5 Most Dangerous Positions in American Football (2024)

When you look into sports you always have people warn you about injuries and the risk of doing athletics. Most individuals usually ignore the risks because of how rare they are.

But if you have children or loved ones that are interested, it is good to look in their best interest at what are some dangers of playing such a sport.

In this article will we be covering the 5 most dangerous positions in football and a few other commonly asked questions!

The top three most common injuries in American football are actually located in our previous article here.

To summarize what we spoke about in that segment of such article, here are a few photos to describe and show the top three injuries in football. Credit to nfl.com for such information.

With that information shown above, these are only major injuries, as common injuries like sprains are very common, as I have in my four years of playing, have played on sprained ankles, multiple sprained fingers, and a plethora of other minor injuries.

Is wide receiver a dangerous position?

Most fans of football fantasize about becoming a skill position, which includes the athletic, different shape and size wide-receivers.

On the outside, it looks to be one of the most fun positions to play in all of football as receiving the football and scoring touchdowns is a common thing for such a position.

Unfortunately, when you see a massive hit or tackle it's usually on a wide receiver catching a pass. The health of a receiver is very dependent on the quarterback throwing the ball. The placement and timing of passes can change the outcome of either a touchdown or a long recovery from a major injury.

According to a Florida blog,

“The second most frequently injured position were those students playing wide receiver who received about 11 % of all football injuries.”

For example, if you see a receiver like the Chargers’ Keenan Allen he was named as an injury-prone bust after his first few years in the league. He missed 26 games in his first four seasons, but when healthy he showed the potential to be great.

Since 2017, he has only missed 3 games total. Becoming one of, if not the most reliable receiver both in health and on the field converting third-downs into firsts.

To me, wide receiver is a dangerous position due to its dependence on quarterback play and its constant wear and tear on lower-body muscles.

Is running back a dangerous position?

If you are more of a physical player with a more stout frame, playing running back may be more of an option for you. Usually, in little league and younger leagues for football players, the most athletic kids will play running back.

If you are a child or a parent of a child that is interested in playing running back, understanding the risk of playing football in general, but specifically running back should be noted.

What are some of the dangers of playing the position?

Running back requires you to be on the field nearly every single play if you are the starter. The tread on the player's tires will run thin the more he or she plays. Whether it's running, blocking, or receiving, running backs are required to do all.

Beyond the tread on the tires, the constant of getting tackled by bigger defensive linemen or smaller defensive backs is part of the risk of playing running back.

According to a Florida blog,

“Running backs were most likely to sustain an injury to an ankle, while the second most commonly hurt body part is the knee followed by the head.”

This quote shows that running backs are frequently injured at a student-athlete level, either in the head, ankle, or knees.

Overall, playing running back is extremely fun as you have a responsibility that is quite important to the team every single play, but that can also lead to more injuries and overall fatigue.

If you are a concerned parent and want your child to enjoy the sport of football, but ensure the safety of your children, you wonder what position can bring the best of both worlds.

According to my research, playing special teams-based positions will minimize injury. Whether it is long snapper, kicker, or punter, the basic football rules are to protect such positions, whether its penalties to line up on the snapper, or to hit the kicker or punters in a certain way, football protects these positions.

According to a Reddit thread,

“Safest is longsnapper. Hands down. Rules do not permit the defense to line up in front of them, so they are never compromised in a vulnerable position. On most kicks, they snap it and stop. Then, on most punts, they are the last to head downfield.

Dangerous? Slot receiver. Usually, he's a smaller guy and is frequently asked to cross the middle.”

All in all, playing a specialist position can be fun if they have leg talent, but these positions are usually on the field the least out of all the other positions. As they say, “safety first” so if you agree with that statement, I recommend you to play a specialist position.

A Few tips to prevent injuries in football

Every day when you participate in football or athletics in general, you are putting yourself at risk of getting injured. It is just human nature to mess up whether in a minor or major way and that causes consequences.

So, what are some ways you can make this risk lower and increase your chances of staying healthy?

A sports medicine website has given quite a few tips;

• Perform proper warm-up and cool-down routines
• Consistently incorporate strength training and stretching
• Hydrate adequately to maintain health and minimize cramps
• Stay active during summer break to prepare for a return to sports in the fall
• Wear properly fitted protective equipment, such as a helmet, pads, and mouthguard
• Tackle with the head up and do not lead with the helmet
• Have a pre-season health and wellness evaluation
• Speak with a sports medicine professional or athletic trainer if you have any concerns about football injuries or football injury prevention strategies
• Do not slide tackle (which is also not legal move in NFL).

To talk from both personal experience and research, let's go over each one of these tips.

