What Does Injury Prone Mean In Football?

When watching football you may have heard the announcers refer to a player as injury prone. The term injury prone in football means a player that is more likely to sustain physical injuries than most.

These sorts of players often have a history of injuries throughout their career which is what leads them to be described by this term.

In most instances, this term is used when evaluating free agents or prospects. When a player is injury prone a team is likely able to get a discount when signing or drafting him.

This is because the player’s ability when healthy is going to offer more value than what you pay for them. The reason for this is because teams around the league will often recognize injury-prone players and ultimately lower the cost to acquire them due to the risk they present.

Reasons Players May Be Injury Prone

Now that we know what the term injury prone means let’s break down some of the main reasons why players end up with this issue.

Injury History

One of the biggest factors that result in players getting the injury-prone tag is injury history. Concussions are a great example of an injury that can compound the more times it occurs.

With an injury like this players will be more likely to receive concussions in the future. And the effects of these concussions will get worse the more a player has.

This sort of repetitive injury history can often lead to players becoming injury-prone. Other common example could be a player with a bad knee who has injured it multiple times. Or a quarterback that has injured his throwing shoulder multiple times throughout his career.

Style Of Play

Another common reason players earn the injury prone designation is due to their style of play, if you have ever watched a mobile quarterback play a game versus a pocket passer you should know what we are talking about.

Some players give it their all on each play and often end up putting their bodies in dangerous situations. Eventually after so many of these physical plays a player will end up with an injury history.

Unless their style of play is changed these sorts of players will continue to get injured at a rate higher than average.

Body Mechanics

Another interesting reason that a player may get injured more often is based on body mechanics.

Believe it or not, the way in which you run can make you more or less susceptible to injury. If you are a player that exposes himself to injure by the way you move then an injury is more likely.

This has become such a factor that many players look to alter the way they run, throw, and catch the ball in order to do it in a less injury-prone manor.

Bad Luck

The final reason a player might be referred to as injury-prone is plain bad luck. At the end of the day a lot of NFL injuries are just freak accidents.

Some players may just get hit in an awkward way, get piled on or even have a collision with something on the sideline.

The number of ways a player can get injured in the game of football are almost endless. And unfortunately every year there are going to be a few players that suffer serious injuries all on account of bad luck.

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