NFL injury reports getting makeover, eliminating “probable” designation

The NFL is changing the way it requires teams to report injuries this season.

In the past, the league had four categorizations for each team’s required weekly injury report. Probable meant a 75 percent chance or greater to play, questionable meant 50 percent chance of playing, doubtful meant 75 percent chance to miss the game, and out, as it implies, meant no chance to play.

Starting this season, the league will remove the “probable” category as well as change the meaning of the questionable and doubtful categorizations.

Questionable will now mean there is a chance the player will miss the game, but it is more than 50 percent likely that he will play. Doubtful will now be less than a 50% chance of playing, and out will still be a player ruled out of the game.

If a player has a minor ding like a dislocated finger, he won’t be able to be deemed probable to play (while acknowledging some minor injury by being on the injury report, as required). Now, they’ll either need to be off the report or classified as questionable to play.

Due to the injury report changes, chances are, there will now be a lot more uncertainty surrounding whether or not players will play each week. We’ll now only know if a player is going to play for sure once the active players list is announced 90 minutes prior to kickoff.

(h/t The Phinsider)