Football is the ultimate attrition sport.
It’s unforgiving and relentless, and once injuries start, they can come in bunches. The Football Gods don’t even always wait until the pads come on to start wreaking havoc. And, believe it or not, there are some things that have already gone down in NFL camps that will most definitely impact the regular season with some serious downstream ramifications.
It might sounds crazy to be talking NFL training camp winners and losers with August barely upon us, but, alas, here we are. Some teams are not only already feeling it, they're also already scrambling to look at free agents and assess their roster. Fortune is not smiling upon these four teams:
Carolina Panthers
No team has been stung more by the injury bug than the Panthers. And they aren’t super deep to begin with. A lot of smart people in this league were pretty high on them, but losing starters in July feels like a lot.
Linebacker Nic Scourton was going to be an impact player on a defense that really needed him, but an ACL ended his season as it barely began. There were reasons to believe rookie Chris Brazzell II was going to help make this offense more dynamic and explosive, but his rookie season won’t start until 2027 with a ligament tear. That’s not all.
Right tackle Taylor Moton has a blood clot in his lung, and that is going to keep him out to start the regular season. And, sadly, we know that teams aren’t going to get healthier. The Panthers feel snakebit already, and this might be enough to tip the balance in the Saints favor.
Our guy Marty Hurney, longtime GM of the Panthers, thought there was not much separating those two franchises at the top of the NFC South. New Orleans might be my lean now.
Atlanta Falcons
Kevin Stefanski’s first offseason with the Falcons had a lot of people scratching their heads. “What the hell are they doing?” one QB-needy GM opined to me after Atlanta brought in Tua Tagovailoa as part of a puzzling offseason. If their top-pick QB, Michael Penix, was already dealing with major injury, taking on a slight and injury-prone veteran seemed odd.
And now neither is doing anything. The Falcons are trying to downplay Tua’s back issue, but sorry, that’s a problem if you can’t get through these meek ramp-ups to real camp practices. Tagovailoa had what he called a “flare up,” and he isn’t sure when he is going to practice, but no big deal. And Stefanski says Penix is “about four weeks” away from being cleared for 11-on-11 drills.
When a coach gives that sort of timeline this time of year, I’d generally tack on a week or two.
San Francisco 49ers
This situation with Kyle Shanahan, culpable for a car accident in July that limited his ability to coach, has begged major questions about how the event was reported on, and why critical details are being withheld. It already feels a little too much like drama-filled summers from this team before. They finally got their latest contract battle settled (with Trent Williams this time), but the Brandon Aiyuk situation is still festering, and they can’t keep skill guys healthy.
Ricky Pearsall, a receiver they thought could transform their offense, is gone for the season with a knee injury, and he’s barely played to this point. They had the right idea getting out of Deebo Samuel’s contract one year ago. Bringing him back to a team long in the tooth and heavy on injury risk and short on twitch, ain’t it. On top of that, they play in the toughest division in football. They’re in trouble.
Arizona Cardinals
Sorry, but listening to Nathaniel Hackett speak about their running back situation sounded like he was trying to deliver tough love to a player they just drafted in the top five while manufacturing a competition that doesn't need to exist. This dude will never learn.
It says a lot about NFL owners and how clueless some can be when you remember that Hackett was a head coach. That happened man.
I know this team is tanking, and they really don’t care about 2026, and it’s great they got the Jacoby Brissett situation sorted out. But this is going to be brutal season there. Recent top pick Marvin Harrison Jr. doesn’t sound happy or well, and Cardinals fans are going to have more fun watching college QBs play trying to figure out which one they are taking first overall next year than watching this staff coach and this team play.
Add us as a preferred source on Google