Been avid Giant

...in watching. Losing half the roster every year just sucks.

With media and (some) fans always looking for the crushing hit or brutal injury.

I don't fault players for wanting to be at the top of their game but the sport is getting more violent as a by product.

I am not sure how you can limit injuries. Part of the reality of football. As big and fast as these guys are I’m surprised there aren’t severe injuries every other play.

Rugby. You have to replace the hard-shell helmets and shoulder pads to make football safer. I don't see that as possible with the set-piece nature of football. The game would have to change too much, it would be unrecognizable. Rugby is much more fluid and relies on multiple transfers of the ball across a larger area. There are collisions, but they are more oblique than direct.

With the speed and size of athletes, the weak link is human physiology... the equipment just can't protect the vulnerable areas of the human body. One hit in the wrong place and it's an injury.

Injuries are a huge determinant of wins and losses because of the way rosters are constructed. Look around the league at how rosters are constructed - cap hits are concentrated at the top 4 or 5 spots on the roster.

As of right now the Giants have 39.51% of their 2019 cap hit in their top 5 paid players. There are 53 players on a roster. Divided evenly, that's about 1.89% of the salary cap per player if every player on the roster had the same cap hit. Eli's cap hit is 11.95% of our cap...that's 6.3 times that 1.89% number. Even if you didn't know a thing about the Giants coming into the season, you'd know that if anything happened to Eli we'd be at a major competitive disadvantage...11.95% of our money isn't playing for us.

The vast majority of the players on the Giants' roster each account for less than 1% of the salary cap.

I wonder, as an academic exercise, how a roster comprised only of players all within 1.8%-2% of the salary cap would perform over the course of a season. I suspect it would do pretty damn well if you control for the quality of coaching.

In comment 14346023 Go Terps said:

Quote:

Injuries are a huge determinant of wins and losses because of the way rosters are constructed. Look around the league at how rosters are constructed - cap hits are concentrated at the top 4 or 5 spots on the roster. As of right now the Giants have 39.51% of their 2019 cap hit in their top 5 paid players. There are 53 players on a roster. Divided evenly, that's about 1.89% of the salary cap per player if every player on the roster had the same cap hit. Eli's cap hit is 11.95% of our cap...that's 6.3 times that 1.89% number. Even if you didn't know a thing about the Giants coming into the season, you'd know that if anything happened to Eli we'd be at a major competitive disadvantage...11.95% of our money isn't playing for us. The vast majority of the players on the Giants' roster each account for less than 1% of the salary cap. I wonder, as an academic exercise, how a roster comprised only of players all within 1.8%-2% of the salary cap would perform over the course of a season. I suspect it would do pretty damn well if you control for the quality of coaching.

Long snapper, kicker, punter, and dedicated returners factor into that average. Not to mention those who are inactive. If you divide 90% of space among 42 players and 10% for kicker, punter, 3rd QB, other inactives, it would be interesting to see where you stand.

are due to the size, speed and weight of the players. Prior to 1980 when the PED craze really took off, I don't think there were quite as many collision related injuries.

Freak injuries occur in any sport. It's up to the NFL to make the game safer by investing in better equipment or a way to curtail PEDs.