I posted weekly snap reports during the season, but now that the season is over I thought it would be useful to take a look at how many snaps each player played on each side of the ball, to look for trends over the course of the season.
There will be two posts on this, first on the offense and then on the defense. Both will go position by position.
Quarterback
For other positions, I’ll go with a chart, but that’s probably not as informative as it is for quarterbacks. The rule was pretty straightforward-the starter played unless/until he got hurt.
By most snaps:
1. Charlie Whitehurst-357 snaps (37.0% of season total). Active for 11 games, started 5 (finished 3-did not finish at IND and vs. IND).
2. Zach Mettenberger-305 snaps (31.6% of total). Active for 9 games, started 6 (finished 4-did not finish at HOU or vs. NYG).
3. Jake Locker-299 snaps (31.0% of total). Active for 11 games, started 5 (finished 3-did not finish vs. CLE or vs. NYJ). Finished season on injured reserve.
4. Jordan Palmer-5 snaps (0.1% of total). Active for 2 games, started 0.
*-Yes, I know 37.0+31.6+31.0+0.1 don’t add up to 100.0%. Rounding.
Yes, having your starting quarterback only finish the game 10 times (or 11, considering Mettenberger played the final snaps of the first Colts game just to get him work) is an awful track record.
Running Back/Fullback
Here’s a position where a chart may help.
Markings are the same ones I’ve used on the post. “x” indicates the player was not on the active roster that week, “x-IR” indicates the player was on injured reserve, “i” means the player was inactive for that particular game. Antonio Andrews was on the practice squad from Week 1 until his elevation to the active roster leading up to Week 8.
Antonio Andrews played 4.4% of the snaps in games he was active. Shonn Greene played 20.7% of the snaps in games he was active. Dexter McCluster played 27.8% of the snaps in the games he was active.
The Jackie Battle snaps are primarily fullback snaps, outside of the odd play where he was the running back (halfback, whatever you want to call it) in a heavy set, often with Karl Klug (not listed in the table, 14 total snaps, 1.4%) as the fullback. Even without Battle’s snaps, the Titans averaged 1.04 backs on the field per offensive snap. That’s a mix of two running back sets, Dexter McCluster lining up as a wide receiver (most common against the Jets), and the one offensive lineman lateral-fest at the end of the Jets game.
I tried to chronicle the trends in usage in the weekly snap reports, but just when I thought I’d figured something out it would stop working and the Titans would rejigger things. No, I still don’t have an answer I really love as to why Leon Washington played so many snaps the final three games.
Tight End
A chart here would be a little bit too complicated/messy, since the Titans used seven different tight ends over the course of the season. There were three tight ends up every game, but who those tight ends were switched. Let’s track, roughly, those three roster spots:
A. The Delanie Walker Roster Spot
1. Delanie Walker-769 snaps (79.6% of total). Active for 15 games (missed Week 11 vs. PIT). Outside of the Ravens game where he was injured and then the Steelers game he missed, he played a lot of pretty much every other game (85% in the other 14 games).
I will sort the next two positions by chronological order instead of who played the most snaps
B. The Blocking Tight End Roster Spot
1. Craig Stevens-69 snaps (7.1% of total). Active for the first 5 games. Injured early in Week 5 against Cleveland. Played 27.3% of snaps in the first four games. Inactive for Week 6, then went to injured reserve.
2. Brett Brackett-86 snaps (8.9% of total). Active for 7 games. Signed to the active roster for Week 6 after Stevens got hurt, cut after Week 7, then re-signed before Week 10 after Seattle cut him. Went to injured reserve for the final two games of the season. Played 21.0% of the snaps in the games he was active.
3. Richard Gordon-44 snaps (4.6% of total). Active for 3 games. Signed to the active roster for Week 8 when Brackett was released. Both he and Brackett were active Week 11 when Walker was injured. When Walker returned for Week 12, he was inactive that week, then released. Played 28.2% of the snaps in the games he was active.
4. Matthew Mulligan-33 snaps (3.4% of total). Active for 2 games. Signed to the active roster before Week 16 when Brackett went to injured reserve. Played 26.0% of the snaps in the games he was active.
C. The Receiving Tight End Roster Spot
1. Taylor Thompson-51 snaps (5.3% of total). Active for the first three games, knee injury left him inactive for the next five, then went to injured reserve before the Titans came back from the bye. Played 25.9% of the snaps in games where he was active.
2. Chase Coffman-160 snaps (16.6% of total). Active for the final 13 games. Played in 20.8% of the snaps in the games he was active. Saw most prominent usage in Week 5, when Stevens went out early, then Weeks 10-12 when Walker was injured, out, and limited, and then in Week 15 when all the receivers were injured. Played 53 snaps in the other eight games combined (11.3% vs. 35.8%).
