Major injuries in the NFL have skyrocketed this past week. The question remains as to how this will affect the season moving forward.
Injuries to big players such as Cincinnati Benglas quarterback , New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb, and many more, havecost their teams big time. Coaches are scrambling to find suitable backups for these historical players.
Burrow was hit with a preseason calf injury that has not allowed him to play like his normal self. For the Bengals, without Burrow, it has been tough. Cincinatti is 3-3 and that is not cutting it for them.
“Not where we want to be, we’ve had moments, but we just got to put it all together,” said Burrow in anAP News article. “We’ll evaluate this week and go from there.”
Rodgers was declared out for the season due to an Achilles injury minutes into the Jets first four plays of the season. Bringing in Zach Wilson, they ultimately won against the Bills but a blowout loss in Week 2 hit them hard against the Cowboys.
With Rodgers’ injury, it had to make the Jets reassess their plans and what they are going to do without him. Hoping Wilson, who they drafted No. 2 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft can step in Rodgers’ place.
One of the most gruesome injuries for 2023 so far was reported by NBC New York, “Chubb suffered a severe knee injury in Cleveland’s loss, ending his sixth NFL season prematurely. The four-time Pro Bowler has been one of the league’s best running backs since being drafted in 2018, trailing only Derrick Henry in rushing yards”
From this injury, the Browns are now turning to second-year RBs Jerome Ford and Pierre Strong Jr. Not only for the Browns, but for many other teams as well they are hoping to get back on track as a result of these injuries by their star players.
More recent studies have shown a decrease in the number of injuries that occur. However, head injuries have become the main topic of discussion when talking about specific injuries.
As described in CBS Sports, there has been an increase in concussions with quarterbacks having “23 more concussions in 2023 than in 2022.”
Hoping to make serious changes in the game, the NFL has made an effort to make the game safer. The league is working to identify earlier concussions so that way players don’t have to aggravate or make injuries worse for them.
Judy Battista writes on Twitter, “Dr. Allen Sills, the league’s CMO, reiterated that getting the head out of the game is the major focus of concussion prevention.”
The league is striving for an increase in medical time-outs and more concussion tests. Striving also for the potential in specific helmets for the quarterbacks.
The Green Bay Packers report “20% of concussions and ACL tears occur on punts and kickoffs.”
With these statistics, the NFL is also trying to make punts and kickoffs safer to reduce injury. Getting the players off the field when injuries occur is the league’s top priority, but sometimes getting the player off the field can not happen fast enough.