• Warming up and cooling down can help with loosening up your muscles enough to ensure no cramps and other major/minor injuries.
• Lots of athletes forget the importance of stretching before and after an exercise, and with paired with strength training, your physical endurance will increase.
• Nearly all coaches encourage their athletes to stay hydrated both at home and during practice, as water loosens muscles and cushions joints.
• During the offseason, ensuring good health and a great regime will ensure that when you go back to football you are still in shape and ready to play, as this article states:

"When you stop exercising, many physiological changes occur. You begin to lose the cardiovascular gains you've made, such as your heart's ability to pump blood more efficiently, your body's improved capability to use carbohydrates for fuel, and your muscles' enhanced capacity to process oxygen."

• As a long-time player, ensuring comfortable pads, helmets, and other equipment is as important as nearly anything else. For me personally, my play dramatically changed when I bought a girdle and got more comfortable in pads and the new helmet I was given from my football program.
• My coaches constantly embedded into his player's heads good tackling form as that impacts your health, and ensures fewer concussions and other hazardous head injuries.
• Evaluating where you are physically (and mentally) is remarkably vital to see how far you need to push yourself in a healthy manner.
• Lastly, speaking to a professional is always a good safety precaution to confirm you are okay with playing football and are understanding of these tips to help with not getting injured.

5 most dangerous positions (ranked)

To build on what has all been said thus far, what are the most dangerous positions to play in football?

5. Linebacker

A Linebacker's job in the game of football is to hunt and hit. In other words, his job is to find the ball carrier and hit them as hard as possible.

Of course linebacker's have other responsibilities like covering tight ends and running backs, but an old-school style linebacker is to hunt and hit. As newer-school linebackers are smaller and quicker and more relied upon to cover, but stopping the run (hitting players) is still a huge part of their job.

According to a quora user,

"Linebackers probablysuffer the most overall physical damage, without anything specifically greater than other positions. They get the damage from the repeated sub-concussive hits, they play through the head (non-brain) and neck damage, shoulder injuries."

When your job is to at the end of the day, is to hit someone as hard as possible, chances are you are going to get hit back a few times, and that can lead to injuries.

4. Defensive Line

Playing on the defensive line, your job is similar to linebackers, except instead of coverage, your second job is to hunt after the opposing team's quarterback.

The flashiest play a defensive lineman can do is land a large hit on the opposing team's most valuable asset, their quarterback.

Their most important job is to stop the run, which leads to tackling the ball-carriers, which are usually running backs or wide receivers.

According to a LiveScience article,

"Defensive ends engaged in more severe impacts than any other defensive position"

Note: Defensive end is a position along the defensive line, next to the defensive tackles.

3. Offensive Line

The offensive line is the least forgiving position in the entirety of the sport. As someone who played here for four years, you never get noticed until you mess up (or injured).

The job of an offensive lineman is to protect your quarterback and ball carriers. You are known to take the hits from the defensive lineman to make sure your ball carrier doesn't.

As said by a Washington article,

"Offensive lineman give and take a lot of hits. Unfortunately, so do their brains. While these hits may not be as high-impact as, say, a cornerback laying a hit on a wide receiver,these smaller, more frequent hits have been shown to be maybe even more damaging."

One big hit can cause a season-ending injury, but multiple small hits can cause life-changing injuries over time, such as the non-curable CTE disease.

2. Wide Receiver

Jump above to look at more in-depth reasoning on why Wide Receiver is one of the most dangerous positions in the sport.

To summarize above,

Unfortunately, when you see a massive hit or tackle it's usually on a wide receiver catching a pass. The health of a receiver is very dependent on the quarterback throwing the ball. The placement and timing of passes can change the outcome of either a touchdown or a long recovery from a major injury.

According to a Florida blog,

“The second most frequently injured position were those students playing wide receiver who received about 11 % of all football injuries.”

1. Running Back

In a 2010 article written by a Falcons based football page, they share their findings in this graph:

This graph shows that in the NFL running backs are by far the most injured position in the entirety of the league.

For a more in-depth detailed approach to why running back is one of the most dangerous positions in football, scroll up!

As I stated above,

Running back requires you to be on the field nearly every single play if you are the starter. The tread on the player's tires will run thin the more he or she plays. Whether it's running, blocking, or receiving, running backs are required to do all.

Playing running back requires a lot of athleticism and the ability to endure large, frequent hits.

All in all, playing running back in football is the most dangerous position in the totality of the sport, but it shouldn't be looked down upon as you are showing toughness and grit to your peers. The reward of playing running back is getting the ball more frequently than nearly any other position on the field as well.

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