Photo: Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire

The NFL is back, and with all the excitement of the season starting, we’re quickly reminded of how injuries can impact teams. Here’s what we can share about some of the most notable injuries from Week 1.

Jordan Love

The biggest scare of the week happened to Packers quarterback Jordan Love. After fears he could have suffered a season ending knee injury, MRI results revealed an MCL sprain, which shouldn’t sideline him for too long. 

Looking back at other quarterbacks who have suffered MCL sprains, most were either able to play through them or only miss limited time. Aaron Rodgers suffered the injury in Week 1 of 2018 and he didn’t miss any starts. After the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl win in the 2020 season, it was revealed that Tom Brady played through an MCL tear throughout the season.

Looking further back Jacoby Brissett and Teddy Bridgewater both only missed one game in 2019 and 2020 respectively. These are all good signs for Jordan Love, as the Packers aren’t planning on placing him on injured reserve and should hopefully resume playing sooner rather than later. 

Josh Allen

Another quarterback who suffered a more minor injury was Josh Allen. He injured his non-throwing hand, and while he was cleared for his Week 2 game, it’s still something worth monitoring. 

Justin Herbert suffered an injury to his non-throwing hand early last season that he played through before another injury ended his season. There was a dip in Herbert’s overall production while playing through his injury.

Justin Herbert before and after left hand injury, 2023 (Passing)

Josh Allen is such an effective runner of the football, you can imagine that any physical ailment could limit his effectiveness in pushing for extra yards as a rusher. I took a look to see if Herbert, who runs way less, had any differences before and after that injury.

Justin Herbert before and after left hand injury, 2023 (Rushing)*

* QB sneaks removed

Allen shouldn’t be physically limited by his hand injury, but it could be something in the back of his mind as he makes decisions throughout the game and overall just how comfortable he is. We can see that Herbert didn’t try to run any less, but he was much less effective after the injury.

Puka Nacua

Puka Nacua was slowed by a knee injury during training camp and quickly re-aggravated it in Week 1. With his placement on injured reserve, the Rams will be without one of their main pass catchers for the foreseeable future. This is a little role reversal from last season as Cooper Kupp missed the first four games of the 2023 season. On passing plays last season the Rams felt the effects when Kupp wasn’t on the field.

It’ll be interesting to see moving forward if the loss of Nacua has similar effects on the Rams’ passing game, especially when they’re dealing with a multitude of offensive line injuries to start the year. The line had the second most blown blocks on pass plays in Week 1 with 12, only one behind the Titans.

Derrick Brown and Marshon Lattimore

Speaking of linemen, the biggest loss for the Panthers wasn’t losing by almost 40 points, but the loss of defensive tackle Derrick Brown. He has a meniscus injury that will require surgery and sideline him for the season. Brown led all DTs last season in snaps and combined tackles. He had the highest Total Points Saved on run plays among DTs with 33, and was top 5 in Points Saved per play (amongst DTs with at least 10 tackles), signaling it wasn’t just his sheer volume/endurance that made him effective.

On the flip side of that game Marshon Lattimore had to leave early with a hamstring injury, unfortunately a recurring theme for him and the Saints. He missed the final seven games of last season with an ankle injury and was limited in training camp with a hip injury. If he’s forced to miss time I’d expect offenses to challenge the Saints defense with deeper throws down the field. Last season without Lattimore teams threw downfield much less (10% vs 15%) when he was playing. 

When looking at individual defenders for the Saints last season, both Alontae Taylor and Paulson Adebo had similar completion percentages when targeted with or without Lattimore on the field. However the yards allowed per target for each of them jumped significantly. Taylor going from 5.4 to 8.6, and Adebo going from 5.2 to 7.4. This furthers the point that teams are more comfortable throwing down the field without Lattimore on the field. They added Kool-Aid McKinstry in the draft this year, and he might get thrown into the deep end earlier than anticipated.

There was a lot to unpack after Week 1, and as the season rolls on we’ll be able to uncover more trends and changes as teams deal with injuries to all different positions.