It feels like injuries in the NFL are becoming increasingly common these days. Maybe it’s because of the major scrutiny put on player health, but it also feels like NFL players nowadays are much more open about discussing their injuries. Back in the day, you could never get a word out of a player about their injuries other than “I’ll be fine,” but now they’re much more willing to talk about their status and feelings. Former Detroit Lions DT Ndamukong Suh spoke about an unwritten rule in the NFL that doesn’t seem to be part of the game today.

“It was an unwritten rule and really a known rule in all the teams that I played for. You don’t discuss injuries. Not only your own injuries, but also teammates’ injuries,” Suh said on his NoFreeLunchShow podcast. “All that stuff is kept in-house, and keeping it tight from that perspective. So there was no question. I’m not answering. I didn’t even talk to the media half the time.”

But why was this “unwritten rule” being followed? Well, there used to be a ton of reasons players would withhold injury information.

One, they always wanted to appear tough. There wasn’t as much of a focus on player health even as recently as 10 years ago, and players never wanted to miss a game unless they physically couldn’t play. Two, it was a competitive advantage. Injury reports were always a thing, but the less your opponent knew about the injury, the better it was for your team.

In today’s world, where news spreads quicker than ever and sports gambling is as big as it’s ever been, players and teams are more open about injuries than ever before. As soon as a player goes down with an injury, it’s public knowledge. We’re getting reports on players’ injuries within minutes, and there are doctors all over social media breaking down every injury and giving their own diagnoses. There are so many different ways fans absorb media nowadays that it’s made it nearly impossible to “hide” injuries.

Even the players themselves are much more open to talking about it. One example that comes to mind immediately is in Week 2.

JC Latham was dealing with a hip injury, and when talking to reporters during the week, he told them he wouldn’t be playing despite no word from the team on his game status.

“I’m eating right, making sure my weight’s where it needs to be, I’m lifting and everything like that. The only thing I’m not doing this week is playing.”

This isn’t normal, but it shows that players around the league are much more open to talking about their injuries than in the past. What has changed, though?

Focus on player health

On top of how quickly we learn about injuries, the NFL is more careful than ever with managing its stars’ injuries. Gone are the days when guys would play through a broken ankle or other serious injuries. With the amount of money that’s invested in these players and the amount of attention that’s being paid to player health, players are missing games at a much higher rate than in the past.

This past week, guys like Cooper Kupp and Brock Purdy missed their respective games. Kupp was dealing with a hamstring injury and probably could’ve played, but the Seattle Seahawks let him rest to ensure he’s 100 percent upon his return.

Purdy has missed multiple weeks with turf toe (which is much more severe than it sounds), but he’s been week-to-week for a long time now and even played a few weeks ago before returning to the sidelines. He talked about how good he felt in the build-up to last week’s game, but still sat on the sidelines.

“We’ll see, I’m taking it day by day still, but feel a lot better,” Purdy said. “I liked my progress last week with where I was at and in terms of feeling better, getting better and so it was just a day-by-day decision. It’s the same thing this week, but I mean, it’s no secret like it’s been two and a half weeks or so.”

Another example is Lamar Jackson, who missed much more time than anyone thought with his hamstring injury. It’s paid off, because he’s back and looks 100 percent, but it’s an injury many people would’ve played through not long ago. The Ravens were even fined 100k for misreporting his practice status.

This is no knock on any of these players. I know I’m not tough enough to play through the injuries they’ve suffered, but they’re great examples of how far the league has come with injuries. Getting shots and taking pills before games to help numb the pain is a thing of the past. Teams have hundreds of millions invested in their players, so they can’t afford to take chances anymore. Now, on the flip side, there’s the Carson Wentz situation.

There were reports that the locker room was unhappy with the way his injury was handled. He was reportedly encouraged to play by the coaching staff despite having a pretty serious shoulder injury. After taking a big hit in the game, he is getting surgery and is out for the year.

Wentz did come out and dispel the reports, saying he wanted to play and it was his decision, but the fact that he felt the need to do that says a lot. Back in the day, that wouldn’t have even been a story, and now, it made major headlines. Again, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing at all, but it goes to show how much the league has evolved regarding player safety.

Let’s take a look at this week’s injuries.

Week 9 Injuries

Week 9 was one of the worst injury weeks I’ve seen in a long time. Pretty much every team lost a big-name player this weekend, and with how available injury news is, we already know the severity of a lot of their injuries. Jayden Daniels is obviously the biggest name of the bunch.

The Commanders’ QB went down with an ugly arm injury at the end of Sunday Night Football. He dislocated his left elbow, but the X-rays came back negative. He’ll get an MRI to determine how long he’ll be out.

Washington also lost Marshon Lattimore on Sunday night, and it is believed that he has torn his ACL.

Tucker Kraft was another big name who went down this week. He suffered a non-contact knee injury, which is never good, and it’s now confirmed that he tore his ACL.

Another player who suffered an ACL injury is the San Francisco 49ers’ first-round pick, Mykel Williams. He went down with a knee injury, and after the game, Kyle Shanahan announced the team fears he suffered a torn ACL.

Joe Alt also suffered a pretty significant injury on Sunday. He went down with another high-ankle sprain, but this time the Chargers think it could require surgery to fix. Before the week even started, the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft, Travis Hunter, went down with a non-contact knee injury. They don’t believe it’s a torn ACL, but he will miss some time.

Some other key injuries this week:

• Michael Hoecht (Achilles)
• Terrion Arnold (Back)
• C.J. Stroud (Concussion)
• Brian Thomas Jr. (Ankle)
• Puka Nacua (Chest)
• Aaron Jones (Shoulder)
• Jawaan Taylor (Ankle)
• Kayshon Boutte (Hamstring)
• Taylor Decker (Knee)
• Christian Gonzalez (Head)
• Quan Martin (Hamstring)
• Luke McCaffrey (Shoulder)
• Ezra Cleveland (Ankle/Knee)
• Matthew Golden (Shoulder)
• Chris Lindstrom (Foot)
• Cole Kmet (Concussion)
• Ed Ingram (Knee)