As the season starts Jet fans are all excited to see Breece Hall suite up again especially in their new high powered offense.  Breece started off last year on a tear before his ACL injury in midseason.  As he returns to the field what are the chances that he will return back to his same level of play.  There are several ACL studies recently published looking at NFL players and specifically running backs to look at their ability to return to the same level of play.   

In a study in the Orthopedic Journal of Sports Medicine by Manoharan, et al in 2021, they looked at return to play rates in NFL wide receivers and running backs after ACL reconstruction. Overall, 61.8% of players (64.5% of RBs, 60% of WRs) returned to play at a mean of 13.6 months.  In another study published in the journal of Arthroscopy Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation in 2021 by Burgess, et al., they looked at fantasy football points for running backs before and after ACL reconstruction.  There was a statistically significant decrease in career fantasy football performance of running backs post-ACL reconstruction compared with matched control groups (129.6 vs 553.6). There was also a statistically significant decrease in per game fantasy football points post-ACL reconstruction (4.4 vs 11.2).  Furthermore, when looking at RBs compared to QBs and WRs, RBs had the largest decline in production each season over a 3-year period following acl reconstruction compared to QBs and WRs.  Lastly, in a study published in 2022 in the Orthopedic Journal of Sports Medicine by Mody, et al., they looked at performance using a novel scoring system of points called AV’s.  Running backs had the largest decrease in AV (90.5%), followed by defensive linemen (76.2%) and linebackers (62.5%). 

So, overall, running backs fair the worst after ACL reconstruction.  That said, Breece Hall is young and his rehabilitation has reportedly went well.  Hopefully he bucks the trend and returns to his former level.