As teams fall further out of contention, injuries that wouldn't be considered long-term issues get judged differently, especially if the player is important part of the future. Unfortunately, that is part of the risk of owning players on bad teams. If they have nothing to play for, why would teams risk long-term damage?
On Monday alone, Andy Dalton (thumb), Marvin Jones (knee) and Jack Doyle (kidney) were all sent to the injured reserve, and Jeff Heuerman (ribs/lung) was announced as out for the year by his head coach, Vance Joseph. Obviously, Doyle and Heuerman are on teams in playoff contention, so those injuries were bad enough to end their respective seasons.