The Arizona Cardinals were a disaster in 2025. Originally thought to be a sleeper contender by some preseason prognosticators, the Cardinals instead crashed out at 3-14 to finish way, way back at the bottom of the NFC West. The Cardinals plan on either trading or cutting quarterback Kyler Murray this offseason, setting things up for a complete franchise reset. But was the Cardinals’ season really as bad as it looked? There are a couple of important explanations for why things went so bad for Arizona in 2025. First of all, the Cardinals played the hardest schedule in the league based on average DVOA of opponent. That’s what is going to happen when two of your division rivals rank among the top teams in DVOA history. But it gets even worse, because the Cardinals had to play those games with a roster decimated by injury. In fact, the Arizona Cardinals finished 2025 with the second-highest total in the history of my Adjusted Games Lost metric, which measures how often a team’s starters and other important players are missing games or playing at less than 100%. The Cardinals had 179.8 Adjusted Games Lost in 2025, trailing only the 2021 Baltimore Ravens (180.2) for the highest total I have ever measured.

Highest Season AGL, 2001-2025
Year	Team	AGL	W-L
2021	BAL*	180.2	8-9
2025	ARI	179.8	3-14
2016	CHI	171.5	3-13
2020	SF*	161.6	6-10
2019	NYJ	160.1	7-9
2023	HOU	157.9	10-7
2015	NYG	152.0	6-10
2022	DEN	148.6	5-12
2021	NYJ*	147.5	4-13
2022	LAR	146.6	5-12
2024	SF	141.2	6-11
2013	NYG	140.5	7-9
*Does not include COVID.

Adjusted Games Lost totals have been higher in recent seasons, especially with the move to the 17-game season. The biggest issue for Arizona was injuries in the secondary. There is some subjectivity here to which players are and are not counted, and for which weeks they are counted. Slightly different decisions from me while putting the data together could result in the Cardinals being No. 1 all-time or being a little bit more behind the 2021 Ravens, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Cardinals lost a lot of defensive backs in 2025. It started when Sean Murphy-Bunting was injured, reportedly in an offseason softball game. Starling Thomas V, who had started 15 games in 2024, missed the entire season with a torn ACL. Rookie Will Johnson had groin, thumb, and back injuries. Max Melton had a heel injury and a concussion. Nickelback Garrett Williams was on the IR with a knee injury and then tore his Achilles later in the season. The top three safeties also missed games. The Cardinals also led the NFL in Adjusted Games Lost at running back and missed a significant number of games at offensive line, defensive line, and wide receiver. No other team came close to the Cardinals in AGL for 2025, as the gap between Arizona and No. 31 Detroit was larger than the gap between Detroit and No. 19 New Orleans. Other teams that suffered a high number of injuries, besides Arizona and Detroit, included Washington, Miami and San Francisco. Only three of the top 10 teams in AGL made the playoffs: the 49ers, Chargers and Texans. On the other side of the docket, seven of the 10 teams with the lowest AGL totals made the playoffs, led by the New England Patriots. The opposite of the Cardinals, the Patriots had the exact opposite record (14-3) with the fewest AGL and the easiest schedule. However, the Patriots’ AGL wasn’t even close to historically low. Three teams in 2024 had lower AGL than the Patriots had in 2025. Other teams that were low in AGL included the Eagles, the World Champion Seahawks, and, believe it or not, the Kansas City Chiefs. Obviously, the Chiefs lost Patrick Mahomes at the end of the year, but they didn’t have that many injuries in the first three months of the season. There are a number of reasons why the Chiefs’ saw their win-loss record collapse in 2025, but injuries are not to blame until you get to December. Speaking of late in the season, I should note here that AGL is only measuring the regular season. So, for example, Bo Nix missing the AFC Championship Game doesn’t count for the Broncos, and George Kittle’s torn Achilles does not count for the 49ers. This year produced a new problem: Travis Hunter. Is Hunter a defensive back or a wide receiver? He played both positions enough to matter for AGL, so as far as I’m concerned he counts as both. I double-counted the 10 games that Hunter missed. This was enough to move the Jaguars from third to seventh in fewest AGL. Just as we did on our old website, I’ve continued to collect data from the NFL’s weekly injury reports (with the help of Zach Binney from Emory University) and transformed it into Adjusted Games Lost. We also have the data going backwards, covering the entire 21st century. Adjusted Game Lost doesn’t just add up total injuries. It accounts for both absent players and those playing at less than 100%, and it specifically measures injuries to expected starters and important situational players rather than little-used 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. Here we go with the numbers. Hopefully this isn’t confusing, but ranks go from best (1, fewest injuries) to worst (32, most injuries). That’s why the Cardinals are listed as No. 32 but they are on top of the table.

