Week 10 Snap Count Analysis: Bucs vs. Titans

Here’s a closer look at which players received the highest and lowest number of snaps in a 20-6 win for the Bucs at home over the Titans. Tampa Bay snapped a four game losing streak, winning for the first time in over month.

Bucs Offense

The big change happened before the ball was even snapped yesterday afternoon. The Bucs decided to make running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn inactive on game day, choosing to dress Sean Tucker. While Tucker only played one snap, it did mean that Tampa Bay is going in a new direction with Chase Edmonds as their full-time RB2. Edmonds jumped his playing time all the way up to 28%, which put Rachaad White at 70%.

Bucs RB Rachaad White – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Realistically, it won’t matter as much who is getting the reps behind White if he continues to have a great impact on the offense. White was two yards shy of having three straight games with 100 total yards from scrimmage. His 43-yard touchdown catch-and run-on a screen pass the longest scoring touchdown play of the Bucs’ season and White reached the end zone for the third time in the last two games.

Wide receivers Deven Thompkins and Rakim Jarrett saw a bigger jump in their snap counts going from 14% and 12% in Week 9 to 23% and 22% in Week 10. The other receivers had a similar amount of playing time as they have through the season.

Trask Time! Add quarterback Kyle Trask to the list of players that got a snap on offense this season. He was in for the last play of the game to take a knee as the Bucs were in the victory formation. Baker Mayfield had injured his finger when he hit a helmet after making a throw in the fourth quarter, but Todd Bowles said on Monday that “he’s good.”

Bucs’ Defense

While Tampa Bay’s offense didn’t see drastic differences to its personnel, the defense sure did. At outside linebacker, Shaq Barrett led the group in snaps but the real story is that rookie YaYa Diaby was second amongst outside linebackers with 43% playing time, which was 5% higher than starter Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and 6% more than veteran Anthony Nelson. Diaby rewarded Todd Bowles and the Bucs for their faith in him by recording his second career sack and two quarterback hits.

Staying with the outside linebacker position, undrafted free agent rookie Markees Watts played 11 snaps and had a major impact on the game. In first time ever getting playing time in the NFL, Watts’ hit on Will Levis in the fourth quarter forced his pass to pop up in the air, making it easy for the safety Antoine Winfield Jr. to intercept the ball.

Bucs DT Calijah Kancey – Photo by: USA Today

Watts was a game wrecker during the preseason getting after the quarterback, which was the reason he made the team. On Sunday, he proved he can do it against first-stringers and in big moments. It was great to see the Bucs give him some playing time in specific instances, and it would be nice to see him continue to get a couple of opportunities each game as a situational pass rusher.

Keeping on with the trend of rookie defensive players, how about that game from Calijah Kancey? He is still just getting his feet wet at the NFL level after missing most of training camp and the first month of the regular season, but now he’s like a fish to water.

Kancey recored three tackles, two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits as he was a huge factor in the game. The Bucs are putting no limitations on him either as he played 73% of the snaps – the most of any defensive tackle. Kancey had the sixth-highest snap percentage out of anyone on defense.

In the secondary, the experiment of playing Ryan Neal on every down seems to be over, and that’s a good thing. The Bucs kept subbing out Neal with Dee Delaney consistently when they were expecting a pass play and it looked as if nickel corner Christian Izien got some reps in at safety, too. Izien played the most out of those three at 67% followed by Delaney at 59% and Neal at 33%.

Zyon McCollum’s snap count percentage each week will have the wildest variety. He literally goes from zero to 100 real quick depending on the availability of Carlton Davis III and/or Jamel Dean. He and Dean played fantastic with the Bucs implementing more man-to-man coverage, holding Titans receiver DeAndre Hopkins to just three catches for 27 yards.