Analyzing Buffalo Bills Practice Injuries: Trend or Just Perception?

Injuries are a part of football, that much is fact. But much of the Buffalo Bills fanbase’s ire on social media has been directed at the number of practice injuries suffered seemingly every week. Many appear convinced that the practice injuries are out of control and that someone should be held accountable, mainly the strength and conditioning staff and to a lesser extent, the athletic trainers, physical therapists, and doctors. 

But are the practice injuries really increased this year? Or is this perception of being hyper focused on the Bills and needing to focus frustrations somewhere or on someone?

Today’s article dug into the practice injuries and looked to determine if the injuries really have increased from previous seasons and historically how it compares to other seasons. I did look into training camp injuries and there was an increase in volume of injuries compared to previous seasons. To read more, please click below.

Read more to better understand the parameters of the analysis, time frame, and breakdown of how the practice injuries impact the overall volume of year injuries.

Parameters 

-The Buffalo Bills practice reports were analyzed from 2017-2025 through Week 14.

-Designations including veteran rest, illness, and personal were excluded from this analysis. 

-The total number of instances of Bills players on the report was counted rather than the player itself. This takes into consideration the total volume and accounts for a player potentially suffering multiple practice injuries within a season. 

-To keep the yearly data comparable, a practice injury was identified if a player did not have a designation initially during the week and then were added later. Additionally, a practice injury was identified if they were limited or full in the first practice and then downgraded for the remaining practices. Final game day designation did not have a bearing on inclusion/exclusion.

-There may be some discrepancies in what is a practice injury or isn’t without additional context. Looking at the participation allowed the ability to have consistency between years with publicly available data.

-Preseason injury data was excluded in this analysis as there are more players in camp and teams can be more cautious with their top players.

Practice Injury Analysis

Since 2017, there have been 91 different practice injuries according to the Bills practice reports. 

Below are breakdowns of each year with the total practice injuries, total number of instances of reported injuries, and the percentage of practice injuries compared to total volume. 

2017: 15 injuries, 157 injuries, 9.5% practice

2018: 6 injuries, 121 injuries, 4.9% practice

2019: 10 injuries, 85 injuries, 11.7% practice 

2020: 14 injuries, 153 injuries, 9.1% practice 

2021: 13 injuries, 98 injuries, 13.2% practice

2022: 4 injuries, 171 injuries, 2.3% practice

2023: 9 injuries 140 injuries, 6.4% practice 

2024: 7 injuries, 266 injuries, 2.6% practice 

2025: 14 injuries, 123 injuries, 11.3% practice*

*Through Week 14

Average 2017-2025: 10.1 practice injuries, 134.8 injuries, 7.4% practice 

Furthermore, this is how the injuries broke down regarding how those practice injuries impacted that week’s game participation. 

91 practice injuries (Through Week 14 2025 season)

-3 placed on IR, 3.3% (2 soft tissue, 1 joint)

-16 ruled out, 17.5 % ruled out (5 soft tissue, 11 joint, 1 concussion)

-26 played no designation, 28.5% played (3 soft tissue, 23 joint)

-20 questionable-played, 21.9% played (7 soft tissue, 13 joint)

-23 questionable-out 25.2%, didn’t play (8 soft tissue, 12 joint)

46 played, 45 out = 50.5% play rate

Finally, looking at veteran rest days, there doesn’t appear to be a correlation between rest days and practice injuries. In fact, the highest percentage rate of practice injuries saw the highest use of veteran rest days. 

Veteran rest days were often reserved for older players and many of them still were on the injury report with some type of body part designation. 

2017: 25

2018: 25

2019: 49

2020: 10

2021: 61

2022: 54

2023: 22

2024: 3

2025: 5

Discussion

Practice injuries vary greatly by season as shown by the data above. Yes, the Bills practice injuries are up from last season but appear to be in line with previous seasons including 2017, 2020, and 2021. We also see how the volume changes over the years with the number of injuries and how long a player spends on the injury report. Some players have been on the report for one week while others are on the entire season. 

Even when a player does suffer a practice injury, it’s virtually a coin flip as to whether they play that week. I would be more concerned if they show up with a practice injury and they miss nearly every time. We also see anywhere from 87-97 percent of injuries with an average of roughly 92 percent happen during games over that time frame.

These players have to practice at game speeds in order to get the timing down right for plays and understand the effort required to play at their full abilities. It doesn’t make sense to practice at half speed unless you’re learning and then expect to play at full speed with the same level of confidence to execute. This is an incredibly physical game, injuries are going to happen. Practicing at half speed and playing at full speed are going to cause more injuries because the player will overexert themselves.

Furthermore, those that complain about the medical staff, I have not seen one person come up with a solution on how to fix it. That’s partly because we as fans don’t have the full picture, but there’s only so much the medical staff can do. They get many of these players ready to play every week with injuries that would sideline normal people for weeks and months at a time. 

You could make the argument that with practice injuries, the team is in more control of the environment and should be minimizing the incidence. To have a maximum of 13.2 percent and a minimum of 2.6 percent of your total volume of injuries occurring during practice with an average of 7.4 percent per year is pretty solid. 

If practice injuries made up a quarter or even third of total injuries yearly, maybe there is something that could be addressed. But an average of under 8 percent, I consider to be really great. And to have half of those practice injuries still go on to play that week? Even better. 

One final thought for those that insist on placing the blame solely on the strength and conditioning staff, they moved on from Eric Ciano last year in 2024. They also hired a new head Athletic Trainer in Nate Breske in 2018.

If you want to place blame on who’s running the show, he oversaw some of the worst years and best years when it comes to practice injuries. So how can you blame the strength and conditioning staff this year when you have the data that says otherwise?

Context matters.

Limitations of the Study

-This study tried to compare apples to apples in terms of looking at practice injuries year to year. Some of the injuries listed may have been game injuries that later needed treatment. Some may have been more maintenance issues for long standing issues. 

-Some of these injuries don’t quite have the context necessary to determine how much practice impacted that particular injury and may be wrongly reflected in the historical data.

-The Bills medical staff may have different numbers but they know what is happening and how they manage these issues. We are going off of public information and reports.

-It’s not currently known how this compares to the rest of the league which would require future research. 

Conclusion

Are practice injuries increased from last year? Yes.

Will they see more practice injuries this year than previous seasons? Possibly. 

Is 2025 an outlier compared to previous seasons? Not really. 

These players play a physical sport, injuries are going to happen. But the average number of practice injuries is less than 8 percent of their total injuries during the season. The strength and conditioning staff, the athletic trainers, the physical therapist, doctors, acupuncturists, chiropractors, massage therapists are very capable and know what they’re doing. You can’t prevent all injuries but they’re doing what they can to mitigate the injuries and prepare these players every week. 

These practice injuries happen all around the league, we just focus on one team and have a biased view.

I hope this analysis shed light on the perception of practice injuries and how they compare year to year. 

Top Photo Credit: BillsWire-USA Today