BYU Stats Nerd: The injury stats for BYU players in the NFL are as frightening as a Halloween slasher film

There are currently 18 former BYU Cougars on NFL rosters. Most professional players are listed on the active 53-man roster of their team's practice squad. But there's another place on NFL team rosters where players can be slotted: The injured reserve.

Through Week 8 of the NFL season, a distressing number of former BYU players are either on the IR or have recently returned from it.

With Halloween approaching, BYU fans view the IR as the football version of Freddy Kruger, Jason Voorhees, or Pennywise the Clown. It's the boogeyman that's always lurking in the shadows, instilling fear in its ability to suddenly, violently claim the people you care about the most.

Here's a quick breakdown of the injuries suffered among the 18 former Cougars in the NFL that have landed them on the injured reserve:

Brady Christensen, OG, Carolina Panthers - Played in eight games before rupturing his Achilles and will miss the rest of the season.

Blake Freeland, OT, Indianapolis Colts - Fractured his leg in the preseason and will miss the entire year.

Jakob Robinson, CB, San Francisco 49ers - Broke his forearm in the preseason and will miss his entire 2025 rookie campaign.

Fred Warner, LB, San Francisco 49ers - Dislocated and fractured his ankle in Week 6 and will miss the rest of the season.

So, that's four of 18 former BYU players, or 22% of the group, who are already on the shelf for the rest of the year. We aren't even halfway through the NFL season yet.

But in addition to those four players who have suffered season-ending injuries, a handful of other former Cougs have missed games this year due to getting hurt, such as:

Tyler Batty, DE, Minnesota Vikings - The undrafted rookie free agent suffered a preseason knee injury and missed the Vikings first five games before making his NFL debut two weeks ago.

Taysom Hill, QB, New Orleans Saints - The dynamic QB/TE/HB missed the first four games of this season while still rehabbing from a torn ACL suffered last December.

Puka Nacua, WR, Los Angeles Rams - The NFL's best wide receiver injured his ankle in Week 6, didn't play Week 7, then had a bye this past week. All indications are he will return this week.

Kyle Van Noy, OLB, Baltimore Ravens - The veteran sustained a hamstring injury in Week 2 then missed the Ravens next two games before returning in Week 5.

In all eight of 18 former BYU players in the NFL, or 44%, have suffered injuries. That's a lot, for sure, but when digging a bit deeper the true percentage of injured former Cougars is even higher.

Of the 10 players that haven't been injured so far this year, four of them are primarily special teamers in punter Ryan Rehkow, running back Chris Brooks, safety Zayne Anderson, and cornerback Michael Davis.

Additionally, quarterbacks Zach Wilson and Kedon Slovis are backups who rarely, if ever, see the field.

Lastly, Sione Takitaki is on the practice squad for the Minnesota Vikings, so while he's among the former Cougars in the NFL, he isn't on an active 53-man roster.

When factoring out those seven special teamers, backups, and practice squad players, that means there are only three rotational or every-down former BYU players who haven't suffered an injury thus far: Running back Tyler Allgeier, guard Kingsley Suamataia, and defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga. And Tonga left last week's game due to injury and didn't return but he appears to be alright.

Somebody knock on wood for those three guys.

And here's to hoping the other former Cougars who have fallen victim to the NFL's IR boogeyman can heal up quickly.