The NFL injury report exists to inform the general public of all the bumps and bruises on players across the country. It's supposed to be the equalizer in the battle for inside information, though fairly frequently we'll find players listed who aren't hurting, or players who are hurting unlisted.
The NFL mandates that teams make all injuries known, and it begins with a practice report that must be issued following the first practice of the week. Another practice report comes out the following day, and then an injury report is due the day after. Typically, practice reports are issued on Wednesdays and Thursdays with the injury report released Friday. CBSSports.com has the full reports up by 6:30 p.m. ET the latest during the season.
As per the NFL's policy, each report has its own set of classifications.
Players nursing injuries must be declared on the practice report, but only to the extent of their ability to practice. Their injury must be named, and they may be ruled out for their upcoming game, but all other information regarding their status for the week doesn't need to be reported.
Here's how we treat the classifications on the NFL's Practice Report:
OUT: When a team says a player is out, it means he's been ruled out in advance of the game. You can safely plan on benching anyone ruled out.
DID NOT PRACTICE: When a player misses a day's work, he gets this designation. However, a player will get this if he's hurt or if he's a veteran who has earned some time off and can use an extra day of rest. Obviously when someone is just getting rest, he's expected to play. When a player is legitimately hurt, we consider him questionable for the upcoming week if he doesn't practice and keep an eye on his progress.
LIMITED PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE: When a player only participates in individual drills, or simply doesn't finish practice with the team, he'll be considered limited. Some veterans only work on a limited basis to help keep them fresh for the upcoming week. Thus, when it's determined that a player will regularly be limited, we consider him probable for his next contest. Otherwise, players are considered questionable until they practice in full.
FULL PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE: This one's straightforward -- a player practices throughout practice. It's safe to say that anyone who practices in full is expected to play.
Most NFL coaches live by the following adage: If a player can't practice on Friday, he won't play on Sunday. There have been and will be exceptions, but it's a good rule of thumb for all of you to remember. We mention it here because the NFL Injury Report comes out on Fridays. So if you want to know what a coach is thinking about a player's status for a game, you can find out here.
Here's how we treat the classifications on the NFL's Injury Report:
OUT: A player listed as out won't play. Easy as that. It should be noted that some teams will list a player as out after the Injury Report comes out but before the inactives are due for a game, so sometimes players who are doubtful or questionable are changed to out long before kickoff.
DOUBTFUL: The NFL says that players listed here should have a 25 percent chance of playing. We have only seen a handful of cases over the years of players listed as doubtful actually making it to kickoff. This is essentially another way of listing a player as out, and teams know it. In fact, a couple of teams hardly ever use the doubtful designation because it insinuates that a player won't play. Instead, they use questionable.
QUESTIONABLE: The most dreaded word on the report. The NFL says that players who have a 50-50 shot at playing should be listed here, but we very often see cases of this not being the case. When we evaluate players listed as questionable, we see whether or not they practiced during the week. If they did, especially on Friday, then we'd lean a little closer to them playing than not. If they didn't practice, especially on Friday, then we'd expect them to be inactive on Sunday. To be safe, your best plan of attack is to have tentative plans for anyone listed as questionable and check the Sunday Inactives here on CBSSports.com before finalizing your lineup.
PROBABLE: The NFL says that players who have a virtual certainty of playing should be listed here. It's rare to see a player listed as probable not play because of his injury. You should feel confident starting anyone listed as probable for a game.
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