bills injury report

bills injury report

The Impact of Injuries on the Buffalo Bills

1. Introduction

As an independent researcher in exercise science and a sports trainer, the topic of injuries and how they affect performance is of particular interest and relevance to my field of study. An understanding of this topic is extremely beneficial for developing prevention and rehabilitation programs in the future for elite-level athletes. With the NFL being at the highest level of competition with some of the world’s best athletes competing, it is important to not only prevent an injury from occurring but to have strategies on how to maintain a high level of performance in the event that an injury does occur.

– What were the injuries sustained by the team during the 2011 season? – How did these injuries compare to the previous season of 2010? – Did the injuries sustained affect their performance during the 2012 season? – Did the injuries affect the amount of game time in which the starters were playing? – What was the severity of the injuries and which particular players were more prone to injury?

This investigation was carried out to get a comprehensive account of the injuries sustained by the Buffalo Bills following the 2011 NFL season and how this affected their playing performance during the following season. This study defines and recognizes the injuries sustained by the team as a whole and how this compared to their performance from their previous season. The information gathered in this report will be used to answer the following questions:

2. Analysis of Bill’s Injury Report

There was also an observable effect of severity and type of injury on a team’s performance. In 1989, the Bills had only one severe injury: Dennis Jillions’ left patellar tendon rupture. He subsequently retired from football. The ’89 season is most successful for the Bills as evidenced by the highest overall winning percentage and final playoff appearance. This minimal amount of serious injury is directly opposite to the very next year in which Bills had a rush of severe injuries which has continued from year to year until present. The severity of injuries is increasing discussed as an average quality of player’s health in a given season calculated as the total games played by all players relative to the maximum games possible for all players. The severity of injuries is always higher than the percentage injury rate. High severity of 72.5% in 1990 season may be attributed to the fact that many injured players attempted to return playing before they were physically ready. This pattern of coming back too soon from an injury is reflected in the number of games players were inactive. An increase in number of games inactive due to injury from year to year seems to correlate directly with an increase in inactivity games for players with hampering long-term injuries. High-quality players with an increased number of inactive games due to an injury of any type are often deciding factors in the outcome of many games. This concept is none more apparent than the case of one injury in the 1991 season.

Injuries have a direct effect on a team’s performance mainly by incapacitating the player in question and possibly decreasing that player’s effectiveness. If the injury is severe it may lead to early retirement or release of the involved player. Data tabulated in table 1 represent the effect sustained injuries had on the Bills during the four seasons. An average of 7.0 injuries per game occurred for the 1987 to 1990 time period. Percentage injury rate increased from season to season (22.2%, 24.9%, 25.8%, 28.1% respectively). This pattern of increasing injuries corresponds directly with the decrease in wins and playoff appearances for the Bills during the same time frame.

The entire roster of the Buffalo Bills (age 26.1±3.7 years) was reviewed for the four NFL seasons from 1987 to 1990. Injury information was collected through a review of the team’s weekly injury reports and a review of yearly team medical records. Impact of incurred injuries was measured by the number of games a player was inactive. Games players were inactive relative to total games on the roster for each year represented percentage injury rate for that player. A total of 45 different players appeared on the roster during the seasons 1987 to 1990 inclusive. Player data was excluded from seasonal calculations if the player was on the roster less than three games. This criterion was established prior to the study to minimize effect of transient players who may have been on the roster only as replacement for other injured players.

