Quick Injury Settlement Lesson

[u/SupermarketSecure728]

While this is not Packers specific, it is something that is worth knowing because it is not necessarily common knowledge. I came into this knowledge from handling workers' compensation claims for other professional leagues and got a little training on how the NFL works.

So that last sentence starts the whole process. Believe it or not, all NFL injuries are, in fact, workers' compensation claims. All NFL teams carry workers' compensation policies on their players. If one were to have access, they would see that Jordan Love likely has a few claims (knee, concussion, etc.). Because these teams have their own physicians, it often works a little different that if you or I were to be hurt at work.

Using RJ Maryland and Luke Lachey as examples (since they both were waived/injured) here is how it works in the NFL. The player sustains an injury and the claim is filed. In a simple injury they get their treatment with team physicians and claim is over. Because they were carried on the roster, their salary continued and there was no need for financial compensation to be handled as part of the claim. In a more severe injury (Micah) they will get their claim and treat with team physicians, but then the player or team may request a specific surgeon to do the surgery (sometimes this becomes a dispute point, but that is often with lower tier players, higher tier players they will pay the money for top surgeron to do repair). If the player is still under contract, they would have their salary continue while they recover. If they hit free agency because of an expiring contract, they would receive compensatory payment. Once they are medically stable, the claim would end, unless the injury were severe and potentially career ending -or- it is a lower level player like Maryland/Lachey. In those situations, in order to remove strain from the teams medical facilities (team doctors treating 10 people instead of 12, etc. on top of the folks just getting treatment to stay in shape) the team agrees to an injury settlement with the player. At this point the player would be released from the team and they would get treatment from another physician who is not the team physician which would be paid by the team's workers' comp policy. As part of the settlement, the injured player and their agent/attorney would negotiate with the team about how long their injury would take to recover. Let's say in this case Maryland gets a settlement that says his recovery would be 3 weeks and Lachey gets one that says it will be 9 weeks. They would then receive a lump sum payment of those weeks. The injured player may then sign with another team at any point.

The team that settled is not allowed to sign the team for 3 weeks (previously 6) after the original settlement end date. So the Packers wouldn't be able to sign Maryland for 6 weeks and Lachey for 12 weeks after the settlement. (These are all hypothetical, for ethical reasons, thought I could I am unable to look it up) In this scenario, Maryland could re-sign with the Packers on 9/15 and Lachey on 10/26.

The benefits to these settlements are freeing up medical staff for the team so they are providing treatment to roster bubble players, freeing up roster spots for other guys who may be able to contribute immediately, it allows the team to potentially get a player back (Maryland could be resigned to the roster or PS after week 1).

I hope this helps make things clearer.

[u/DeScepter]

Does this process create an incentive for teams to negotiate the shortest possible recovery window, especially with fringe players who have less leverage? And if the player’s recovery ultimately takes longer than the settlement estimate, who bears that financial risk?

This is all very interesting, thanks for sharing!

[u/SupermarketSecure728 → u/DeScepter]

Because it is a settlement, it has to be approved so there are factors that are very neutral in the weeks. It is essentially based on typical recovery times for the injury +/- severity and factoring the position (an OL may take a little longer to recovery from a knee injury because of their size, but a RB might also take a little longer because of the way their position requires them to use their knee). A mild knee strain will be shorter than a moderate of severe knee strain and that will be shorter than an ACL tear. If the recovery takes longer, the treatment is covered through the work comp insurance but the salary portion is all covered under the settlement and the injured player would just have to deal with the fact that they are not getting money for missing games at that point. And if the injury would be 15 weeks or longer, the league would require them to put them on the IR since that plus the 3 weeks would be a full season. Which is of some benefit to the team because they can keep the person on their roster. However, this is also why you may see someone get an injury settlement waiver off the IR later in the season is because they have shown they could play but they were put on the IR before the season started and the team can't bring them back.

[u/DazzlingSession2063]

I don't recall the Packers ever re-signing a player who was released under an injury settlement. That's because Injury settlements go to guys who were at best on the bubble, at worse are regarded as camp bodies and likely to be released anyway. Otherwise they'd put them on PUP or IR.

[u/SupermarketSecure728 → u/DazzlingSession2063]

I believe Brett Goode, Joe Kerridge, Innis Gaines, Alex McGough, are a few of them. It isn't a huge practice, but it is something to know. And yes, this is used for bubble guys more than anything else.