After covering the offense earlier in the week, I now turn my attention to the final snap report for the defense. While I posted snap reports weekly during the season after each game, I thought it would be interesting to look at the season totals and try to spot trends (beyond what I highlighted in the weekly reports) over the course of the season.
As I did for the offensive side of the ball, I will go position by position.
Defensive Line
Kind of messy, but here’s a chart.
As in past charts, “i” means the player was inactive, “x” means the player was not on the active roster that gameday. Since the Titans did not make any roster moves on the defensive line all year, there are no “x”s in this chart.
For space reasons, I left off percentages, so here they are:
Jurrell Casey: 79.8% of season total.
Sammie Hill: 48.1% of season total. 54.8% of snaps in active games.
Karl Klug: 27.8% of season total (including defensive snaps only).
Mike Martin: 30.5% of season total. 38.7% of snaps in active games.
Ropati Pitoitua: 34.3% of season total. 46.7% of snaps in active games.
Al Woods: 25.2% of season total
For space reasons, DaQuan Jones is not listed in the chart. He played 137 snaps (12.0% of total), with 53 of those coming in Week 17. In the seven games he was active, he played 28.0% of all defensive snaps; that was 80.3% in Week 17 and 19.9% in the other six games.
The most interesting rotational note here, which I tried to highlight once it became apparent during the season, was the relative fall of Ropati Pitoitua. The Titans thought enough of his week on a one year deal in 2013 to bring him back, and he began the season playing a lot. It seemed like his playing time decline at midseason was mostly the result of his hand injury. Then, Mike Martin played more than he did against the Steelers, he was a healthy inactive against the Eagles, and his time on the field never really rebounded to its prior levels. That this didn’t correspond with more playing time for Martin strongly suggests it was related to their assessment of Pitoitua, or maybe just how they wanted to align the defense more generally.
Over the course of the season, the Titans averaged 2.58 defensive linemen on the field per snap.
Outside Linebackers
Kind of messy here as well, but a chart of the most prominent players may help:
Shaun Phillips’ playing time percentage jumps to 43.4% if you include only the games he was active (and on the roster). Kamerion Wimbley’s playing time percentage is 57.8% if you include only the games he was active. The Titans clearly made an assessment over the bye week Phillips was not contributing sufficiently; his playing time in Week 12 was a result of Wimbley’s injury.
Omitted from that chart:
1. Akeem Ayers-10 snaps (0.9% of season total). Active for 2 games before being traded to the Patriots after Week 7.
2. Kaelin Burnett-2 snaps (0.2% of season total). Active for the final 5 games after being added to the roster the week Phillips was waived. Primarily special teams player.
3. Dontay Moch-78 snaps (6.8% of season total). Like Burnett, added to the active roster after Week 12. Played in 37.1% of the snaps the next three games, then inactive the final two contests. Good example of a “let’s see how he contributes” player for a team lacking in short-term and long-term answers at the position.
The big surprise to me was how much Derrick Morgan played, after I wrote in the offseason about how Ray Horton had rotated his outside linebackers in previous stops. I expected more like 70-75% playing time, tops, for him. Consider that an assessment of (a) Morgan and/or (b) the non-Morgan options.
Over the course of the season, the Titans averaged 1.95 outside linebackers on the field per snap.
Inside Linebackers
Finally a chart that could actually look decent!
Doesn’t that look so much nicer than the other charts?
Omitted from the chart:
1. James Anderson-0 snaps (0.0%). Added to the active roster before Week 3 to play special teams. Did that for seven of eight games (inactive the other contests), then waived after Week 11.
2. Zach Brown-4 snaps (0.4% of season total). Lost for the season with a shoulder injury Week 1, went to IR after Week 2.
3. Justin Staples-1 snap (0.1% of season total). Special teams linebacker #3 (Williamson played that role the first two weeks).
Over the course of the season, the Titans averaged 1.62 inside linebackers on the field per snap.
Cornerbacks
Back to possibly ugly/messy charts.
But since those were the five cornerbacks on the roster for Week 1 and all ended the season employed by the Titans, I wanted to include them all.
Blidi Wreh-Wilson’s playing time was about 98% if you exclude all the plays he sat because of injury (Week 4 against the Colts, Week 11 against the Steelers, Week 14 against the Giants). If you look at only the games he was active, Coty Sensabaugh’s playing time was 78.5%.
Omitted from the chart:
1. Brandon Ghee-80 snaps (7.0% of season total). Added to the active roster after Week 5 when Bernard Pollard went to IR, he played 70 of his 80 snaps against the Eagles in Week 12 and was waived after Week 13. Healthy inactive for his first game, then active for six games.
2. Jemea Thomas-0 snaps (0.0%). Added to the active roster when Wreh-Wilson went to injured reserve, he was active Week 15 and inactive Weeks 16 and 17.
The cornerback depth chart was pretty clear most of the season, so I don’t think there are any surprises in this chart.
Over the course of the season, the Titans averaged 2.56 cornerbacks on the field per snap.
Safeties
Final chart for this series.
If you only look at the games he was active, Bernard Pollard played 95.0% of the time.
Omitted from the chart:
Khalid Wooten-0 snaps (0.0%). Added to the active roster before Week 15. Active for the final three contests, but did not appear on defense.
Not a lot of context to add here-Griffin started all season long, only missing 10 snaps despite a torn labrum suffered in Week 12 that I thought would cost him the rest of the season. Pollard started, with Wilson playing the third safety role early in the season. After Pollard’s injury, Wilson started and Stafford became the third safety. When Stafford got hurt, Marqueston Huff (listed among the corners) seemed to play that third safety role.
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