Jets Among the League Leaders in Games Missed Due to Injury & Quality of Players Lost to Injury
The New York Jets have lost 222 game appearances due to injury this year, a number that continues to mount each and every week for a team that has been unlucky this year when it comes to their health.
It certainly hasn’t been an easy first year with the Jets for head coach Adam Gase, whose team has lost the third-most number of games due to injury of any team in the NFL. That number of 222 games missed represents nearly 14 full regular seasons of injury games lost this year for the Jets.
No wonder that the Jets are 5-9 on the year given the banged-up state of the team. Only two teams have had it worst this year when it comes to filling up the trainer’s room.
The Jets have seen significant injuries to quarterback Sam Darnold this year, who missed three games at the beginning of the year. Significant players such as linebacker C.J. Mosley, linebacker Avery Williamson, safety Rontez Miles, tight end Ryan Griffin among others have all currently on Injured Reserve.
Washington leads the NFL most games missed due to injury with 235. The Seattle Seahawks (11-3) come in at 234 games, then the Jets, who are followed by the Miami Dolphins (3-11) with 213 games and the New England Patriots (11-3) at 209 games.
Interestingly, both the Seahawks and the Patriots will be playoff teams this year.
The Jets Week 16 opponent, the Pittsburgh Steelers (8-6), haven’t seen quite the same number of long-term and season-ending injuries as the Jets. But they have lost some significant pieces this year. The Steelers are third in the NFL on “impact on teams by players lost to injury.”
It is impressive that the Steelers, given this loss of significant players, are still in playoff contention given the quality of the players that they’ve lost this year. This particular metric analyzes the lost-average metric of games lost, “weighting by 2018 quality of injured players.”
The Los Angeles Chargers (5-9) lead the league in this measurement, followed by Washington (3-11), the Steelers, the Jets and then the Carolina Panthers (5-9).
The Jets have the seventh worst record in the NFL this year.