2025 Adjusted Games Lost
Team	OFF	RK	DEF	RK	TOT	RK	2024	RK
ARI	101.7	32	78.1	31	179.8	32	104.7	26
DET	37.6	15	92.7	32	130.3	31	96.6	25
WAS	71.0	30	53.4	27	124.4	30	45.5	5
MIA	71.4	31	45.9	20	117.3	29	111.0	28
SF	60.2	27	54.8	28	115.0	28	141.2	32
LAC	56.3	25	49.9	23	106.2	27	64.2	10
CLE	56.2	24	48.2	21	104.4	26	106.6	27
HOU	65.9	28	35.4	15	101.3	25	88.9	21
TB	70.6	29	25.5	8	96.1	24	75.8	17
NYG	43.8	19	51.3	24	95.0	23	70.3	13
NYJ	49.2	22	43.9	18	93.1	22	84.9	20
CAR	59.1	26	33.3	14	92.4	21	115.0	30
ATL	33.4	12	53.1	25	86.4	20	44.2	4
NO	54.4	23	28.9	12	83.2	19	114.6	29
BAL	15.6	4	63.1	30	78.7	18	16.3	1
CHI	21.7	8	53.2	26	74.9	17	40.3	3
Team	OFF	RK	DEF	RK	TOT	RK	2024	RK
CIN	48.0	20	26.4	10	74.4	16	71.6	15
GB	48.3	21	24.6	6	72.9	15	46.1	7
DAL	23.4	9	49.1	22	72.5	14	84.7	19
BUF	11.0	1	61.4	29	72.4	13	56.1	8
IND	20.4	7	45.5	19	65.9	12	89.8	22
TEN	24.0	10	38.8	16	62.8	11	69.8	12
LAR	36.1	14	26.1	9	62.2	10	90.8	23
MIN	38.6	17	22.8	4	61.4	9	65.3	11
DEN	40.3	18	20.3	3	60.6	8	45.9	6
JAX	29.7	11	24.9	7	54.7	7	57.3	9
PIT	13.2	2	40.1	17	53.3	6	76.9	18
LV	35.6	13	15.6	2	51.3	5	118.8	31
KC	38.3	16	11.2	1	49.4	4	70.4	14
SEA	15.5	3	31.4	13	46.9	3	72.4	16
PHI	16.1	5	27.9	11	44.0	2	33.7	2
NE	19.4	6	24.0	5	43.5	1	93.2	24

Two years ago, the Detroit Lions ranked among the top teams in history in terms of AGL on defense. Well, last year it got even worse, as the Lions ended the season with 92.7 AGL on defense. That’s the second-highest total ever measured behind only the 2021 Jets. Here’s a look at the worst defensive AGL totals. Unlike the table above, this one includes COVID absences for 2020 and 2021, although the 2021 Jets would still be No. 1 even without considering COVID.

Worst Defensive AGL, 2001-2025
Year	Team	AGL	W-L
2021	NYJ	101.3	4-13
2025	DET	92.7	9-8
2018	TB	91.4	5-11
2021	BAL	88.0	8-9
2020	SF	87.9	6-10
2016	CHI	87.5	3-13
2024	DET	86.5	15-2
2022	TEN	85.6	7-10
2015	NYG	85.6	6-10
2019	NYJ	83.7	7-9
2024	LV	79.1	4-13
2025	ARI	78.1	3-14

It’s remarkable that the Lions of the last two seasons are the only teams on this list with winning records. Tomorrow, we’ll look at which teams struggled the most with AGL at each position group in 2025.