Back in 2017, the NFL had a spike in significant injuries amid a similarly turbulent season. Andrew Luck, Deshaun Watson, J.J. Watt, Odell Beckham, Aaron Rodgers, Eric Berry, David Johnson, Joe Thomas, Julian Edelman and Jason Peters were all sidelined for the season by Thanksgiving. And while a lot of the television ratings dip of that year was attributed to the president making players kneeling a centerpiece of his reelection campaign, having so many fantasy football teams torpedoed before the playoffs didn’t help matters much.
It was an injury outbreak that, according to former players and agents at the time, was due to myriad reasons, including a heightened willingness to report issues and more general managers willing to utilize their injured reserve to stash developmental talent.