The Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans were not done any favors by the NFL's schedule-makers for the stretch run of the 2024 season.
All four were in action on Saturday.
All four will play on Wednesday.
All four are in the middle of a stretch where they are being asked to play three football games in a 10-day stretch. That is daunting, it is grueling, and it is not ideal for keeping players healthy.
With all of that said, it is also worth pointing out that all four teams that played on Saturday suffered significant injuries during Saturday's games.
The Houston Texans lost wide receiver Tank Dell to a gruesome leg injury while catching a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the Chiefs.
Chiefs superstar defensive tackle Chris Jones had to leave that same game due to a leg injury of his own late in the fourth quarter, while offensive linemen Jawaan Taylor and Jack Cochrane were also injured in that game.
An already banged-up Steelers secondary had another injury when starting cornerback Joey Porter Jr. left Saturday's game in Baltimore with what head coach Mike Tomlin called a knee injury after the game.
Ravens running back Justice Hill was also injured in their win over the Steelers. He suffered a head injury in the second quarter and was ruled out for the rest of the game due to a concussion.
That does not even take into account other injuries all of these teams are already dealing with, including Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes, who was injured a week ago in Cleveland, the first of their three games during this stretch.
It is fair to point out that injuries can — and will — happen throughout the course of a season, and some of them will be significant. Football is a violent, collision sport. Injuries are a part of that and are, from a big-picture standpoint, unavoidable.
That is also why recovery times are important for players and why asking them to play two consecutive short weeks (going from Sunday to Saturday and then Saturday to Wednesday) at the end of what is already a long season is a dangerous and reckless decision by the NFL.
Yes, they will all get an extended period of time off before their next games in Week 18, but that does not outweigh the damage that can be done after consecutive short weeks.
Maybe some of these injuries happen with normal periods of rest.
Maybe they were unavoidable.
But that does not take away from the risk and physical toll that this is going to take on players, especially as all four teams prepare to head into the playoffs.
All of this is being done so the NFL can take over Christmas Day on TV with a double-header of games. They will be great matchups. Millions upon millions of people will watch. It will be a financial win for the league. It is understandable as to why they wanted that.
If it was that important to have two games on Christmas when the holiday falls in the middle of the week, the NFL should have done the smart and safe thing and given all four of these teams their bye week late in the season and given them adequate time to rest, especially late in the season when the games take on added importance.
