world has been shut down for the last ~4months, and the sports world is no different(unless you are Tom Brady, but going down that path would be like going into the wrong house). Most people in the media have made the argument that this extra rest will help players recover from injuries and will help the players be refreshed from the extra time off; and this may be true for players that were suffering from nagging injuries. However, it does not take into account the inability in the timeline of return to competition for athletes to get their training workload and intensity to match that of game and practice.

Covid-19 is in a league of its own in how it has disrupted sports and all preparatory training for it. To understand its possible effects we must look at situations that have also caused disruptions to the season, with the closest examples we have in recent memory being the 2011 NBA and NFL lockout. During the NBA lockout, Tim Hewett, one of the world’s top experts on ACL injuries, as well as former director of sports medicine research at Ohio State University and former director at the Mayo clinic, was very vocal about the risk of injury these players were going to experience when they came back from the lockout. His precautionary warnings stemmed from an editorial that Dr Hewett and Dr Gregory Meyers among others published in the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, titled “Did the NFL Lockout Expose the Achilles Heel of Competitive Sports?” In this publication they presented astounding results from the injury rates in the 2011 NFL season that was affected by the lockout. Between the years of 1997-2002, the NFL saw on average 5 achilles ruptures per year. In the first 12 days of training camp upon return from the lockout, the NFL saw 10 achilles tendon ruptures (5 were rookies, which is very interesting as achilles ruptures typically occur in athletes who are 30+ years old) , then 2 more during the first two preseason games. As Dr. Hewett predicted the NBA was no different, but saw a much greater increase in ACL type injuries. In the season prior to the lockout the NBA saw saw just 3 ACL injuries. During the shortened lockout season the NBA saw 11 players go down with major knee injuries(most notable, Derrick Rose during the 2012 playoffs).

Now that a problem has been presented, the researcher in me wants to understand the mechanism of why this significant increase in injuries is occurring. The answer is most likely multifactorial and no doubt can not be fully explained. There are some hypothesis’s that can be used to explain these results though. The number one reason is that injuries occur when the load/force an athlete experiences is greater then the capabilities of the tissue it is stressing. With this players during these disruptions in training and sport do not have proper amounts of time to increase their physical capabilities to match those needed during a competitive sports situation. Another factor that affects athletes during lockouts and pandemics is that many are unable to access the team’s medical personnel to help them recover from existing injuries, which left untreated can lead to neuromuscular deficits and imbalances. These neuromuscular impairments will get amplified during high intensity competition. Finally, players may just be “out of shape”. This may help to explain why we saw so many rookies being injured, as they do not understand what it takes to stay in professional shape.

I was optimistic that we were not going to see as large of a spike in injuries as I have heard discussions from some very smart people over the last few months on how teams can help “flatten” the injury curve. However, after the first weekend of watching European Soccer, and seeing countless injuries, the realist in me kicked in. Now I fear this disruption will be even worse. This was reaffirmed while listening to Pardon my Take’s interview with Trevor Baur, pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, where he was discussing how many players had not been working out, thrown a ball or taken a swing since Spring training got canceled back in March. This led me to brain storm reasons why this time will be worse. Listed below are just some of my thoughts.

  1. It is 2020 and it seems liked anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
  2. A Lot of players did not have access to their gyms or personal trainers
  3. Games are going to be much more intense
  4. NBA and NHL going straight into Playoffs(basically)
  5. Shortened MLB season(each game in theory is now worth 2.7 games)
  6. Medical Staff may be hyper focused on Covid 19 concerns and may have limitations on how much pre/rehab they are able to do with the athletes inorder to limit interaction time.

With all this being said, we can hope and pray for the safety of all players. I hope the medical and training staff has listened to the experts, at least more than our government, to help protect our athletes against injury and disease.