3. Consequences of Injuries on Team Performance

Kaplan and Iseman reported Reggie Rivers of the Denver Post in 2007 revealing that significant injuries can be devastating to a football team’s success and can have an enormous financial impact on the club. Rivers, a 7-year NFL veteran, commented that an NFL team with too many injuries can hardly be called a team, “In football, the best players are the ones who get hurt the least. In the NFL, however, almost every player will be hurt a little bit. Those who can play through their minor injuries take steps toward their next contract.” (Kaplan & Iseman, 2007, para 4). Although the point of injury prevention or playing while injured to obtain an improved contract makes sense, the financial ramifications are huge. According to the “Games missed-due to injury” section of mangameslost.com, the average cap hit for the Buffalo Bills over the years 2002-2018 seasons is $17,414,150. The lowest cap hit was in 2006 at $11,357,477 and the highest to date was in the 2015 season at $30,823,075. This substantial financial handicap brought on by player injury causes salary cap space to lessen causing a decrease in the number of quality players they can keep or obtain. With less money to fund player rosters, it can be expected that there will be a decline in player quality. The Bills have suffered this consequence having had the 3rd and 4th least expensive rosters in 2009 and 2010 respectively. After a devastating 2011 season in terms of player injuries, the Bills have hit an all-time roster low since 2003 at 22nd in the NFL with a salary of $129,123,083. The loss in player quality is difficult to argue against to this point since the Bills have missed the playoffs every season since 1999. Although Johnson argues that the costs of high quality players so frequently injured are too high and that investing equally in several lower quality players would be more effective (Johnson, 2011, p. 6), the end result is further from the intended goal. The 2011 Bills invested little in quality free agents, who were no doubt deterred by the contracts offered to them. Similarly, the use of lesser quality players as injury replacements has not been effective.

4. Strategies for Preventing and Managing Injuries

The following are suggested strategies for preventing and managing injuries. The primary is to provide proper player education and instruction on the prevention of sports injuries. This can be done by using pre-season conditioning programs, coaches’ clinics, and coaches’ handbooks. Education and instruction should focus on teaching proper warm-up, stretching, plyometrics, and strength training methods. Understanding the principles of fitness and conditioning can also reduce the player’s susceptibility to injury. For example, knowing the effects of dehydration and heat acclimation can be important factors relative to preventing heat-related illness and exhaustion during two-a-day practices. A well-prepared athlete is less likely to sustain injuries due to fatigue and inadequate preparation. Education can also take the form of providing players with information about injury trends and the most common types of injuries sustained in a particular sport. Additional strategies would include rules and policy changes, modifying specific equipment, and rule enforcement. Rules and policy changes can be directed at reducing injury occurrence rates or regulating when the athlete can return to play following an injury. A simple rule change such as moving the kickoff line in American football to reduce the incidence of head-on collisions between players can have a large impact. Once such a rule is instated it should be followed up with proper enforcement. An example of rule enforcement and the regulation of injury occurrence can be seen in the National Football League’s recent policy on hits to the head. Players involved in a helmet-to-helmet hit are subject to fine and/or suspension and each week during regular and post-season play injury and fine reports are monitored by the Injury and Safety Panel. Such policy changes must be monitored to ensure that change is occurring and that they are effective in reducing injury rates.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, the Buffalo Bills over the past 4 years have suffered only 3 over the injury limit preseason, with the first meeting occurring in 2003. In the corresponding 2003 and 2004 seasons, the Bills went 7-9 and 9-7, just missing the playoffs. It is assumed the Bills would have made the playoffs if it were not for the high prevalence of injuries brewing optimism for a successful 2006 season. With the hiring of new head coach Dick Jauron and high prevalence of injuries to key players the past season, we hope at least the injury limit preseason does not occur for a fourth time. We have thoroughly gone through the previous 4 seasons of the Buffalo Bills, the frequency of injuries, and effects it has had on team performance. Although the evidence is skewed, there is no doubt that excessive amounts of injuries do have a negative effect on team performance. This was shown through the 2002 season of the Bills, as well as the preceding 3 seasons since. The Bills have only managed to qualify for the postseason, shorting missing the playoffs twice, and the record progressively gets worse each season. The last 4 seasons, the Bills have accumulated an impressive total of 48 wins to 32 losses. However, considering the fact the Bills have had relative success, you can only ponder what they could have accomplished had they remained healthy. After looking at a comparison of the Bills’ wins per season and the wins per season with respect to players’ games missed due to injury, it can be concluded that injuries were indeed a factor in team performance. With just 2 more wins in each of the 3 seasons, this would have resulted in 3 consecutive playoff berths for the Bills.