Week 1 saw several starting quarterbacks sustain injuries that knocked them out of Week 2. This past week saw several more injuries to starting quarterbacks that may keep them sidelined even longer. But as big a toll as those injuries may play on the teams, the fans are getting downright concerned.
Users on social media have warned that the injuries are becoming a problem to the viewing experience. Many have warned that if it continues, the games won’t be watchable anymore.
“NFL has a major problem on their hands. Injuries are out of hand. Been getting worse by the year. But the amount of backup QBs already playing in mid September is how the consumer changes the channel,” podcaster John Middlekauff wrote on X.
Recency Bias?
But fans have seen these warnings from Middlekauff and others and been unmoved by the warning. Some have pointed out that the number of backup quarterbacks going into games isn’t noticeably higher than years past and accused him of “recency bias.” Others dismissed it as irrelevant since the NFL is king and it won’t matter who plays quarterback:
“Bad take. Injuries have always been a part of the NFL regular season story line. This isn’t new,” one user said dismissively.
“(Clown) nobody’s changing the channel. You could line Al Bundy under center. Every TV in America will tune in,” another declared.
“I’m confused how the nfl is to blame for that dart injury? or better yet, the daniels injury? nobody told daniels to attempt to hold his body weight up while falling with tiny arms. just fall down,” a third wrote.
“This same take has been repeated every year since I started playing fantasy football in 2001. When the dust settles, and numbers are compared throughout the decade, we’ll see that players were injured at roughly the same rate every season. Go back and look from 2015-2025.”
Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports.
The data may be the same, but at the end of the day it comes down to quality, not quantity. If there are half as many injuries this year as last year but all of those injuries happen to key players, it upends the entire season for the teams involved.
More importantly, if those stars getting injured are all quarterbacks, it somewhat diminishes the appeal of certain matchups that may have been scheduled for primetime.
What can the NFL do to mitigate these kinds of injuries? Is there anything the league can do?
