99%  of athletes are protecting their heads with high-quality helmets for the fourth season running.

The National Football League (NFL) is committed to fostering innovation in helmet safety by continuing to provide data, collaborate with medical professionals, engineers, and manufacturers, and work toward the creation of helmets that are more effective. This goal was initially outlined as part of the league’s Engineering Roadmap in 2018, and position-specific helmets are the most recent development in helmet technology. They provide personalized protection for position groups and are the result of this vision. This year, there is a helmet on the market that is designed just for quarterbacks.

Each year, on the instruction of the National Football League and the NFL Players Association, biomechanical engineers conduct comprehensive testing of helmet designs by simulating the conditions of actual on-field play. The goal of these tests is to collect data and determine which helmet models are the most effective in reducing the force of a hit. When put through tests in a laboratory setting designed to simulate the circumstances faced by quarterbacks, the quarterback-specific helmet demonstrated a roughly 20% improvement over the model’s conventional iteration. The introduction of a helmet designed specifically for quarterbacks follows the introduction of helmets designed specifically for offensive and defensive lines in the 2021 season. The 2023 NFL and NFLPA Helmet Rankings have been updated, and position-specific helmets are currently in first place.

Luis Santoyo / Unsplash.com

Since the beginning of the program to conduct yearly tests, there has been a consistent acceleration in the rate of improvement of helmet models, which has resulted in a ninefold increase. The rate of innovation may be seen in the rankings of helmets through time, which are as follows:

o Seven helmets that were ranked among the Top-Performing group in 2020 have been removed from consideration for use in the next season.

o An increase in the performance of helmets has resulted in a persistent reduction in concussions by an average of 25% over the course of the past five seasons.

o For the fourth season running, 99 percent of athletes are wearing helmets that are at the top of their game.

In the search of ever-improved player safety equipment, the National Football League (NFL) not only collaborates with conventional helmet manufacturers but also seeks out the knowledge and experience of professionals working in other fields in order to capitalize on novel ideas and innovations. The league organizes competitions for innovative ideas, such as the NFL Helmet Challenge, and gives financial support to manufacturers, engineers, small companies, and other inventors and designers so that they may create new helmet models that are more effective.