Injuries are an unavoidable part of playing professional football. You can't go into an NFL season saying, "If we can avoid injuries, look what we can accomplish." You need to ask, "When the injuries come, what will we accomplish?"
Some teams go into the season with this fact in mind. They spend their offseason building not only a strong starting lineup, but also a strong depth chart behind it. They know that they can withstand injuries across the roster -- sometimes even at quarterback -- and still compete on Sundays.
Below, I've taken a look at the deepest and thinnest rosters in the NFL. We're looking here for backups who are strong veterans with recent starting experience or high draft picks with lots of future promise. I didn't create a formula to identify the deepest and thinnest rosters in the NFL. I simply looked at each roster and tried to judge where teams stood on the spectrum between a roster that can withstand a lot of injuries and a roster that is in real trouble if even lesser starters get injured.
I'll note that identifying the thinnest rosters is harder than identifying the deepest rosters. Even teams with thin rosters have some positions with backups who are promising young players or capable veterans.
With that said, let's get started with the five deepest rosters.
