Teams in the NFL categorize injuries differently, and especially so last year.

The 2016 season was the first with the “probable” category removed for pregame injury designations. With teams having just “questionable” and “doubtful” to choose from, there was one particular variance in how teams classified injured players.

Last season, 78 percent of the players listed as “questionable” on each week’s final injury report ended up being active for their team’s game.


In 2015 (with the “probable” designation available) that number was 55 percent.

The bulk of those players previously listed as probable (on pre-2016 injury reports) are simply not listed anymore, while some are pushed to questionable.

Some of the anomalies in 2016:


Of the 86 players the Redskins listed 86 as questionable, just seven did not play. That is a league-high 92 percent play rate.

Miami was not far behind, as 89 percent of the players he listed as questionable (98 of 110) ended up being active.

The Falcons listed a league-low 10 players as questionable all season. Four of those players ended up playing.

Just 33 percent (six of 18) of the players the Titans listed as questionable ended up active.

If a player was listed as doubtful, he was almost certain to be inactive. League-wide, just eight of the 207 players (4 percent) listed as doubtful ended up being active. Just five teams (Buccaneers, Jets, Browns, Rams and Ravens) had players listed as doubtful end up being active that week.

None of those statistics speak to the effectiveness of the players who were active. They simply give an indication of what those designations might mean for a given team. We will continue to track each team’s tendencies during the 2017 season.

How players are designated varies from team to team, as far as how much input there is from the head coach, general manager and medical/training staff.


Below is a complete listing of the percentage of each team’s reported “questionable” and “doubtful” players that ended up active.

* indicates a team with a new head coach.

** indicates a team with a new general manger.


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