Bengals Injury Story in 2008 Brings Hope for 2009

by Mike Boyd on Mar 10, 2009 5:03 PM EDT in Analysis Comment 17 comments

In terms of geek stats, Football Outsiders can't be beat. The site now evaluates how teams' performance was affected by injuries in 2008. The good news is that the Bengals' poor performance had a lot to do with injury. The analysis shows that they were the team most impacted by injury in 2008.

"Adjusted Games Lost" or "AGL" uses the injury report, the status and relevance of a player to his team, and historical data regarding how likely a given player is to play to produce a measure of how dramatically a team is affected by injury. A team's shift in AGL from year-to-year bears a significant correlation with changes in their win-loss record.

Other teams that were most affected by injury were St. Louis, Baltimore and Detroit.

This should give us hope. The Bengals were bad last year, but injuries had a lot to do with it.

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Here’s a vote for bringing in the just released Orlando Pace for a year.

by IgnatiusJReilly on Mar 10, 2009 6:09 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I vote bring him!! We saw how great Willie Anderson did when he went to the Ravens! It definitely couldnt hurt!

by Badmofo on Mar 10, 2009 6:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

Bring in pace opens up a lot of draft possibilities, especially if we get Tupou in the third or fourth round as well. Plus Pace was an absolute beast at OSU

by CincyMike56 on Mar 10, 2009 10:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

No way we even consider it, would be a horrible move.

by Tommyboy45 on Mar 11, 2009 4:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Baltimore was one of the teams most affected by injury?

The same Baltimore that went to the AFC Championship game? Holy crap! How good will they be next year if injuries don’t hinder them like last year?

by JohnnyK on Mar 10, 2009 6:59 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Enough Said

by Diesel2405 on Mar 10, 2009 9:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Mike Brown couldn’t have said it any better. It’s been injuries all along!….for 18 years.

2 things:
1. We were awful early season before Carson and the other injuries hit.
2. Maybe razor thin depth year after year isn’t a good thing.

by bodacio on Mar 10, 2009 7:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Great points, especially on razor thin depth.

by Mike Boyd on Mar 10, 2009 8:19 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I realise we're invisible

But not warranting a mention in that article seemed a bit harsh given they did a positional breakdown, rather than team.

Anyway thanks for the link, bookmarked the site for future research.

by Squizza on Mar 10, 2009 10:51 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Injuries, huh?

I agree with Bodacio…

I’d like to know how many of those guys that were on IR were able to…and would rather have played had they had a say in the matter.

I happen to think, especially late in the season, that most of those players were put on IR so Brown and the Bengals could whine and use injuries as an excuse for their poor season. What a perfect excuse.

You all certainly bought it.

by JohnCockToastin on Mar 11, 2009 9:22 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Perhaps. Carson and Rivers should count as weighted injuries.

by Mike Boyd on Mar 11, 2009 10:09 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

RE:

I don’t know about that. Brown is cheap, and by all means incompetent to put together a winner. But this level of deception?

Blogger at CincyJungle.com -- SB Nation Cincinnati Bengals blog.

by Kirkendall on Mar 11, 2009 10:35 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You really think an owner would put players on IR just so they could claim the injury bug was to blame? What a joke! The season was done, time for management ot get a look at younger guys and protect players from further injury, it isn’t rocket science.

by Tommyboy45 on Mar 11, 2009 4:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

If you look back at the last 4 years, we have had significantly more injuries then the average NFL team.
This could be though of as an excuse for our poor results, but if something happens year after year, maybe its not bad luck, but a poor medical staff.
I think it has been our inability to keep our players on the field, more than our talent evaluation that has killed the Bengals.

It also could be the general poor morale, and questionable character players that make up the team that has lead players not being totally fit to avoid injuries, and made players unwilling to go the extra mile* when a manageable injuries occurs to rehab it to get back on the field.

**or it could be that maybe our medical staff does ‘help’ our players with steroids, when most other teams do

by R.F. Mehl on Mar 11, 2009 10:46 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

In order to keep the guys on the field, maybe the Bengals need more investment in their conditioning/rehab staff. They have had some of the same guys in place since the 80s.

by Mike Boyd on Mar 11, 2009 10:50 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

I have long been a proponent of re-evaluating the strength/conditioning and medical staffs on this team — can’t help but wonder if some of those injuries could have been prevented.

by TheWalrus1971 on Mar 11, 2009 1:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

More on I.R.

You’re all arguing with me…but you’re saying the same things that I am.

Do the Bengals have an inadequate training/medical staff? …most can and would argue that the answer is an absolute yes.

And yes, do the Bengals perhaps shelve guys on the I.R. so they can look at younger players? YES!! …that’s my point. What better way is there to take a look at younger (and cheaper) talent than to claim an aging veteran is hurt and put him on I.R. so you can begin to start playing and evaluating the players of the next generation? It’s easy to do this when you’re 2-9. It’s also an easy outlet and excuse for your “misfortunes” that you went through during the season.

Look, I understand that guys get hurt and that certainly Palmer and a few other were legitimate injuries…BUT…trust me…I guarantee if you polled all the players that were put on I.R. (especially late in the season) many of them could have and would have wanted to play. Why? Probably because they were able…and more importantly, because they knew that being put on I.R. was the beginning of the process for them being replaced by a more inexpensive player.

Shelving players on the I.R. can be one of the sleeziest aspects of the the game.

by JohnCockToastin on Mar 12, 2009 10:11 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs