Falcons Rank Near Bottom NFL's List of Salaries Paid to Injured Players
The NFL is, at times, a sport of attrition. Many times a game comes down to which team is the healthiest at the time of the contest, especially late in a season.
Injuries always have been, and always will be a part of not just the game, but the business of football. That's why depth on rosters is so important and discussed so often. With the massive salaries that players are commanding in this era of the NFL, it's hard to imagine how NFL front offices deal with paying injured players and how that affects the rest of the roster.
From sprained ankles to broken bones to torn ACLs, a recent report has revealed the true price of injuries for each team, and which players cost the most.
The report was based on how many games a player missed and that player's average salary per game. While the Atlanta Falcons came in at No. 28 as a team, spending a modest $8,133,245 on injured players in 2021 in 130 missed games, don't have any players listed in the top 30 individuals.
The top individual injury earner belonged to the Dallas Cowboys, who splashed the cash on their defensive end, DeMarcus Lawrence, paying out a massive $9,444,444 in salary while he was injured for 10 games throughout the season. This saw Lawrence earn more than half his annual salary during his recovery.
The lowest player in the top 30 belonged to wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr., who, although finished the season in Los Angeles winning a Super Bowl, earned $2,558,824 from the Cleveland Browns in 2021.
The New York Jets topped the list with their injured players costing them an astonishing $28,670,537 throughout the 2021 season. Safety Marcus Maye, on his own, cost the Jets $6.2 million over the course of the season having missed 10 out of 17 games the Jets played – more than the entire injury salary costs of the Philadelphia Eagles ($4,988,413) and the Buffalo Bills ($4,867,233), who are Nos. 31 and 32 respectively.
