News flash from the Department of Confirming Your Suspicions: The Buffalo Bills led the NFL in injuries this year, no matter how you slice it.
The Bills had the most players on the injured reserve list — 17. They also lost the most games to injury by starters. If you count players who started the season opener and how many games they lost to injury, the number for the Bills is 89 games lost by 12 different players.
Second to the Bills, surprisingly, was Indianapolis, which lost 81 games by the players who started the season opener. That’s a testament to the coaching job Tony Dungy did this year and the depth of talent General Manager Bill Polian has built on the squad. Oh yeah, throw in one more factor for the Colts: the greatness of Peyton Manning.
The Dallas Morning News compiled the numbers for all 32 teams last week. Ten of the 13 teams that lost the most games to injury failed to make the playoffs. Five of the nine teams that had the fewest games lost to injury made the playoffs.
Here are the top nine healthiest teams, with games lost by starters in parentheses: Tennessee (18), N.Y. Jets (20), Cleveland (21), N.Y. Giants (22), San Diego (24), Kansas City (24), Minnesota (24), Green Bay (32) and New England (32).
Here are the eight most injury- riddled teams: Buffalo (89), Indianapolis (81), Arizona (75), St. Louis (71), Miami (70), Houston (64), Denver (63) and Chicago (60).
Overall, 31 Bills players missed a combined total of 214 games. Injury-riddled St. Louis saw 27 players miss a combined 152 games. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of the injuries to Bills players who were starters at the time of their injury and how many games were lost. If a player would have gone to the bench with the return of another injured player, we stopped counting their games missed.
The list: Trent Edwards 2, wrist; Keith Ellison 4, knee; Kevin Everett 15, neck; Chris Kelsay 2, foot; Jim Leonhard 3, calf; J.P. Losman 2, knee; Marshawn Lynch 3, ankle; Terrence Mc- Gee 1, ribs; Jason Peters 1, groin; Paul Posluszny 13, arm; Peerless Price 12, neck; Ko Simpson 15, ankle; Jason Webster 15, arm; Donte Whitner 1, flu; George Wilson 3, ribs; Coy Wire 3, knee.
Somehow with all of this the Bills still managed to finish 7-9......
So tell me why I should not be optimistic in regards to the Bills making the playoffs with there starting saftey back in Ko Simpson, there starting mlb back in Poz, Trent Edwards with another yr. of training camp under his belt, Marshawn Lynch back, and TEN draft picks?
Please respond
Last edited:
