Landon Johnson
's turn as starting weak-side linebacker only lasted two games. (PHOTO: ANDREW MASON / PANTHERS.COM)
CHARLOTTE -- In what has become a weekly ritual this month, the Panthers placed another player on injured reserve Tuesday.
This time it was linebacker Landon Johnson, whose season ended with a right knee injury suffered in the second half of the 24-17 loss to Miami last Thursday. Johnson had been making his second consecutive start at weakside linebacker in place of Thomas Davis, who was lost to a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered at New Orleans 11 days earlier.
Johnson becomes the eighth Panther to be placed on injured reserve this year and the third this month, along with Davis and left tackle Jordan Gross, who fractured two bones in his leg in the second quarter of the 28-19 win over Atlanta on Nov. 15.
The eight players on injured reserve is three more than the tally at the end of the 2008 season, when Carolina finished 12-4. Only one of the five players on last year's injured reserve list was a starter: guard Keydrick Vincent, who missed the final three games of the regular season.
This year, the Panthers have already lost five players who were on the first team when they were injured, starting with defensive tackle Maake Kemoeatu, who missed the entire season with a torn Achilles tendon suffered in the first drill of the opening training-camp practice.
Kemoeatu, defensive tackle Louis Leonard, Davis, Gross and Johnson are guaranteed to miss 52 games between them this year, including the one that Davis missed because of a hamstring injury in Week 7. Five other first-teamers still on the 53-man roster have combined to miss 15 games due to injuries.
That adds up to a minimum of 67 man-games that will be lost by Panthers first-teamers to injuries this year -- 50 more than the tally in 2008, when no member of the Panthers' No. 1 unit missed more than four games.
Johnson was replaced in the Panthers' lineup last Thursday by James Anderson, who also saw limited work at weakside linebacker in relief of Davis last season. Linebacker Na'il Diggs later succumbed to a rib injury, leaving the Panthers with a pair of outside linebackers -- Anderson and Dan Connor -- who have a combined four career starts between them. All of those starts belong to Anderson, including one at strongside linebacker against Dallas in Week 3.
TO REPLACE JOHNSON ON THE 53-MAN ROSTER, the Panthers signed linebacker Jordan Senn, a second-year player most recently with the Indianapolis Colts. Senn was primarily a special-teams contributor in 15 games in 2008 and two this year for the Colts; he logged 16 tackles on kickoff and punt coverage last year and played this season against Arizona and Seattle before being released.
The Portland State product saw action at linebacker in two games with Indianapolis last year, logging three tackles against Cincinnati on Dec. 7 of last year and two stops against Tennessee three weeks later.
