Performance Analysis of National Football League Quarterbacks after Sustaining a Concussion
Undergraduates: Corey Ochs, Melissa Kay
Faculty Advisor: Johna Register-Mihalik
Department: Romance Languages
The quarterback (QB) is arguably the most valued player on any National Football League (NFL) team due to their role in decision-making and leadership. Thus, they are susceptible to impacts from opponents, possibly resulting in concussion. Post-concussion performance can indicate whether NFL QBs are recovering fully to their pre-injury performance level before returning to the field. The purpose of this investigation was to compare NFL QB performance in the 3 games prior to and following concussion describing the effect of concussions on passing performance. Performance was analyzed via completion percentage of passes thrown. Publicly available online databases were searched for injury reports and player statistics. 36 concussions were found over the past 5 seasons (x ¿¿=7.2¿¿3.27 per season) among QBs. The mean number of games missed due to concussion was 1.78¿¿3.05. The data collected show an increase in completion percentage in the games post-injury (61.55¿¿9.53 vs. 64.59¿¿7.32). Of the 36 injuries, 9 resulted in the QB not returning to another game that season. These findings suggest that based on publicly available data, QB pass performance does not decline following concussion, perhaps showing that players and teams are taking proper safety precaution before returning to games. However, not all individuals were able to return to the playing field. More research needs to be done to explore specific reasons for why some athletes improve while others are unable to return.