Photo: Jeff Moreland/Icon Sportswire

Updated 1/7/26

The narrative about teams most affected by injury this year shifted over time as key players exited and returned, but this year’s conversation started with the 49ers.

They already knew they were going to be missing Brandon Aiyuk for much of the season (which turned out to be the whole season), and from that point also sustained injuries to Nick Bosa, George Kittle, Fred Warner, Ben Bartch, Brock Purdy, and Ricky Pearsall, among others.

However, the subsequent return of many of these players caused them to be surpassed in the injury accumulation department. And they ended the season pretty functional, at least offensively.

Most Value Lost To Injury, 2025 NFL season

Team	Games Missed	Total Points Missed
Cardinals	296	266
Commanders	222	230
49ers	262	200
Bills	297	190
Dolphins	248	182
Falcons	202	176
Giants	278	172
Saints	234	162
Bengals	161	160
Lions	326	159
Buccaneers	250	154
Chargers	261	148
Steelers	279	145
Packers	237	136
Chiefs	199	132
Colts	243	126
Panthers	182	125
Bears	336	124
Jets	224	105
Texans	241	101
Ravens	183	100
Vikings	166	99
Titans	176	97
Jaguars	150	94
Browns	194	89
Eagles	176	84
Raiders	94	82
Broncos	180	77
Cowboys	236	75
Seahawks	216	75
Rams	145	70
Patriots	154	59

The value we’re measuring here is each injured player’s Total Points per game over his previous 17 games, multiplied by the number of games missed due to injury. This only counts injuries sustained since August 1.

For those new to our work:
Total Points is a measure of how valuable each player was to his team’s ability to score or prevent points, using Expected Points Added as the currency. Dozens of charting data points go into it: an offensive lineman blows a block, a receiver drops a pass, a defender makes an unlikely tackle, a quarterback throws into a tight window, etc. All of these successes and failures can be measured in terms of how the team’s results changed relative to what we’d expect on average, and those play-to-play values can be bundled up into a single measure of player value that can work across all positions.

The Walking Wounded

Kyler Murray’s injury did not affect the Cardinals’ fortunes as much as you’d think because backup Jacoby Brissett was serviceable and Murray was not lighting it up, but Murray still ranks among the most impactful injuries of the year by Total Points. Running back James Conner has been a favorite of Total Points for a little bit now because of his tackle-breaking ability, so his absence also loomed relatively large. 

The Commanders are at the top of this list because of Jayden Daniels’ injury-plagued season. But they also missed wide receiver Terry McLaurin, running back Austin Ekeler, safety Will Harris, and defensive end Deatrich Wise.

The Bills have more total games missed than any of the teams above them, but the names were not as big as they could have been. They are notable in that just 20 of their 190 Total Points Missed came on the offensive side of the ball, which was the second-fewest offensive points lost.

Others Receiving Votes

The Bengals had substantially fewer total games missed to injury than other teams with high-profile quarterback injuries. Joe Burrow’s missed time alone cost them as many points as many of the teams in the NFL suffered in total this year, but without that injury they’d rank among the most fortunate teams.

The Lions and Bears have the most games missed due to injury in the league, but they rank just 10th and 18th respectively in Total Points missed. They were fortunate to not have their biggest names go down this year.

Dodging Raindrops

The Patriots, Rams, and Seahawks were the most fortunate teams in terms of health, which sheds a little light on their strong showings this year. The five teams with the fewest Total Points missed due to injury (adding in the Cowboys and Broncos) were a combined 61-23-1, compared to 39-46 from the five most injured teams.