2012 Tennessee Titans Snap Report: Offense

During the bye week, I took a look at the per-game and cumulative snaps played by each player on offense. My estimation would have been that the basic trends we saw in player participation were, with the exception of changes caused by injuries, the same trends we would have seen after the bye week. Then, the Titans went and fired offensive coordinator Chris Palmer.

One of the big questions for 2013 is just what will Dowell Loggains’ offense look like? There are a number of different dimensions to this question, and when I finish breaking down the Jaguars game, I’ll mention one thing. At the same time, one of the things I can answer now is what players played less or more. I touched on some of these in my weekly snap report writeups, but I think it’s worth taking an overview.

I’ll have a separate post on the defense, but this post will cover the offense. As I did last time, I will go position by position.

Quarterback

Glossary:
i = Inactive for the game
x = Not on the 53-man roster that game

Boring position. The top available healthy quarterback has played, aside from a few snaps in the late part of uncompetitive games.

The Titans had one and precisely one quarterback on the field on 997 of 998 offensive snaps. The only exception was the pseudo-fake punt in the Week 5 game against the Vikings, where they had a hybrid mix of normal offensive personnel and punt team personnel on the field. The NFL counted that as an offensive snap; if I had my druthers, I would have counted it as a special teams snap. That was the only snap on offense all year played by Jordan Babineaux, Beau Brinkley, Tommie Campbell, Brett Kern, and Tim Shaw.

Running Back/Fullback

Darren Evans was on the active roster this year. You have nothing to apologize for if you missed his presence, as he went virtually straight from midseason practice squad addition to injured reserve.

I noted at the time of the bye week that the Titans seemed to be trying to limit Chris Johnson’s snaps to keep him more productive and fresher. That ended up looking very much like a Chris Palmer thing, as he played virtually every snap until getting injured in the Green Bay game. It’s worth keeping in mind that under Loggains the Titans didn’t play a particularly large number of offensive snaps, except in the Houston game, and that Johnson was the only credible blocker. One thing I’ll be addressing later in the offseason is how the Titans protected under Loggains compared to how they protected under Locker, but that’s worth keeping in mind. I’m not prepared to say yet that Loggains will certainly play Chris Johnson as many snaps as he is physically able to play in 2013, but this suggests it’s a possibility. (Once again, I’m not going to get my hopes up there’s any chance the Titans cut CJ.)

The main beneficiary of Palmer sitting Chris Johnson some was generally Darius Reynaud. Based on how often Reynaud played on offense late in the season, Loggains doesn’t seem to rate him at all. I’ll be very curious to see if the Titans make a serious effort to bring him back. It would not surprise me, if Mariani’s rehab seems to be proceeding apace, if the Titans do not make a serious effort to attempt to retain Reynaud. I’m not saying they won’t, just that it wouldn’t surprise me if they did not.

If the Titans do not bring back Javon Ringer (whom I’ve never rated as an NFL rusher), I hope they add another back who could play on passing downs and serve as a blocker. I do not expect him back.

Over the course of the year, the Titans gave their backs 1240 snaps, or an average of 1.24 on the field on any given play. The average was 1.23 under Palmer and 1.25 under Loggains.

Tight End

When I did this exercise at the bye week, I wondered if Thompson playing more than Cook against the Dolphins was a one-week fluke or a sign of things to come. We pretty much had our answer the next week, as Cook played more frequently than he had since before his Week 3 injury against the Lions that knocked him out of half of that game and left him limited the next week. That trend continued even stronger under Loggains, at least until he suffered his injury in Loggains’ second game as coordinator.

One of the questions I had in writing this post was how to handle injuries. Loggains’ tight end usage looks different than Palmer’s, but it was playing Cook a lot the first game, when the Titans went down early, then he got hurt the next week. Obviously with Cook down Craig Stevens is the next most valuable tight end on the roster, so he played a lot. Then he went down and Thompson got a lot of playing time. My guesstimate is that Thompson was Palmer’s project, but much the same way that Rusty Smith stuck around even after the man who wanted him, Mike Heimerdinger, was no longer around (RIP), Thompson is likely to stick as well. As for Cook’s chances to stick, I’ll have more to say about that in a future post.

Over the course of the year, the Titans gave the tight ends 1306 snaps, an average of 1.31 on the field on any given play. The average was 1.32 under Palmer and 1.29 under Loggains.

