Study: Nearly every NFL player wore a recommended helmet in 2019

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The number of NFL players wearing recommended helmets continues to grow.

Nearly every player in the league (99.5%) wore a helmet the NFL recommended in its latest report, according to ESPN's Kevin Seifert. That's a significant increase from 74% in 2018 and about 41% in 2017.

Last year, 0.5% of players wore helmets that were not recommended but also not banned.

The results are part of a three-year project the NFL and NFLPA launched to push players toward better-performing helmets and ban them from using poor and outdated models. The 2020 report was distributed to NFL owners this month.

Wide receiver Antonio Brown's request for an exception to wear an outdated helmet was denied prior to the beginning of the 2019 season. He eventually moved on to an allowed helmet.

The project also aims to reduce reported concussions.

"There was a lot of skepticism when we started this that helmets could significantly reduce concussions," said Dr. Jeff Crandall, chairman of the NFL's engineering committee. "We've looked at player migration into better-performing helmets, and what we've seen is that the laboratory performance has been supported on the field."

A total of 224 concussions were reported in 2019, a slight increase from 214 in 2018. However, last season's mark was still significantly better than the league record 281 concussions in 2017.

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