NFL says concussions dropped to a record low in 2024, but there’s ‘more work’ to do

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NFL players suffered the fewest concussions in a season in 2024 since the league began tracking data nine years ago.

The total decline from 2023 was 17%, including all practices and games in both the preseason and regular season. League executive Jeff Miller and NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills cited several reasons for the drop-off.

They pointed to safer equipment, enforcement of safety rules and broader efforts to foster a culture of safety regarding concussions.

“In many ways, this was a milestone year with the fewest number of concussions on record,” Miller said Thursday. “Now, that’s not to say there isn’t a lot more work for us to do.”

The overall decrease builds on a record low in the preseason, which had the fewest number of concussions in practices and games.

“I think one of the things to point out is that this is not reflective, that we’re not as diligent as we’ve been in the past,” Sills said. “I can say that with confidence because we continue to have a very aggressive rate of concussion evaluation and a very aggressive rate of self-reporting.”

Sills said about 28% of all players evaluated for concussions are diagnosed with one. The number of players self-reporting increased to 41%.

There was a 35% increase in the number of players upgraded to safer helmets or position-specific helmets that are designed to reduce the impact of hits.

“We’ve spoken very publicly about our desire to see head contact continue to get out of the game, avoidable head contact,” Sills said. “And so that’s something that we’ll continue to spend a great deal of time focusing on, something that we’ll be talking about a lot in the competition committee, about how do we continue to remove dangerous techniques from the game.”

The new kickoff resulted in the same number of concussions (eight) as last season. However, the rate of injury decreased because the number of returns was up significantly.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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