IDP Snap Counts: Week 15
Welcome to championship weekend. It’s been a long season, and if you’re reading this you’ve probably put a load of work in. How gutted would you be to see that go up in smoke just because you didn’t make a move this week that could have won you the game? Don’t make that mistake. You can rest in the off-season.
Arizona Cardinals
I was heavily on the Deone Bucannon bandwagon over Josh Bynes at LB. Bucannon played 48 snaps and Bynes 31, so no one really won. Karlos Dansby (12) and Scooby Wright (10) also got some time. It appears the Cards are already in experimentation mode.
Atlanta Falcons
Week 15 was almost a clone of week 14 in terms of playing time, with very few differences. One big change was Duke Riley playing ten snaps. It was the first time he’d managed that since week six. Hopefully he can get some playing time in before the end of the season.
Baltimore Ravens
Bear in mind the Ravens played a lot less this week because their week 14 game was very high-volume.
The major weekly change was the return at OLB for Za’Darius Smith. He played 49 snaps, with Tim Williams missing out entirely and Tyus Bowser seeing just 13 snaps.
Buffalo Bills
A lot was made of Matt Milano now being a “starter” at weak side linebacker. He has started for the last two games, but this is game about matchups. Milano is still not an every-down player. The only LB who is in Buffalo is Preston Brown, who’s seen over 70 snaps in his last two games. During the same period Milano has played 51 snaps in each game.
Ramon Humber, who was supposedly dropped, has played 20 and 24 snaps. Humber is in on obvious running downs. Milano has played obvious passing downs for most of the season anyway. All that’s happened is that Milano has picked up the plays in the middle from Humber. It’s encouraging, but he’s still a part-time player when compared to his peers across the league.
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Carolina Panthers
Shaq Thompson missed out again through injury. In his absence, Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis both saw 70 snaps. But with Davis potentially facing a suspension, either Shaq will return or David Mayo will step into a significant role. Mayo is a potential pickup for week 17 if you’re in dire straits.
Chicago Bears
Every week at the moment I’m talking about a new Bears safety. Chris Prosinski got concussed early in this game and played just four snaps. With Adrian Amos and Quintin Demps already hurt, Deon Bush stepped in to play 59 snaps. If Prosinski can’t return then Bush becomes intriguing. You have to believe that even the Browns are smart enough to target a fourth-string strong safety in the weekly game plan.
Cincinnati Bengals
With Vontaze Burfict missing out again alongside Kevin Minter and Nick Vigil, the Bengals are down to the bare bones. That doesn’t matter much as it seems they’ve already checked out mentally anyway – but they’ve still got to play which means someone is getting the numbers. It was Vincent Rey (54) and Jordan Evans (55) this week with Hardy Nickerson (35) getting limited time.
Cleveland Browns
Jabrill Peppers returned this week from injury to play 75 snaps. It’s great he was on the field, but really it just reiterated what a huge disappointment he’s been this season. I fully understand that Gregg Williams has forgotten more about football than I’ll ever know but it sure seems a waste of flexibility and a wide skillset for Peppers to simply line up 20 yards deep every snap. If he was being a difference-maker at free safety then I could see it – but he isn’t. So disappointing.
Dallas Cowboys
Something weird has happened here. For the last three weeks straight, Byron Jones (135) has been out-snapped by both Jeff Heath (202) and Xavier Woods (163). Not just as a total, but within each game too. Jones has draft pedigree, a reputation and a famous name but he’s not played up to it this season. Part of that is because the Cowboys have used him a bit more predictably. His dual deep safety/TE-specialist role has been greatly normalised since 2016. He was always overrated as an IDP because of his fame anyway, but he’s a scary asset to own right now.
Denver Broncos
Justin Simmons was out at safety with an injury, so Will Parks played 48 snaps. I like Parks but he’s not being reliably used by the Broncos.
On the line, Domata Peko returned and played 26 snaps at tackle. He’s been surprisingly excellent this season but has very little value going forward.
Detroit Lions
Jarrad Davis played just 41 snaps at LB this week. He put up five solos and an assist though and looked really good. It’s disheartening that he’s not been better and Tahir Whitehead has had the plum job recently, but Davis is going to be much better in 2018. He’s a good target in the off-season (at the right price).
Green Bay Packers
LB Jake Ryan annoyingly missed this week. He’d been averaging 46 snaps over the last month. In his absence, Joe Thomas stepped up to play 59 snaps. He’d played only 48 over the season prior to this game.
Safety has settled down a bit. Morgan Burnett is predominantly playing in the slot, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix deep and Josh Jones the more traditional strong safety. But there’s a lot of movement and adjustments. Last week they all played over 70 snaps.
Houston Texans
Brian Cushing played 43 snaps this week. 24 of those were on the edge. He’s very much playing a base-only Sam role right now and there’s no reason to expect that will change. He’s droppable.
Indianapolis Colts
Kenny Moore and Quincy Wilson continue to start at corner with 74 and 79 snaps respectively. They both had productive weeks and are good IDP options given how opposing teams are targeting them.
Clayton Geathers had his biggest week since returning from injury with 30 snaps this week. That produced just a solo and an assist though. I see no reason to carry him right now.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Telvin Smith returned from injury to play 51 snaps. He’s fine. Paul Posluszny played just 22 snaps correspondingly. It was fun while it lasted.
At DT, Marcell Dareus played 36 snaps. Since he arrived from the Bills, he’s managed 200 total snaps in seven games: 29 snaps per game. He’s got a lot of love for a low-volume game.
