Success for an NFL franchise often comes down to surviving longer than its opponents. With the 2025-26 Super Bowl set to kick off in just over a week, the team at RotoWire examined how injuries shaped the past NFL season.
While the Jacksonville Jaguars dealt with significant injuries in 2025, they also ranked among both the healthiest and the most injured teams in the league.
As RotoWire outlined:
We combined injury-related data from Spotrac and Pro Football Reference (PFR) to calculate team injury burden
across the 2025 regular season. Using PFR injury-report information, we calculated man-games missed at the team level (player-games lost due to injury designations). From Spotrac, we pulled each team’s season injury player count to provide context for how broadly injuries impacted the roster. Finally, we calculated man-games per player to highlight which teams dealt with longer absences per injured player versus teams that absorbed injuries across more players.
Based on raw injured reserve data, the Jaguars ranked as the NFL’s third-healthiest team in 2025, with only nine players missing games due to IR designations, according to RotoWire. For total games missed, the three healthiest rosters were the Las Vegas Raiders (83 games missed), the Los Angeles Rams (88), and the Jaguars (117).
However, when viewed through the lens of games missed per injured player, Jacksonville ranked fourth-worst in the league, with an average of 13 games lost per IR designation. Despite that, the salary impact of those missed games represented a relatively minimal hit to the Jaguars’ roster.
Financial Impact on IR
While few would argue that Jacksonville experienced an injury epidemic in 2025, many would acknowledge that the team dealt with multiple stretches of injuries at key positions and at inopportune moments. The Jaguars were fortunate to avoid significant injuries at the league’s more high-profile and costly offensive positions. However, the loss of wide receiver and cornerback Travis Hunter for more than half the season had a clear impact, particularly after the team traded up to select him in the 2025 NFL Draft. Additionally, the early-season injury to Brenton Strange came at a challenging time for the offense and further complicated the search for passing game consistency.
Defensively, the Jaguars’ secondary underwent significant in-season shakeups due to the losses of Hunter, Jourdan Lewis, Eric Murray, and the absence of Caleb Ransaw. Additional injuries not reflected on IR, including Devin Lloyd, Travon Walker, and Arik Armstead (both of whom dealt with hand and wrist injuries) also affected on-field performance. Walker and Armstead, in particular, had their snaps and overall impact limited midseason as they worked back to full strength.
In many ways, Jacksonville was remarkably healthy in 2025 when measured by season-ending injuries resulting in IR stints. The financial impact of their IR losses was minimal, as most involved players were still on rookie contracts. However, many of these injuries led to extended time on IR. Fortunately for the Jaguars, none of the week-by-week or IR injuries involved quarterback Trevor Lawrence or starting running back Travis Etienne. This stability allowed the offense to remain relatively consistent, even as the core of pass catchers, offensive line, and defense absorbed the brunt of the impact. From a salary cap perspective, it’s worth noting that the losses of these “cheap labor” rookies forced Jacksonville, a team already tight on cap space (thanks, Baalke), to add or retain veteran depth to replace Hunter, Ransaw, Strange, and others. This included players such as TE Quintin Morris, WR Austin Trammell, WR Jakobi Meyers, CB Keith Taylor, and S Kahlef Hailassie.
Notable Games Missed (regular season only):
When reviewing the team’s week-by-week injury reports, a larger picture of the season’s impact emerges, with 26 players missing games due to injury. Many of those affected were expected to play key roles for Jacksonville in 2025, including rookie safety Caleb Ransaw, who was projected to start opposite Eric Murray. Despite the injuries to Travis Hunter and Ransaw, the Jaguars were relatively healthy in terms of long-term absences. With former Buffalo Bills head strength and conditioning coach Eric Ciano brought in last offseason, Jacksonville will look to continue rehabilitating this rookie class back to full health. Notably, four of James Gladstone’s first six draft picks spent time on IR this season, including offensive lineman Wyatt Milum (five games) and running back Bhayshul Tuten (two games), both of whom are still missing time.
Check out RotoWire’s full article here and check out where their AFC South peers fared, in comparison.
