NFL Year of the Injury: Is Rash of Losses Coincidence, Lockout-Related or Worse?

Houston (Actually Kansas City), We Have a Problem

The 2011 NFL season is fast developing the unfortunate moniker "Year of the Injury." Just three games in, several teams have experienced an exorbitant number of losses. 

If you want proof, just look at this week's injury report. Michael Vick was questionable with a concussion, and the New York Giants knocked him out of the game with a broken hand anyway. The Dallas Cowboys' Tony Romo is questionable after breaking ribs and puncturing a lung against the San Francisco 49ers.

The Arizona Cardinals already lost rookie running back Ryan Williams for the season with a torn patellar tendon, and now Beanie Wells is inactive with a nagging hamstring problem, the same issue that is plaguing the Houston Texans' Arian Foster. The Tennessee Titans think Kenny Britt tore his ACL yesterday, while knee problems already sidelined 49er Braylon Edwards.

Just on the defensive side of the ball, the inactive list this week is a who's who of former Pro Bowlers: Johnathan Vilma, Osi Umenyiora, Albert Haynesworth, Champ Bailey, et al. And of course, there are already names like Nate Kaeding and Peyton Manning out of the picture entirely.

Perhaps the most lucid sign of the increase is the way a pileup of injuries is plaguing certain teams. The Kansas City Chiefs lost starter Tony Moeaki and Pro Bowlers Eric Berry and Jamaal Charles for the season.

The St. Louis Rams had their top passer (Sam Bradford), rusher (Steven Jackson) and receiver (Danny Amendola) knocked out of the same game against the Philadelphia Eagles. The New York Giants barely have enough bodies to fill a two-deep.

A Product of the Environment?

Statistics indicate that the 2011 early season injury spurt could be part of a larger trend. Research by the NFLPA showed that the number of injuries in the NFL in 2010 increased above the seasonal average (established from recording the number of injuries from 2002-09).

While the burgeoning presence of injuries seems to suggest an elevated level of violence in the way the game is played, the advent of recent rule changes affect the game in the opposite fashion, actively seeking to enhance player safety.

Quarterbacks can only be legally struck in the area that is covered by a one-piece swimsuit, receivers can't take hits like the ones John Lynch used to deliver, and now kickoffs result in touchbacks a majority of the time. This suggests the 2010 injury increase was likely a statistical anomaly, nothing more. 

The Darn Lockout Again...

The most logical explanation for the NFL injury epidemic is the lockout, which significantly reduced the amount of summer conditioning the players underwent. The lockout's effect was clearly evident in the preseason, when Achilles injuries felled an inordinate number of players. Those type of ailments are the direct result of the body being unprepared for the workload required.

Rookies were especially susceptible to affliction, as notable freshman Nick Fairley, Prince Amukamara, Mikel Leshoure and the aforementioned Ryan Williams were all injured in the preseason. They missed their pivotal first spring/summer workouts in which players normally acclimate to the bodily stresses of the NFL, and they paid dearly for it.

The Good News

The benefit of seeing the injury prevalence as resultant from the lockout is that we can assume it will subside fairly soon, and certainly by next season. The 2011 NFL preseason was shamefully reduced, for which there were significant consequences (for instance, the current lack of NFL-caliber defenses lining up for NFL teams).

I hear some say that the injury problem is a result of players getting too fast/strong for such a hard-hitting game. While that might explain an increase in injuries from 1990-2010, it certainly wouldn't have changed anything over the summer.

Roger Goodell has been extremely proactive in reducing the amount/magnitude of hitting, to the ire of many fans, and against many of the players' wishes.

I say the players were physically unprepared for the season, some of them have suffered for it, and soon we can all move on.