Wide Receiver

Maybe Dowell Loggains just took over at the point Kenny Britt was really starting to his stride. Maybe he doesn’t believe in rotating his wide receiver. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Whatever the cause, except for the season finale, Britt played a higher percentage of the time in every game under Loggains than he had in any single game under Palmer. As I chronicled yesterday, this didn’t mean Britt was targeted more frequently, just that he played a lot.

One thing I didn’t quite expect was just how much Michael Preston played. I mean, I knew from the weekly totals that he played some, but I didn’t expect him to have played 20% of the snaps under Loggains. Granted, his snaps came in games where Damian Williams or Kendall Wright was out, but that’s more work than Lavelle Hawkins got in the games Kenny Britt was out or he and/or Nate Washington didn’t practice that week. Overreading the tea leaves; Loggains’ less option-heavy offense puts more of a value on receivers with a bigger body than Palmer’s did.

I love the Nate Washington consistency.

Again, even though Wright didn’t play as much under Loggains, he was still targeted with basically the same frequency, and just as often as Britt or Washington. Considering those two men played roughly 40+% more snaps, it seems in the abstract like the Titans may have targeted Wright a bit too much.

Over the course of the year, the Titans gave the wide receivers 2441 snaps, an average of 2.45 on the field on any given play. The average was 2.44 under Palmer and 2.46 under Loggains.

Offensive Line

Once again, I’m not going to bother with a full table, since it’d be a complete mess. I will instead run through the linemen alphabetically.

Daniel Baldridge-0 total snaps. Active 1 game, inactive 3 games, not on roster 12 games. Don’t feel bad if you don’t remember him.
Kyle DeVan-124 total snaps. Active 3 games, inactive 1 game, not on roster 12 games. Played Weeks 15-17, getting his most extensive work at center in the season finale (played all 54 snaps). Came in Week 15 for Kevin Matthews and played most of that game.
Leroy Harris-434 total snaps. Active 8 games, inactive 1 game, on injured reserve the final 7 games. Got a rest the last 15 snaps of Week 1, then played every snap until getting injured against the Colts.
Steve Hutchinson-688 total snaps. Active 12 games, on injured reserve the final 4 games. Got a rest the last 10 plays of Week 4, but otherwise played every snap (except the one that shouldn’t count against Minnesota) until getting injured against the Texans.
Troy Kropog-0 snaps. Active but did not play Week 1, then waived and not on the roster the final 15 games. Finished the season on the Vikings active roster, when the Vikings signed him rather than lose him to another team. I’m assuming that other team was the Titans.
Deuce Lutui-501 total snaps. Active 8 games, inactive 7 games, not on roster 1 game. Leroy Harris’s replacement, playing the final eight games. I guess the Titans didn’t want to pay him if they had to cut him, thus they didn’t add him until after Week 1.
Kevin Matthews-213 total snaps. Active 14 games, inactive the final 2 games with an injury. Started and played all 65 snaps Week 14 at Indianapolis but otherwise only appeared as an injury or late game fill-in.
Mike Otto-267 total snaps. Active 9 games, inactive 7 games. Started and played every snap Week 8 against the Colts, Week 14 against the Colts in Indianapolis, and Week 15 against the Jets. Also appeared as an injury fill-in and got 1 snap in the season finale.
Mitch Petrus-37 snaps. Active 2 games, inactive 2 games, not on roster 12 games. Started and played 37 snaps against the Packers in Week 16 until getting benched.
Michael Roos-937 snaps. Active 15 games, inactive 1 game. Missed Week 8 against the Colts with an appendectomy, but otherwise played every snap except that one against the Vikings that shouldn’t count.
David Stewart-677 snaps. Active 12 games, on injured reserve the final 4 games. Missed 1 snap Week 8 against the Colts and sat the final 11 snaps of Week 10 against the Dolphins, but otherwise played every snap until being injured early in Week 13 against the Texans.
Byron Stingily-114 snaps. Active 10 games, inactive 6 games. Played the 1 snap Stewart missed in Week 8 against the Colts, then started and played all of the final two games. Did not appear in any of the other 7 games he was active.
Fernando Velasco-997 snaps. Active all 16 games. Missed one snap with an injury against the Dolphins in Week 10 but otherwise played every snap.

Except for Petrus and Stingily’s tryout in Week 17 at right tackle even though Otto was healthy, there were changes at offensive line not related to injury, not that you would expect any.