The number of diagnosed concussions in the NFL went up during the 2022 season.
The NFL announced on a Friday conference call that there were 149 concussions this season. That’s 18 percent more that the 126 diagnosed concussions in 2021.
During the call, the league said that there were more in-game concussion evaluations than in past seasons, which likely means that there were more concussions diagnosed than in past seasons. The league and NFLPA enhanced the protocols for removing players from games after Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was not properly evaluated after showing signs of instability during a game.
Tagovailoa was diagnosed with a concussion the next week and missed multiple games while recovering. He suffered another concussion on Christmas and did not play again during the regular season or playoffs.
While Tagovailoa’s concussion issues drew a lot of attention, concussions continued to occur frequently on punts and kickoffs. Twenty percent of torn ACLs also occurred on those plays and the league says it will continue to look into ways to make punt plays safer in the years to come.
