Injuries are inevitable when it comes to the NFL, but some teams are in a worse place after three weeks than their compatriots. Whether it’s a series of nagging injuries to starters or catastrophic events at the end of the season, there are several teams around the league that can legitimately say they’re struggling right now due to injuries.
We compiled Injured Reserve (IR) data for all 32 teams, delineating between players who are on temporary IR and may return later in the season, and those who are done for the year. A place on this chart no Track the importance of specific injuries as they relate to team success. It goes without saying that Micah Parsons missing the start of the season, or Jaxson Dart being out for the year, hurt the Packers and Giants more than a late-round pick getting injured in camp, but it at least paints in broad strokes to show which teams are sick the most through three weeks, and who are relatively injury-free.
There is one team here that breaks the curve: The San Francisco 49ers. They once again lead the league in injury and have so many injured players that they have maxed out their allotment of IR players eligible to return. This means they carry injured players on their main 53-man roster, which is more than their IR list. The Carolina Panthers also reached their temporary IR allotment on Wednesday with cornerbacks Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson, but so far they have not reported any additional temporary injuries.
The +/- column represents the league average number of injuries for each team. Positive is worse, meaning teams are hurt more than their peers; negative is better, meaning the team is healthier than average.