Kansas City Chiefs
Marcus Peters returned from suspension to play 64 snaps. Three solo tackles and two interceptions capped a seriously impressive game from him although worryingly he has only eight PDs for the season. In 2015, he had 26. In 2016 he had 20.
Derrick Johnson played just 43 snaps at LB. The team seem to have decided that’s about the level he can play and still be productive. Reggie Ragland played 34.
Los Angeles Chargers
Denzel Perryman took a knock and played just 23 snaps. Jatavis Brown (who?) stepped in to play 33, his highest since week ten. Adrian Phillips played 52 snaps, 43 of which were at LB. Lots of people are asking about Brown being playable in week 16 championship games, but I’m pretty skeptical. The possibility of him not playing much is just too big a risk for a title game.
Los Angeles Rams
Aaron Donald played 39 snaps this week. The week before he managed 81. And somehow, he smashed his personal stats. Sometimes volume isn’t the only consideration!
Mark Barron managed just three snaps, and in his absence at LB Cory Littleton stepped up to play 54.
Miami Dolphins
Andre Branch missed out this week at DE. In his absence, Charles Harris (43) played an additional 21 snaps over his week 14 total. I projected him for four sacks as a rookie but he’s only had one so far. Likewise, I had Andre Branch down for just two sacks, but he’s had four already. Estimating total production in IDP isn’t that tough – it’s being able to figure out the hierarchy of how teams rank individual players that’s tough.
At LB, Kiko Alonso played 63 snaps this week to Lawrence Timmons’ 44. Alonso has played over 60 snaps in eight straight games now and ten times this season. Timmons hasn’t manged that number since week ten and has breached it just three times for the season.
Minnesota Vikings
It was a pretty low-volume week for the Vikes given the played a capitulating Bengals team who couldn’t sustain drives.
The Vikings also took the opportunity to rest some players with Andrew Sendejo and Harrison Smith playing just 41 snaps each at safety. Anthony Harris and Jayron Kearse came in for 14 snaps each as replacements.
Similarly at LB, Anthony Barr and Erick Kendricks both played just 41 snaps as well. Kentrell Brothers (9) and Emmanuel Lamur (14) were the replacements.
Mike Zimmer has done this a few times now. It’s something to think about for us IDP players.
New England Patriots
Eric Rowe played 54 snaps at corner – by far his highest total of the season so far. Jonathan Jones made way with just one snap on the day.
Trey Flowers returned at DE with 64 snaps. He’s still 13th in DE snaps after having missed two games. Eric Lee and Adam Butler both lost out on playing time as a result.
At LB, Elandon Roberts solidified his hold on the key spot in the middle with 53 snaps.
New Orleans Saints
Manti Te’o managed 74 snaps this week at LB with Craig Robertson on 68. AJ Klein missed the week entirely. Even with that sort of playing time, I don’t really trust Saints LBs. They’re pretty inefficient as a unit.
New York Jets
Muhammad Wilkerson missed this week entirely, because he’s an idiot. The team compensated by giving tackle Xavier Cooper a bit more playing time outside.
Juston Burris returned at slot corner to play 40 snaps at the expense of Darryl Roberts.
New York Giants
Eli Apple played at corner for the first time in five weeks. He managed 60 snaps.
Kelvin Sheppard has led the team in LB snaps for the last four weeks now. But given he’s only played 262 total snaps for the season I find it tough to put any faith in him.
Landon Collins managed just 18 snaps at safety. In his absence Andrew Adams played 50.
Oakland Raiders
Jihad Ward played 33 snaps this week in his first action since week four. He was moved around the line in different spots.
Nicholas Morrow managed 45 snaps at LB. That’s four weeks in a row he’s played over 40 now. He’s a very average player.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles defense played a ton this week with 88 snaps (as a comparison, last week they played just 48). As a result we saw some huge totals. Six separate Eagles managed eight or more total tackles.
Pittsburgh Steelers
In an enthralling game against the Patriots, the Steelers were fairly predictable in personnel usage. Sean Spence played 45 snaps at linebacker (the same as Vince Williams) and Coty Sensabaugh’s absence at corner made way for Cameron Sutton to play 57 snaps.
Seattle Seahawks
KJ Wright missed out and Bobby Wagner was only fit enough to play 48 LB snaps. The top guy was Terence Garvin who played 68 snaps.
Also surprising was Dion Jordan who managed 20 snaps at DE.
Lastly, Jeremy Lane returned after a week out to play 35 corner snaps.
San Francisco 49ers
Reuben Foster played 62 snaps this week. He’s played over 60 snaps in five of the 49ers last six games now. The sole exception was week 13 when the team only played 37 defensive snaps against the Bears. Foster is an incendiary player in my eyes.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Bucs best two defenders (Gerald McCoy and Lavonte David) both missed out this week. In their absence, Clinton McDonald played 54 snaps at tackle and Adarius Glanton 43 at LB. However Glanton got hurt and is now on IR.
Tennessee Titans
Logan Ryan took a knock this week and saw just 24 snaps at corner. LeShaun Sims stepped up to 47 to cover him. Ryan has 50 solo tackles this season in 14 games compared to 73 in 16 games last season as a Patriot.
Washington Redskins
This was a huge total too with the team playing 85 defensive snaps.
Zach Vigil managed 85 snaps which was second best for the week amongst all LBs. Ryan Kerrigan saw 65 snaps which is elite for a pass rusher like him. DJ Swearinger managed 85 snaps at safety.
Good luck to you all if you’re still challenging this week. This is probably the last of these columns for the season but I’ll be putting out a ton of articles comparing volume to productivity all through the off-season. Hopefully this series has been helpful to you across the season. Thanks for reading.
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