The 2022 NFL season was headlined by concussions and head injuries more often than usual. Though the accumulated injuries throughout the regular season and preseason saw a decreasing mark, concussions became a major headache for the league during the season.
The league’s concussion protocol had to digest a major controversy in the season following two incidents involving Miami Dolphins star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. The signal-caller couldn’t play five games in all, including his team’s wild-card defeat against the Buffalo Bills. However, the NFL’s executive VP recently provided a potential solution to the problem ahead of the regular season.
How many concussions occurred in the NFL 2022 season?
According to NFL’s data, 149 concussions had been suffered throughout 271 games in the NFL 2022 season, marking an 18% jump from the 2021 season (126) and 14% higher than the average of three years (130) between 2018. Besides that, footballers suffered 52 concussions from the start of training camp to the start of the regular season games.
According to the NFL’s chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills, the league’s “broadened and strengthened” protocols played a key role in the sudden increase in the number,
“We continue to become more cautious and conservative in our evaluation and diagnosis of concussions. That’s not just an opinion. That’s backed up by the data.”
Meanwhile, these concussions continued to hurt more on punts and kickoffs as reportedly 20% of torn ACLs occurred on those plays as well. Nevertheless, Sills and Miller were set to present data to the competition committee to have a discussion about some tackling techniques that might result in less impactful injuries.
NFL Executive VP Jeff Miller discusses ‘Guardian Caps’ as a possible solution
The NFL urged all the linemen, linebackers, and tight ends to wear Guardian Caps during the training camp session in 2022, albeit the rule has been extended to include running backs this year. The way the league is pushing the importance of wearing the soft-shell helmet covers, seemingly they would ask players to wear the cap in games as well.
The NFL executive Jeff Miller during his Thursday appearance on Good Morning Football, said,
“I think the day could come. But at the same time, a lot of the helmets are also making advances, too, and so some of the protective benefits you get from the Guardian Cap hopefully will be seen in helmets in the next year or two.”
Players wearing the Guardian Caps during 2022 practices quite successfully avoided concussions, albeit there had been some negative feedback about the caps and the league introduced an update to the model later.
Miller oversees the footballer’s health and safety and he probably knows better how players at different positions need different safety measures on the field. Fortunately, he said the authority is aiming to introduce helmets specific to their footballer’s position in the near future.
“A corner sees the world very differently from the quarterback. He experiences different sorts of impacts, different magnitudes. And we’ve been able to track that, analyze those, create laboratory tests. … And as a result, you can ‘tune’ helmets to those sorts of impacts. … We also see a lot of position-specific helmets for linemen, because they get hit a lot towards the front.”
Whether the league becomes successful in implementing its planned activities is yet to be seen. What’s your take on the Guardian caps? Do you think that it actually has a good impact on a player’s physical state? Tell us below!
