Football Outsider's has completed their Adjusted Games Lost metric analysis and it is not pretty for the Panthers. 31st as you can see. Now before you get too down understand that this metric is a reflection of bad luck due to injury. So if I said the Panthers did not do well with this metric would you be surprised? Not me. Here's a refresh on the metric calculation:
To refresh memories, the key ideas underlying AGL are that all players don't affect winning and losing equally, and missing a game isn't the only way a player injury affects winning and losing. Injuries to starters, important situational reserves (e.g., nickel cornerbacks), and injury replacements (i.e., new permanent starters) count towards AGL, whereas injuries to benchwarmers don't. Similarly, injuries that land a player on injured reserve affect AGL more than injuries that force a player to be listed as "questionable," which in turn affect AGL more than injuries that lead to a "probable" game status.
So it essentially accounts for not only the amount of games post to injury but also the importance of the person lost. Losing Jon Beason in week 2 for the Panthers last season was a much bigger loss than losing DT Sione Fua in week 14.
So the only team worse than the Panthers injury-wise in 2011 were the St. Louis Rams. The Panthers 2010 Rank AGL rank was 29th so we are not new to this. Yet before we blame our non-playoff season on injury notice the Patriots made the Super Bowl ranked #30. [the metric is rigged!] lol...
In 2008 the season the Panthers last made the playoffs they went practically injury free most of the season. We lost Dan Conner to a knee injury but otherwise the defense went injury free. We have got to be due for a good season 'injury-wise' [knock on wood]. I don't want to rely on our depth if we don't have to.
Click on over to FO to read the whole piece as it gets into trends such as the fact games lost to injury are rising (surprise!) and why the 'probable' tag means nothing these days.