Overall, the Titans used an average of 1.25 tight ends on the field per play.
Wide Receivers
Chart? Chart
Durham played 29.4% of the games if you include all games where he was active, 42.7% if you include only the final four games where he was allowed on the field for an offensive play that counted. Justin Hunter played 87.1% of the snaps in the first 11 games of the season before his injury in Week 13 that caused him to miss the second half of the game in Houston. Kendall Wright played 78.8% of the snaps in the games he was active.
Not shown on the table:
1. T. J. Graham-0 snaps (0.0% of total). Inactive for the first three games after being claimed off waivers, then released.
2. Rico Richardson-2 snaps (0.0+% of total). Signed off the practice squad before Week 16, then inactive Week 17. Played 3.0% of the snaps in the game he was active.
From Ruston Webster’s recent interview with the Tennessean: “I thought there were positions, and I put this on me, where our depth wasn’t where it needed to be, at receiver and at corner.” Correct, and how the Titans used their receivers told you what was clear in the preseason-the Titans had three receivers on their roster, and “oh boy” after that, though Hagan ended up as clearly their fourth receiver.
Overall, the Titans used an average of 2.53 tight ends on the field per play.
Offensive Line
A chart here would be mostly hopeless. By position is the best we can handle. As with the tight end, chronological order is probably best.
Left Tackle:
1. Michael Roos-290 snaps (30.0% of total). Active for 5 games. Started the first 5 games, giving way to Taylor Lewan for the final 7 snaps in Week 1 and the final 14 in Week 3. Went to injured reserve after his knee blew up.
2. Taylor Lewan-353 snaps (36.5% of total). Active for 11 games. Played for Roos and also as a sixth offensive lineman on the field starting in Week 3. Started in Weeks 6-12 until he capped a miserable game against the Eagles by getting hurt. Injured inactive for the final five games.
3. Will Svitek-187 snaps (19.4% of total). Active for 5 games. Added to the active roster the week after Roos went to IR, inactive for five games, then started three times at left tackle and played no snaps on offense as the extra tackle in the final two contests.
4. Jamon Meredith-194 snaps (20.1% of total). Active for 3 games. Signed before Week 15 because Terren Jones (see below) wasn’t ready to play. Played right tackle in Week 15, then moved to left tackle for the final two games.
Left Guard:
1. Andy Levitre-965 snaps (100.0-% of total). Active for all 16 games. Played every snap save the lateralfest at the end of the Jets game.
Center:
1. Brian Schwenke-646 snaps (66.9% of total). Active for 11 games before going to injured reserve. Missed five snaps in the games he was active.
2. Chris Spencer-331 snaps (34.3% of total). Active for all 16 games, starting the final five for Schwenke. Played in 16 snaps in the first 11 games, most of them as a sixth offensive lineman after Taylor Lewan was inserted into the starting lineup and before the Titans realized it would be better to have an actual tackle playing as their sixth offensive lineman, not that that would make the top five on “things Ken Whisenhunt and company did on offense in 2014 whose rationale I did not understand.”
Right Guard:
1. Chance Warmack-964 snaps (100.0-% of total). Active for all 16 games. Played every snap save the lateralfest at the end of the Jets game and one in Week 13 against the Texans after he got banged up.
2. Eric Olsen-16 snaps (1.7% of total). Active for 5 games. Added to the active roster when Brian Schwenke went on injured reserve after Week 12. One snap as Warmack’s replacement, the rest as an extra offensive lineman.
Right Tackle:
1. Michael Oher-651 snaps (67.4% of total). Technically active for 12 games, though in Week 13 he got hurt during warmups and was unavailable. Played every snap in the first 11 games. Inactive for Week 14, then went to injured reserve for the final three games.
2. Byron Stingily-242 snaps (25.1% of total). Active for 10 games. Inactive for the first five contests as the fourth tackle, he started dressing after Roos went to IR. Started four of the final five games, missing most of Week 14 and then Week 15 after getting hurt. Played some as an extra offensive lineman until Lewan’s injury in Week 13 forced him into action.
3. Terren Jones-42 snaps (4.4% of total). Active for 2 games. Added to the active roster before Week 14. Saw all his playing time on offense in Week 14 after Stingily was hurt, active but did not play in Week 15 as the Titans weren’t going to play him unless they had to. Inactive for the final two games. Got a concussion in the Titans’ padded practice on Christmas Eve, in case you wondered if Ken Whisenhunt gave up coaching at the end of the year.
Other:
Karl Klug-14 snaps (1.4% of total). Played fullback, but I’m including him with the lineman because he’s a danged lineman. Active for all 16 games, though he only saw time on offense in eight of them.
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