‘Freak’ injuries (imho) are another red herring. For example, a guy tears his Achilles slipping while stepping off a curb… in a lot of cases, there was a partial tear waiting to become a full tear…. Guys get injured often and are not diagnosed a) because they hide injury and b) because diagnostics are imperfect and often don’t reveal major injuries until they are really major.
There are SO many variables. I am not sure it’s possible to provide an answer looking at stats.
This is why i said "eyeball test" because I don't think you can look at any stats and draw any type of real conclusion. SO many factors go into injuries, especially the freak ones. RG3's knee got torqued mid air because Ngata hit it at JUST the right angle that created a 'whip' action to tear the ligament. PART of that was RG3 not avoiding a certain type of contact, he was scrambling on 2nd and 19, down 8 pts with 1:45 to go on our side of the field. He was 100% laying it all on the line, and I thikn we can all appreciate his willingness to do so... That said, it was an uncomfortable collision 7 yards from the First Down marker. Had he continued left and not cut back inside, he likely has a similar spot of the ball, but 'lives to play another down.'
Other factors effect them also that are complete oddities that can't be statisitacally proven without HOURS AND HOURS of research.
Workout habits, how are a certain guys ligaments developed, as well as the mucles pullling / protecting them?
Is he wearing longer spikes? Molded cleats?
Is it raining that day so the grass has more give? is it super dry so there is not anywhere near as much give causing more violent impact on the ligaments
Is it Ngata hitting his knee at 300+ LBs, or is it Emanuel Forbes at half that weight?
Is the player on the brink of dehydration because it's 100 degrees outside and its the 4th quarter, meaning there is more strain on spasming muscles?
To your point
Boone , is there already a partial tear in a ligament that NOBODY knows about?
SO many things that are almost impossible to statistically quantify, and the vast majority of these are only surrounding injuries to the knee. Add concussions, shoulder, neck, wrists, fingers, hands, hips, ankles, toes into these and the 'possibilities' are exponential about what could lead to an injury. I almost throw out a comparison of 'stats' regarding injury and look to the eyeball test, and that goes beyond just running QBs. Pocket QBs. Who's able to move within the pocket and similarly 'absorb' hits within the pocket 'cleaner' and less awkward than others? Running backs... some guys just appear to avoid getting hit square, same with WR. Terry has proven he's tough, but you also see instances where he just avoids getting squared up. A lot of the things above are completely out of the control, but seeing a guy who has that struggles to avoid taking the big hit, or getting squared up clean tends to jump off the tape.
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