Guardian caps aid NFL’s lowest number of preseason concussions since 2015, league EVP says

The NFL is calling the early implementation of guardian caps a success.

Jeff Miller, the NFL executive vice president overseeing player health and safety, and NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills said in a media briefing Friday that after reviewing preseason data, there’s been a reduction in concussions since mandating the guardian caps in practices.

“It’s safe to say guardian caps have been an unqualified success for the NFL since we introduced them,” Sills said. “The reason I would say it’s an unqualified success, they’ve driven a significant reduction in concussions in practices.”

Miller said there were 44 preseason concussions, including 18 in practice, which was the fewest since the NFL began tracking data in 2015. Miller cited changes in rules and equipment, including the guardian caps and improved helmets, as the reasons for the decline in concussions.

Guardian caps are required in all practices for all players except quarterbacks, kickers and punters.

Sills said concussions declined by approximately 50 percent over the past two preseasons. He also noted between 5-10 players have worn guardian caps during games in each regular-season week.

“I think this reflects the fact that we’re seeing a culture change in safety and particularly safety around head impact,” Sills said. “It continues to evolve and continues to be important to our players in the game. … Clearly, they’re making a difference in terms of preseason and practices.”

Sills said the NFL submitted data to a peer review publication and expects to see the results within months.

While studying guardian caps in a lab, Sills said testing showed there was a 10-15 percent reduction in force transmitted through the helmet to the brain. If two players were wearing them, there’d be a 20-30 percent reduction in force.

“We have a lot of confidence in that lab testing because it’s always done an excellent job of predicting what we see on the field,” Sills said.

Guardian caps were implemented in 2022. They still aren’t mandatory during games because the NFL doesn’t have nearly enough data to propose a change. Conversely, while mandating the caps in practice, the NFL was able to study about 10 years of experience to study at the college level.

“We always want to make sure we’re acting on data,” Sills said.

Sills also said more than 200 players have been wearing a new “best-in-class” style helmet in practice, which can be used instead of a guardian cap. The lab testing has shown these new helmets to be an upgrade over previous models.

From @TheAthletic: NFL officials said that Guardian Caps helped reduce concussions in preseason practices by nearly 50%.

But some players don’t want to wear them and cramp their style. pic.twitter.com/7GqnBg3FxY

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 3, 2024

The NFL also said the injury rate is down with the new dynamic kickoffs. There were “a couple more concussions” than the league thought it’d see during preseason kickoffs, but there weren’t any during the first three weeks of the regular season, Miller and Sills said. They noted there were zero ACL or MCL injuries during preseason kickoffs.

The injury rate during kickoffs, admittedly with a small sample size, more closely resembled that of a run or pass play, Miller said, due to a decrease in player speed under the new rules. About 70 percent of preseason kickoffs were returned, which was an increase of about 15 percent from last preseason.