NFL Teams Lost $540m to Injuries Last Season - Which Team Was Hit Hardest?

ANALYSES20 May 2026

8 min. read

Last week the NFL schedule was officially announced, and as teams work in the offseason to complete their rosters, there’s one thing that they will not be able to predict heading into next season: injuries.

The data team at Casino Guru News analyzed injury data from the 2025/26 NFL season to uncover just how much teams are truly losing when players are forced to the sidelines through injury. As the 2026 season approaches, the findings also point to which teams may need better injury luck to stay competitive this year.

Data was sourced from Spotrac, analyzing NFL injured reserve lists for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The analysis measured "injured spending", defined as the total cash paid by teams to players while unavailable.

Key Findings:

The Arizona Cardinals led the NFL in injured players spending last season, totaling $42.4m in salary tied to the cost of injured players.
Teams spent more than $540m on injured players in 2025/26, a 23.3% increase year-over-year and showing the rising financial impact of injuries in the NFL.
The Jacksonville Jaguars ranked lowest in the league for injured spending, with just $4.08m, the most efficient figure across all 32 teams.
Three of the four teams to reach the Conference Championship Games ranked in the NFL’s bottom half for injury-related spending in 2025/26.
New York Jets offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker was the NFL’s most expensive injured player last season, accounting for $15.3 million in injury-related costs.

See full league stats at the bottom of this article.

Top 5 NFL Teams With The Highest Injury Cost (2025/26 Season)

1) Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals’ injury problems last season were well documented but having more than $42m of salary cap tied up in injured players still stands out. This was also a $25m increase from the 2024/25 season, showing how much their injury woes affected the teams' finances.

Arizona Cardinals insider Kyle Odegard spoke on the data and what the team will be hoping to change coming into next season:

"The Cardinals were hammered by injuries last season, both at the game’s most important position and elsewhere. All that high-priced talent sitting on the sidelines ended up taking a huge toll, as coach Jonathan Gannon was fired, and Kyler Murray released after the nightmarish campaign.

"Arizona shook up its training staff this offseason in hopes of staying healthier in 2026, and it must happen for this team to have any chance at a Cinderella run in the juggernaut NFC West."

2) Tennessee Titans

Next up as the second highest spender on injured players last season is the Tennessee Titans at over $29.5m. They were eliminated from playoff contention for the fourth consecutive season in week 13 after losing to the archrival Jacksonville Jaguars, who found themselves on the other side of the injury cost ranking having spent the least of any NFL team last season. Two Titans players (L'Jarius Sneed & Calvin Ridley) ranked among the NFL’s 10 most expensive injured players last season, combining for nearly $21m in injury costs, equal to 71% of the Titans’ total team injury cost.

3) Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins ranked third for injured spending in the league last season, having spent $27.4m on players sitting on the sidelines due to injury. Tyreek Hill found himself injured for most of the season, missing 14 weeks, which equated to almost $8m of salary paid while injured. The Dolphins were officially eliminated from postseason contention for the second year in a row, which also extended their playoff win drought to 25 seasons.

4) New York Jets

Moving down the rankings you find the New York Jets in fourth after spending $27.2m on injured players last season, a $14.6m increase from the season before. Alijah Vera-Tucker was the league's most expensive injured player at $15.3m having torn his triceps in practice before Week 1 and later being placed on season-ending injured reserve. Vera-Tucker has since signed a three-year, $42m contract with The Patriots where he’ll be hoping to have an injury free season.

5) Cincinnati Bengals

Rounding out the top 5 biggest spenders on injured players last season is the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals spent $25.5m on injured players last season resulting in a $14.5m increase from the season prior. Most notably star QB Joe Burrows was out for a total of 10 weeks last season, resulting in just over $14m going towards his salary while he was out with a Grade 3 turf toe injury which required surgery. Cincinnati finished the season with a record of 6-11, their worst since 2020 and another team whose form looks to have been affected by injuries.

Top 5 NFL Teams With The Lowest Injury Cost (2025/26 Season)

1) Jacksonville Jaguars

At the other end of the scale were the teams that spent the least on injured players, most of which had a more successful season compared to the big spenders. The Jags spent a total of just over $4m on injured players last season, a decrease of $10.3m from the season before. The Jags recorded their first 10+ win season since 2017 and posted their best regular season record since the franchise’s 14-2 campaign in 1999, with improved player availability and fewer long-term injuries looking to have played a significant role in that success.

2) Seattle Seahawks

Last season's Super Bowl winners The Seahawks came out as the 2nd lowest spenders for injury cost last season at just $7.3m, showing that having a team with great player availability can contribute to a successful season. Seattle actually saw their injury cost this season have a slight increase from the previous one of $631,122, but still having such a low cost compared to the majority of the league made this a very minor issue.

3) Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers find themself towards the bottom of injury spending last season with a spend of $7.8m, which was a $15m decrease from the 2024/25 season. That decrease was the highest of all NFL teams last season, which will have been a solid financial boost for the Buccaneers last season. The Bucs made a solid start to the season with a 6-2 start which was their best since 2021 but unfortunately, they suffered a collapse late in the season causing them to just miss out on playoffs to the Panthers based on head-to-head advantage following a three-way tie.

4) Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles had the 4th least spend on injury cost last season at $7.9m, which was another increase from the season before by $2m. Philadelphia were going into the 2025 season as the defending Super Bowl champions looking for a repeat of last season's success. Although they didn’t quite manage a two peat after losing out to the 49ers in the Wild Card round, they still secured the NFC East title, making them the first NFC East team to repeat as division champions since 2004.

5) Los Angeles Rams

Finally, the Los Angeles Rams were ranked 5th best for injury spending last season, spending $8.7m, a $6.8m decrease from the 2024/25 season. The Rams finished with their 3rd consecutive winning season and the 8th in 9 years; they also advanced to the NFC Championship game where they lost out to the eventual Super Bowl champions for the Seahawks. Three of the four teams to reach the Conference Championship games ranked in the NFL’s bottom half for injury-related spending in 2025/26, suggesting teams with lower injury costs are more likely to make deep playoff runs.

Full League Statistics - Cash Spent on Injured Players

Team	Cash Spent On Injured Players 2024	% of Cap Spent On Injured Players 2024	Cash Spent On Injured Players 2025	% of Cap Spent On Injured Players 2025	Difference YoY Of Cash Spent On Injured Players
ARI	$16,923,554	6.6%	$42,405,104	15.2%	$25,481,550
TEN	$11,735,333	4.6%	$29,509,002	10.6%	$17,773,669
MIA	$18,689,754	7.3%	$27,437,166	9.8%	$8,747,412
NYJ	$12,650,066	5.0%	$27,284,404	9.8%	$14,634,338
CIN	$10,976,205	4.3%	$25,513,814	9.1%	$14,537,609
WAS	$11,486,115	4.5%	$24,193,252	8.7%	$12,707,137
CAR	$16,501,727	6.5%	$24,073,416	8.6%	$7,571,689
HOU	$12,915,035	5.1%	$23,004,668	8.2%	$10,089,633
ATL	$8,798,733	3.4%	$20,640,031	7.4%	$11,841,298
NYG	$17,878,187	7.0%	$18,038,907	6.5%	$160,720
IND	$20,412,596	8.0%	$17,400,258	6.2%	-$3,012,338
LV	$17,475,053	6.8%	$16,429,340	5.9%	-$1,045,713
DET	$18,446,609	7.2%	$16,404,955	5.9%	-$2,041,654
DAL	$20,617,503	8.1%	$16,196,094	5.8%	-$4,421,409
DEN	$10,791,494	4.2%	$16,183,436	5.8%	$5,391,942
BAL	$6,194,805	2.4%	$15,702,052	5.6%	$9,507,247
CHI	$11,232,807	4.4%	$15,367,180	5.5%	$4,134,373
NO	$10,876,299	4.3%	$15,113,633	5.4%	$4,237,334
BUF	$6,551,396	2.6%	$14,602,738	5.2%	$8,051,342
CLE	$14,498,896	5.7%	$14,069,989	5.0%	-$428,907
PIT	$22,350,145	8.8%	$13,821,970	5.0%	-$8,528,175
SF	$22,226,812	8.7%	$13,308,605	4.8%	-$8,918,207
KC	$13,904,944	5.4%	$13,022,717	4.7%	-$882,227
GB	$5,763,218	2.3%	$12,952,548	4.6%	$7,189,330
LAC	$8,868,921	3.5%	$11,665,027	4.2%	$2,796,106
MIN	$12,318,877	4.8%	$11,248,326	4.0%	-$1,070,551
NE	$11,865,771	4.6%	$9,221,432	3.3%	-$2,644,339
LAR	$15,538,837	6.1%	$8,707,575	3.1%	-$6,831,262
PHI	$5,899,054	2.3%	$7,898,606	2.8%	$1,999,552
TB	$23,031,378	9.0%	$7,820,899	2.8%	-$15,210,479
SEA	$6,713,463	2.6%	$7,344,585	2.6%	$631,122
JAX	$14,385,276	5.6%	$4,077,492	1.5%	-$10,307,784

Methodology

Data was sourced from Spotrac, analyzing NFL injured reserve lists for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

"Injured spending" refers to the total cash paid by teams to players while unavailable, including those on Injured Reserve (IR), Physically Unable to Perform (PUP), Non-Football Injury (NFI), or suspension lists. Spotrac defines this as "injured cash."

Each player's stint on a reserve list was counted separately, meaning players appearing multiple times in a season were included for each stint. Totals were aggregated at team level and benchmarked against the official salary cap ($255.4M in 2024; $279.2M in 2025, per the NFL) to ensure fair comparison.

All figures were cross-checked for accuracy and reflect totals available at the time of analysis.

Fair use

Feel free to use the data and visuals on this page for non-commercial purposes. Please be sure to include proper attribution linking back to this page to give credit to the authors.