This series of articles premiered exclusively at Footballguys last year. This year, we are bringing them back following the updates from the 2024 season.
I have spent time studying injury timelines and fantasy performance outcomes specifically for quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends from 2017 through 2024. Altogether, there are over 2,000 injuries in my database. However, to avoid any confusion, it is important to lay some ground rules.
I am not saying that this is exactly what will happen. I do not have a crystal ball, nor should this report be used as one. Like most things in life, context is important. Every injury is unique.
Footballguys Injury Content Sections
- Positional Volatility: Examining Games Played (August 19)
- Fantasy Performance and Re-Injury Rate by Position (August 14)
- The RB Mileage Myth: What the Numbers Say About Workload and Injuries (August 10)
- Digging Into WRs Returning From ACL Reconstruction (July 5)
Recovery Score
Using the data from the Fantasy Performance and Re-Injury Rate by Position section, I analyzed individual players to identify those who historically recover well from injury and those who struggle. This comparison provided insight into how players perform relative to positional averages upon return and how quickly they recover their pre-injury form.
In the process of analyzing this data, I created a new metric exclusive to Footballguys: the "Recovery Score." The Recovery Score compares the number of games missed per player to the position average and is weighted by the frequency of a player's injuries. This metric enables me to assign a numerical value to players, indicating which ones perform better than others in terms of returning from injury.
Breakdown By Position
The two tables below show the players with good and poor Recovery Scores.
To be very clear, this does not mean that these players are more or less likely to get injured, nor does it imply that they will necessarily sustain an injury. It gives us an idea of how long it takes these players to return to the field after they are injured.
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