As NFL teams begin this week designating players for return from injured reserve, reserve/non-football injury/illness (NFI), or welcoming those back to practice on reserve/physically unable to perform (PUP), it’s instructive to get a handle on the number of players that resided on a team’s injured list as Week 4 concluded.

The number is 286 and that doesn’t include a legion of players that were placed on injured reserve in the offseason or after the start of training camp, but eventually were released with injury settlements, Howard Balzer of Cards Wire reports.

That 286 includes 136 eligible to return after missing four games from injured reserve or NFI, 30 on PUP, 112 on injured reserve or NFI that can’t return, and eight on practice-squad injured. Those in the latter group must also miss four weeks before returning, but once they begin practicing, they are officially back on the practice squad.

There were another five players league-wide on reserve/suspended.

It is often said that “all teams have injuries,” but that is a tired cliché that doesn’t take into account that many have more than others and that when they strike at certain position groups, the significance is worse.

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