Here is a look at the salary cap and contract dollars sitting on reserve lists in week 3 of the 2021 NFL season as well as a listing of which positions have been the most impacted by injury. The numbers include players on injured reserve, PUP, and the covid list. They do not include players on NFI or who are suspended. These numbers will change each week as new players are added to IR and some are removed and re-activated. This week we saw a net gain of 33 players and around $100 million in contracts sitting on the sidelines. Overall there is over $600 million in annual contract value currently unable to play.
The Ravens have moved into the top spot for most salary cap lost ($40.8M) but trail the Packers in total value. Dallas still has the most players on the list at 19. This table should be sortable if you click on the header.
| Team | Players | Player Change | Salary Cap | Change | Annual Contract Value | Change |
| Ravens | 18 | 4 | $40,811,079 | $17,173,852 | $41,076,989 | $10,202,030 |
| Cowboys | 19 | 1 | $40,356,702 | $639,444 | $38,959,639 | $3,883,194 |
| Jets | 16 | 1 | $35,229,556 | $252,000 | $38,223,778 | $252,000 |
| Packers | 5 | 1 | $27,764,321 | $477,778 | $41,895,000 | $695,000 |
| Patriots | 11 | 0 | $26,075,523 | $0 | $23,569,405 | $0 |
| Saints | 13 | 0 | $24,972,023 | $0 | $37,159,773 | $0 |
| Broncos | 13 | 2 | $24,678,183 | $11,208,709 | $30,469,235 | $7,611,306 |
| Lions | 11 | 4 | $24,637,156 | $5,010,154 | $35,440,468 | $6,630,172 |
| Browns | 9 | 1 | $20,698,356 | $14,711,765 | $23,946,745 | $15,100,000 |
| Raiders | 8 | 1 | $19,668,333 | $1,220,000 | $20,420,000 | $2,120,000 |
| Eagles | 9 | 2 | $18,857,935 | $15,002,235 | $28,619,184 | $23,300,000 |
| 49ers | 12 | 2 | $18,819,668 | $955,556 | $17,572,222 | $1,230,000 |
| Texans | 7 | 2 | $17,810,249 | $5,968,426 | $19,513,379 | $6,717,879 |
| Cardinals | 4 | 0 | $16,717,644 | $249,477 | $15,107,644 | -$11,356 |
| Steelers | 8 | 1 | $16,337,791 | $2,037,500 | $23,149,958 | $2,750,000 |
| Football Team | 5 | 0 | $15,874,436 | $0 | $23,902,769 | $0 |
| Colts | 9 | 0 | $15,625,029 | $0 | $15,936,279 | $0 |
| Chargers | 4 | 0 | $13,163,933 | $0 | $12,473,933 | $0 |
| Dolphins | 6 | 1 | $12,482,155 | $6,880,781 | $14,707,926 | $7,568,859 |
| Giants | 12 | 2 | $11,875,593 | $3,852,369 | $15,589,009 | $4,285,841 |
| Buccaneers | 12 | 3 | $11,206,003 | $4,253,100 | $12,480,867 | $4,478,100 |
| Bears | 4 | 0 | $10,525,685 | $0 | $16,050,231 | $0 |
| Titans | 14 | 0 | $10,299,859 | $0 | $14,437,127 | $0 |
| Falcons | 9 | 1 | $9,119,612 | $165,600 | $9,240,862 | $165,600 |
| Jaguars | 6 | 2 | $8,994,499 | $2,513,266 | $11,028,693 | $3,495,426 |
| Seahawks | 7 | 0 | $7,234,535 | $0 | $9,477,256 | $0 |
| Vikings | 9 | 0 | $6,977,087 | $0 | $8,241,970 | $0 |
| Panthers | 6 | 1 | $4,078,713 | $1,360,000 | $8,539,130 | $4,500,000 |
| Bengals | 4 | 1 | $3,137,252 | $165,600 | $3,866,123 | $165,600 |
| Rams | 5 | 0 | $3,078,840 | $0 | $3,902,591 | $0 |
| Chiefs | 2 | 0 | $2,697,965 | $0 | $2,817,762 | $0 |
| Bills | 2 | 0 | $1,152,302 | $0 | $1,833,135 | $0 |
| TOTAL | 279 | 33 | $520,958,017 | $94,097,612 | $619,649,082 | $105,139,651 |
The second thing I looked at this week was just which positions have been impacted the most by injury. I stripped the Covid players from the list and to best compare across positions I used the percentage of all contract value at a given position to be injured this year. Here are the results.
| Position | % of Contract Value | % of All Players |
| WR | 12.0% | 11.4% |
| CB | 11.5% | 10.8% |
| OT | 11.2% | 12.8% |
| EDGE | 10.6% | 9.4% |
| RB | 10.3% | 11.9% |
| Int. O-Line | 8.1% | 9.7% |
| LB | 8.0% | 12.2% |
| ST | 7.9% | 7.8% |
| D-Line | 6.4% | 9.7% |
| TE | 5.5% | 10.4% |
| QB | 4.6% | 10.1% |
| S | 3.9% | 8.6% |
I thought some of these were interesting. The most money on the sidelines is from wide receiver, corner, and offensive tackle while safety has been the safest investment. Offensive tackle, linebacker and running back have the most players who are injured. Linebacker surprised me a bit there. I’m not sure if Ill track this every week but I will update this every few weeks as well.