Titans Bye Week Snap Report: Offense

I've been posting the snap count reports weekly after each game, and now that we're at the bye week, I thought it would be useful to take a broader look at the trends for each position. I've tried to incorporate these into my analysis of each game but think it would be useful to put what we've seen so far in a convenient place. Let's do this position by position. I'll cover the offense in this post and have a post on the defense up tomorrow.

Quarterback

As you see, in addition to the raw number of snaps, I've included a percentage to give you a better idea of just how much the player played. "i" means the player was inactive for the game. "x" indicates the player was not on the roster (no quarterbacks have been added or dropped from the roster, but it'll show up in future charts).

There's not much to say here. Aside from a few snaps for the backup in garbage time, the top available healthy quarterback has played. Quarterback doesn't see much rotation, so that's no surprise.

Running Back/Fullback

I referenced this in my latest snap report, but Chris Johnson plays 50 snaps a game, more or less. He played very slightly fewer in the Bills game and more in the Steelers game. My guess, and of course it's just that, is the Titans were kind of stuck playing CJ as much as they did that game because of Javon Ringer's injury and the lack of another back they could trust in pass protection. CJ's far from perfect there in his own right, which may have had something to do with why the Titans ran a lot of max-protect that game.

Remember all the Darius Reynaud hype? Yeah, that lasted a long time. Until Marc Mariani got hurt, I kept trying to leave him off my roster projections.

This chart I think makes clear the trend we're seeing with Quinn Johnson and what I think of as Craig Stevens Offense personnel. Virtually invisible early in the season, we started seeing him more in the Steelers game, and it's more or less kept up since then.

Tight End

Your "what if" of the 2012 Tennessee Titans season may (or may not) be Jared Cook's injury late in the first half against the Detroit Lions. Until that time, Jared Cook was playing an overwhelming amount of time, something like 85% of all snaps. Since then, he's failed to come close to that mark in any single game. Yes, there was a quarterback injury, but even with Locker's return to the lineup Cook put up a while-healthy season-low snap number. Do the Titans make the same sort of philosophical and personnel commitment to the run game if Cook never gets hurt? Probably, but we'll never know for certain.

With the fall in Cook's fortunes has come a concomitant rise in Craig Stevens' ability to get on the field. Heck, he's even had the ball thrown his direction at least twice every game since the first two where he hardly got on the field. Meanwhile, we'll see just how much the Titans do with Taylor Thompson going forward. Was Sunday's more extensive playing time a one-time anomaly or the sign of a more persistent trend, that when the Titans have run game personnel on the field, he'll be a part of it. Something to keep an eye on.

Wide Receiver

Your wide receiver pecking order is relatively clear. Nate Washington plays the most. Kenny Britt plays as much as he can. Kendall Wright is next in line, though the difference between him and Damian Williams isn't that large. Lavelle Hawkins gets table scraps, maybe. The writing on the wall became absolutely clear, if it wasn't already, for Hawkins in that Week 2 game against San Diego. Washington and Britt were both banged up and didn't really practice. It showed in their play on the field, but Hawkins still didn't get in the game on offense.

It doesn't show up in this table, but one thing that kind of surprised me is just how often Damian Williams has been on the field in 22 personnel, when the Titans have had two running backs and two tight ends on the field. Last year, that tended to be Marc Mariani's role, though Williams did play there some. This year, I expected it to be Britt's role. That can be a very effective shot play personnel grouping, as the Green Bay Packers last year, for one, showed to great effect, and Britt is really the only Titans receiver who could pose a real threat in that scenario.

Anecdotally, I think the games where Wright has played more than Williams have come when the Titans had a full complement of wide receivers and have played more 3-wide receiver sets.

Offensive Line

This table would be a complete mess, so I'm not going to bother even creating it. Thankfully, it's pretty easy to separate the offensive linemen into tiers.

First, the starters:
1. Leroy Harris. Sat the final 15 snaps of Week 1 to rest his back, but otherwise played every snap until suffering an injury on the 11th play of the Week 8 game. Now on Injured Reserve.
2. Steve Hutchinson. Sat the final 10 plays in Week 4 against the Texans and the final 11 plays Week 10 against the Dolphins, but has otherwise played every snap.
3. Michael Roos. Sat out the pseudo-fake punt (counted by the NFL as an offensive play) against the Vikings and of course missed the Week 8 game against the Colts with an appendectomy, but has otherwise played every play.
4. David Stewart. Sat out one play against the Colts after being shaken up and joined Hutch on the bench for the final 11 plays of Week 10 against the Dolphins, but has otherwise played every snap.
5. Fernando Velasco. Sat out the fake punt against the Vikings, since he's not the long-snapper, and missed one play against the Dolphins in Week 10 with an injury, but has played every other play.

Next, the fill-ins:
1. Deuce Lutui. Wasn't signed to the active roster until after Week 1, then was inactive for the next seven games, before stepping into the lineup Week 9 as Leroy Harris's replacement at right guard. Has played every snap the last two games.
2. Kevin Matthews. Played 15 snaps for Hutch in Week 1, 10 in Week 4, and 11 in Week 10. Played 48 snaps for Leroy Harris after he was injured against the Colts. Also played 1 snap at center in Week 10 when Velasco went out.
3. Mike Otto. Inactive for the first six games as he recovered from his injury, he played every snap Week 8 for Michael Roos and played the final 11 snaps in Week 10 against the Dolphins when Stewart left the game.

Finally, the extras:
1. Kyle DeVan: Cut in training camp and signed to the active roster when Harris went on IR. He was inactive for Week 10.
2. Troy Kropog. Active for the Week 1 game, he didn't see the field on offense and was released that week.
3. Byron Stingily. He's been active six times, but has only seen the field on offense once, when Stewart went out for a play Week 8 against the Colts. Don't expect to see him on the field.