by Bryan Knowles
NFL seasons are long. Even though the sheer number of games an NFL team faces is nowhere near the slate of any of the major sports, most other sports don't involve slamming into people 40 to 60 times a game over a period of four months. That wear and tear is bound to have some sort of effect as the season goes along, right?
That's the basic question asked by reader Rocco C on twitter:
@FO_ASchatz question: do you know of any research about whether run defense tends to get better or worse as the year goes along?