Bengals’ injury luck compared to rest of NFL is interesting

Cincinnati Bengals fans know all too well the team has had some solid injury luck overall during the last two seasons. 

While some of the injury woes have been very untimely (like missing three offensive line starters in the playoffs), overall, the team is very lucky in this area. Seeing the team’s injury luck compared to other teams around the NFL provides some noteworthy perspective. 

Football Outsiders once again has provided its AGL (Average Games Lost) rankings, which computes how many injuries derailed a team’s season.  

An overview:

For over a decade, Football Outsiders has collected data from the NFL’s weekly injury reports and transformed it into adjusted games lost. We also have the data going backwards, covering the entire 21st century. Adjusted games lost doesn’t just add up total injuries. It accounts for both absent players and those playing at less than 100%, and it gives more weight to injuries to expected starters and situational players than to expected backups. As such, AGL estimates the impact of injuries on teams and provides a comparable total that often succinctly explains why teams improved or declined from one year to the next.

The Bengals finished with the 10th-best AGL at 56.4, meaning they had the 10th-fewest games impacted by injury. 

Disclaimer: Finishing well in this area doesn’t always equate to success. The Pittsburgh Steelers enjoyed the best AGL in the league at 32.0, yet missed the postseason. 

As a whole, this is just one tool when looking at a team’s injury luck and performance. The fact the AGL has remained relatively solid for the last few years at least somewhat speaks well of the team’s ability to prevent and manage issues, too.