National Football League

NFL Injuries: Why hamstring ailments are common for skill-position players

Updated Oct. 26, 2021 8:48 p.m. ET

By Dr. Matt Provencher
FOX Sports Injury & Performance Analyst

Hamstring injuries have hit especially hard this football season, as players have frequently had to deal with, play through and rehab from the ailments.

Hamstring issues have always been a pretty common occurrence in football, especially in preseason and early regular-season games as players ramp up their activity. In fact, hamstring injuries are so prevalent that a 2017 study I conducted showed that 31.5% of running backs came into the NFL scouting combine with past or current hamstring injuries, and it only increases from there.

This season, we have seen Christian McCaffrey, Julio Jones, A.J. Brown, Amari Cooper, Sterling Shepard, Darius Slayton, Tyrod Taylor, Jacoby Brissett, Richard Sherman, Jordan Whitehead and many others play through or miss games due to hamstring injuries.

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Prime athletes such as these — and their medical teams — do their best to rehabilitate and get back on the field, but soft tissue injuries take time to heal. It’s not something that can or should be rushed, and for that reason, we are seeing more of these players divert to the three-week injured reserve designation as they heal.

You might have noticed that skill positions lead this "epidemic." That should not be a surprise.

Wide receivers and defensive backs are particularly at risk, as the constant acceleration and deceleration, changes of direction and bursts needed for these positions are major factors.

As an extra risk factor, athletes are constantly striving for that edge to be the fastest, strongest player on the field. The stronger they are, the faster, quicker and more powerful they are. However, if balance is lost and mobility takes a back seat, they put themselves at a greater risk.

Why the hamstring?

The hamstrings are composed of three muscles, and they are large. In fact, the hamstring muscles overlap two joints (the knee and the hip). As athletes run, the hamstrings are consistently contracting and working, which puts more stress on the muscle fibers and increases their risk of straining or tearing.

When an athlete tries to play through a "pulled" hamstring, the muscle fibers are already compromised and can fully tear if there is enough stress. That's why it is imperative to rest and rehabilitate.

Hamstring injuries also can recur — about 15.5% of the time, a player gets another hamstring injury the same season! They also have a 24% chance of getting another injury that is not a hamstring injury (ankle, knee, foot, hip, groin, etc.).

Our data shows that wide receivers have the highest risk of aggravating their hamstrings in the same season. WRs get about 55% of all hamstring injuries in the NFL.

Across all positions, the average number of games missed due to a hamstring issue is 1.8, but this will likely get longer with the new IR rules (three games minimum).

Our data shows that players also aren’t as productive when they return, experiencing, on average, a 34% decrease in SNAP percentage in their first game back. That decrease is 24% in the second game back and 20% by the third game back. After 4-5 games, it levels off to an 11.9% decrease in SNAP percentage for the rest of the season.

Hamstring injuries will forever be a big concern in the NFL due to the stress these athletes put on their bodies. Teams have a large focus on prevention and have strength and conditioning programs designed to help with decreasing the numbers.

Over the next few years, I suspect we will see even more focus on this prevention, as these injuries are starting to have a large impact on team wins and overall player health.

Renowned orthopedist Dr. Matt Provencher and his company Proven Performance Technology (PPT) deliver data-driven injury insights to football fans. In this first-of-a-kind role as Athlete Injury and Performance Analyst for FOX Sports’ digital platforms, Provencher provides important predictive player health and recovery information about post-injury performance, the impact of weather, field conditions and more.