We counted 27 preseason ACL injuries, the highest tally since records were first kept in 2004. Past preseason counts ranged from 12 (2005, 2006) to 25 (2008), though preseason rosters were also increased from 80 to 90 players in April 2012, putting an additional 320 players in camps.
What about the rest of the season? Though 13 weeks of the regular season, there have been 23 ACL injuries, for a total of 50 so far in 2013. In the past five seasons, the total number of ACL injuries has ranged from 48 (2011) to 56 (2009, 2012), including four additional weeks of the regular season and four weeks of the postseason. If the 2013 regular-season rate of ACL injuries continues, the total would be at about 57 before the playoffs begin; the last three postseasons have resulted in between one and four ACL injuries. Only the final numbers will tell the full story, but the 2013 season could yield the greatest number of ACL injuries in an NFL season on record, even if not the dramatic surge it may have seemed like.
One severe knee injury in particular—the ACL, MCL and PCL tears plus knee dislocation sustained by Dolphins tight end Dustin Keller on a low hit by Texans safety D.J. Swearinger in the preseason—sparked discussion on if the league’s emphasis on policing helmet-to-helmet hits would result in players’ knees being targeted. Of the 50 ACL injuries suffered this season, we were able to find clear video footage or detailed descriptions of how the injury happened for 32 of them, and Keller’s was the only ACL injury in that sample size that occurred because a defender went low on his opponent to make a tackle.
We recorded eight of these 32 ACL injuries resulting from contact: Besides Keller’s, examples included a knee crashed into at the line of scrimmage, or one offensive lineman accidentally cut-blocking his own teammate, as happened with Pittsburgh’s David DeCastro and Maurkice Pouncey. The other 24 ACL injuries we classified as non-contact injuries. West says that studies show about 70 percent of ACL tears result from non-contact injuries; our unofficial sample, showing 75 percent non-contact injuries, is on par with that figure.
