Will season-ending injuries to key positions negatively effect the Giants 2011 season?

Infographic Chase Macri

Entering week one of the NFL regular season, the New York Giants had already sustained substantial injuries to their starting roster. The stream of injury updates on ESPN’s NFC East blog is substantive (see Google), overall the Giants lost nine starting players: four cornerbacks, a safety, a defensive tackle, two defensive ends, two linebackers, a tight end and a backup quarterback all before touching the field in week one.

It may be difficult to imagine the impact each individual player’s loss has on the team, but the above infographic shows exactly how many holes the Giants had to fill. The players and their corresponding dots marked in red show the athletes that will be out for the year while blue denotes those whose injuries weren’t season-ending. The pie chart shows how many weeks combined the players will be off the field.

Below the pie chart are statistics from Pro Football Reference that show the Giants defensive numbers last year compared to their defeat at the hands of the Washington Redskins 28-14 week one of the 2011-2012 season. The Giants defensive ranking have fallen dramatically, according to Football Outsiders, falling from the third ranked defense in the NFL in 2010 to 23rd.