According to the NFL’s official player participation information, here’s how the Tennessee Titans lined up in yesterday’s 26-10 win over the Kansas City Chiefs:
Offense (79 total)
QB: Jake Locker 79
RB/FB: Shonn Greene 32, Dexter McCluster 19, Leon Washington 18, Jackie Battle 17, Bishop Sankey 10
TE: Delanie Walker 61, Taylor Thompson 23, Craig Stevens 21
WR: Nate Washington 75, Kendall Wright 62, Justin Hunter 52, Derek Hagan 5
OL: Andy Levitre 79, Michael Oher 79, Chance Warmack 79, Brian Schwenke 78, Michael Roos 72, Taylor Lewan 7, Chris Spencer 1
Defense (57 total)
DL: Jurrell Casey 45, Sammie Hill 29, Ropati Pitoitua 25, Karl Klug 22, Al Woods 11
OLB: Derrick Morgan 52, Kamerion Wimbley 31, Shaun Phillips 27, Quentin Groves 3
ILB: Wesley Woodyard 57, Zaviar Gooden 22, Zach Brown 4
CB: Jason McCourty 57, Blidi Wreh-Wilson 57, Coty Sensabaugh 39
S: Michael Griffin 57, Bernard Pollard 57, George Wilson 31
Beau Brinkley, Brandon Harris, Marqueston Huff, Daimion Stafford, and Avery Williamson each only appeared on special teams. Charlie Whitehurst was active but did not appear in the game.
Notes:
1. Now that’s a heck of a committee at running back, even more than the one I expected. No plays with two non-Battle backs in the game, at least not that I recall and the snap counts add up to 79. They ran the ball roughly half the time with each of Greene and McCluster in the game and more than that with Sankey in the four-minute drill at the end of the game, while Washington was primarily a passing downs back.
2. TE and WR usage was mostly as expected. Craig Stevens played a bigger role at the end of last season, but Taylor Thompson’s continued development cuts into his playing time while Walker continues to play in most situations, including 11 personnel.
3. Michael Roos played every snap on offense last year, but the four-minute drill ensured he won’t do so this year. He was not in the game for Greene’s four-minute drill or the kneeldowns, I don’t believe. No mention of an injury in the video of either his media session after the game or Ken Whisenhunt’s, so either he had something not serious or the Titans are really serious about run-blocking and Taylor Lewan.
4. Pretty good playing time rate for Jurrell Casey, though with the Chiefs running so few offensive plays I’m hesitant to declare he will regularly be an 80% PT player going forward. The rest of the defensive line rotation was roughly as expected.
5. I wrote about how Ray Horton likes rotate his outside linebackers, and we saw that with Phillips and Wimbley. Will he do it with Morgan going forward, as Groves becomes more used to communicating with his new teammates? I expect a little bit more, at least in the games with average or above-average numbers of defensive snaps.
6. I wondered how they would play with Zach Brown leaving the game very early after his shoulder injury, whether we would see more of Gooden or George Wilson in a Big Nickel or dime look. It does not surprise me to see Wilson finished the game playing more frequently.
7. Coty Sensabaugh 39 snaps, opposing WR3 Junior Hemingway 33 snaps. Compared to last year, that’s practically a massive gap.
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