Fooch’s note - Pro Football Talk got clarification on the changes, which includes these changes to questionable and doubtful. Basically, everybody previously listed as probable will now be listed as questionable.
The NFL also has changed the meaning of “questionable” and “doubtful”; previously, the “questionable” category reflected a 50-50 likelihood of playing, and “doubtful” meant a 75-percent chance the player wouldn’t play. Now, “questionable” simply means that “it is uncertain as to whether the player will play in the game,” and “doubtful” means that “it is unlikely the player will participate.”
The NFL is making a slightly notable change to the injury report starting this season. NFL columnist Armando Salguero is reporting the league is doing away with the “probable” designation on the injury report. This means the injury report will only include questionable, doubtful, and out moving forward.
This is kind of random timing, and seemingly out of the blue. And for purposes of the injury report, I wonder how much it will actually help anything? Are teams more likely to list a player as questionable now that they don’t have probable? Or will this mean fewer players on the injury report? We’ve seen a lot of players listed as probable that were clearly going to play. The New England Patriots have taken things a step further, listing players as questionable whose playing time was not in doubt.
This has two notable impacts. The first is on fantasy football. People will be left waiting for game-day inactives. The other is on gambling. The biggest impact of the injury report is on gambling. The NFL won’t admit it, but that’s what’s going on with the injury report. Removing the probably designation is going to impact this to some degree.