This Season, Packers Are Feeling the Pain

The Green Bay Packers aren't among the most-injured teams this year but they're not nearly as healthy as last year, either.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – As any NFL player will tell you, regardless of what the injury report says, the injury rate is 100 percent.

After staying relatively healthy last season, the Green Bay Packers have dealt with a good bit of pain through the first four games of this season.

According to the subscription site ManGamesLost.com, the Packers through Week 4 were right in the middle of the pack in terms of injuries, ranking 16th in games lost to injury.

Last season, the Packers stayed remarkably healthy, ranking eighth in games lost. While that played a key role in the team winning the NFC North, it’s worth noting the Vikings were the NFL’s healthiest team, the Bears were the second-healthiest and the Lions were the ninth-healthiest, according to ManGamesLost.com’s data.

The biggest losses for the Packers have been to receiver Davante Adams, who has played only 39.1 percent of the offensive snaps, and defensive tackle Kenny Clark, who has played merely 6.2 percent of the defensive snaps. Moreover, receiver Allen Lazard and linebackers Christian Kirksey and Kamal Martin are among those on injured reserve.

Martin, who had moved into a starting role during training camp before suffering a knee injury that required surgery, missed the first four games but returned to practice on Monday.

“I think a lot of it is luck,” coach Matt LaFleur said during training camp of having a healthy roster. “We were pretty fortunate to not endure too many significant injuries. I do think that we have a plan in place that (trainers) Chris Gizzi and Flea (Bryan Engel) have done a great job as well as we listened to our guys a little bit and how they’re feeling about their bodies. I think it was a combined effort to try to put together a plan in place to keep these guys healthy but also there was a lot of luck involved in that, as well.”

The Packers were a beat-up bunch coming out of Monday night’s victory over the Atlanta Falcons. Adams, Clark, outside linebacker Rashan Gary and tight end Marcedes Lewis were inactive due to injuries, and cornerbacks Kevin King and Chandon Sullivan were unable to finish. And that doesn’t include the group of players who were on the field despite being listed as questionable.

So, the good news is the bye came at a good time to get healed for a big game at Tampa Bay. The bad news is the Packers will play 12 consecutive weeks without a break, so any gains could be outweighed by late-season pain.

“I’d rather have us as healthy as possible,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said after beating the Falcons, “but the beauty in this game is that’s rarely the case, whether it’s guys playing with injuries or guys who can’t play because of injuries, and that’s just part of the game.”