clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Colts vs Bengals: Week one snap counts

By Chris Blystone
Cincinnati Bengals v Indianapolis Colts Photo by Bobby Ellis/Getty Images

The tendency after the first week of the regular season is to overreact about everything. There is nothing wrong with drawing conclusions from the first week of the season, but ultimately we have to keep things in perspective.

The same is true for examining the snap counts. Now that we’re into the regular season, they can tell us a lot more than they did in the preseason. However, we have to take things with a grain of salt and understand that there will be changes that impact things going forward. Let’s take a look at the snap counts and see if there is anything interesting to be learned.

Offense

# Player Position Offensive Snaps Percent Defensive Snaps Percent Special Teams Snaps Percent
# Player Position Offensive Snaps Percent Defensive Snaps Percent Special Teams Snaps Percent
12 Andrew Luck QB 82 100 6 21
56 Quenton Nelson G/C 82 100 6 21
68 Matt Slauson C/G 82 100 6 21
73 Joe Haeg T/G 82 100 6 21
78 Ryan Kelly C 82 100 6 21
61 J'Marcus Webb T 81 99
13 T.Y. Hilton WR 80 98
84 Jack Doyle TE 77 94 7 24
11 Ryan Grant WR 65 79
80 Chester Rogers WR 47 57 2 7
20 Jordan Wilkins RB 46 56 7 24
21 Nyheim Hines RB 37 45
85 Eric Ebron TE 37 45
14 Zach Pascal WR 10 12 15 52
86 Erik Swoope TE 5 6 15 52
72 Braden Smith G/T 4 5
38 Christine Michael RB 3 4
7 Jacoby Brissett QB
25 Marlon Mack RB
33 Robert Turbin RB
45 Ryan Hewitt TE
62 Le'Raven Clark G/T
67 Jeremy Vujnovich G
71 Denzelle Good T/G
74 Anthony Castonzo T

Notes

  • The first thing that jumps out to me here is the continuity across the offensive line. They were able to keep these guys on the field for every offensive snap, save the one J’Marcus Webb missed. That is unusual in itself, but whoever is freed up when Castonzo returns, it looks like they’ll have 6 guys they trust to play significant snaps.
  • Ryan Grant is the clear number 2 receiver. He played 18 more offensive snaps than Chester Rogers, and looked solid doing it. On the offensive side, Reich does everything he does to create matchup problems, so it will be interesting to see if this is flexible week-to-week depending on the defenses they face.
  • For that one guy who keeps trying to convince everyone that Christine Michael is going to light up this roster, this pretty clearly illustrates what the coaching staff thinks of him. On a day where the team was missing Marlon Mack, he got just 3 snaps.
  • Jack Doyle was in on 77 snaps, which seems like a lot because he was somewhat invisible early. That isn’t totally shocking because the tight ends were needed to help aid the offensive line against a solid pass rush. Still, it surprised me, because I expected to see that he had slightly lower numbers.

Defense

# Player Position Offensive Snaps Percent Defensive Snaps Percent Special Teams Snaps Percent
# Player Position Offensive Snaps Percent Defensive Snaps Percent Special Teams Snaps Percent
26 Clayton Geathers S 55 100 9 31
53 Darius Leonard LB 55 100
23 Kenny Moore II CB 54 98 14 48
27 Nate Hairston CB 54 98 1 3
92 Margus Hunt DT 42 76 13 45
29 Malik Hooker S 40 73
95 Denico Autry DT/DE 40 73 7 24
93 Jabaal Sheard DE 39 71 7 24
31 Quincy Wilson CB 39 71
99 Al Woods DT 27 41 6 21
48 Skai Moore LB 26 47
41 Matthias Farley S 23 42 22 76
50 Anthony Walker LB 23 42 16 55
90 Grover Stewart DT 22 40 12 41
57 Kemoko Turay DE 22 40 2 7
97 Al-Quadin Muhammad DE 19 35
44 Zaire Franklin LB 9 16 10 34
58 Tarell Basham DE 9 16 13 45
52 Najee Goode LB 7 13 22 76
30 George Odum S 21 72
36 Corey Moore S 14 48
49 Matthew Adams LB 17 59
94 Tyquan Lewis DT/DE
91 Hassan Ridgeway DT
28 Chris Milton CB 12 41
35 Pierre Desir CB 9 31

Notes

  • If Clayton Geathers had been experiencing any lingering issues with injury, those are gone. He was in on every defensive snap, and 9 on special teams. Only Kenny Moore was on the field more for the defense.
  • Malik Hooker was in on 40 snaps, which can’t really be thought of as a “pitch count” because it is a pretty significant workload. However, when you have a guy as talented as Matthias Farley backing him up, it doesn’t bother them to give Hooker a break.
  • Najee Goode surprisingly saw just 7 defensive snaps. When bemoaning any play of the linebackers, remember this: the three linebackers who got the majority of the snaps in this game entered the game with a combined 10 games of NFL experience. This is a young group with a ton of potential.
  • Pierre Desir had no snaps on defense. That might be the most surprising find of all for me, personally. He had just 9 special teams snaps to his credit, even with Quincy Wilson in a club/cast.

Special Teams

# Player Position Offensive Snaps Percent Defensive Snaps Percent Special Teams Snaps Percent
# Player Position Offensive Snaps Percent Defensive Snaps Percent Special Teams Snaps Percent
2 Rigoberto Sanchez P 14 48
4 Adam Vinatieri K 6 21
46 Luke Rhodes LS 8 28

In This Stream

Indianapolis Colts vs Cincinnati Bengals: 2018 Week One Game Hub

View all 25 stories

More From Stampede Blue