The New Orleans Saints finished the first half of their season as one of the NFL’s best teams, winning 7 of their first 8 games and doing it largely without franchise quarterback Drew Brees under center. But now they’re exiting a timely bye week well-rested and with Brees back in the huddle.
How did the Saints handle snap counts during the first half of the 2019 season? Injuries hit a few key starters like Brees, running back Alvin Kamara, tight end Jared Cook, and linebacker Alex Anzalone, but on the whole the team’s depth absorbed those hits well.
We’ll start off by analyzing how playing-time shook out on offense, with an assist from Pro Football Reference.
The offense has had two ironmen on the right side in tackle Ryan Ramczyk and guard Larry Warford, who haven’t left the field on 540 snaps through the first eight games. Rookie center Erik McCoy (534 snaps) nearly joined them but missed the end of the first half against the Arizona Cardinals after an opposing lineman fell on his ankle, though he did finish the game. Backup guard/center Will Clapp is the unit’s sixth man, with 112 snaps played so far.
Meanwhile, the dominance Michael Thomas plays with at wide receiver extends to his snap counts. He lead the position and the entire offense in snaps played (504) outside the starting offensive linemen. The next-closest to him is wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. (357), who has been thrown to just 33 times in his first eight games. Hopefully his production will increase now that Brees is back in the lineup; Ginn has caught 9 of the 10 passes Brees sent his way this season.
It’s interesting that Kamara and Latavius Murray have such similar workloads despite Kamara missing the last two games before the bye week; it speaks to how heavily the Saints were leaning on him early in the season. Hopefully the Saints can find better balance there now that Murray has proven himself in Kamara’s absence. Fullback Zach Line, a free agent in the spring, ranks third in the NFL in snaps played at his position (140) behind Minnesota Vikings starter CJ Ham (195) and San Francisco 49ers chesspiece Kyle Juszczyk (152).
We’ll close it out with a few miscellaneous notes before moving into the defense:
- Free safety Marcus Williams has been in on two different victory formation snaps to run out the clock late in games, lining up behind the formation in case something absurd happens (like the ball popping out in the open field behind them).
- Tight end Josh Hill (the career backup) outsnapped Cook (the big free agent signing) by an average of 44.3 snaps to 39.6 in their last three games together. Hill has logged 106 snaps in his last two games with Cook sidelined. Still, there was plenty of overlap between them in two-tight end sets.
- Austin Carr has played the third-most snaps at wide receiver (188), which is more than every other receiver beneath him on the depth chart combined (187). Carr has been thrown to four times but caught just one pass in the first eight games.
The defensive secondary might be the strength of the team, with four different defensive backs leading the way in snaps played on that side of the ball. Cornerback Marshon Lattimore, strong safety Vonn Bell, and free safety Marcus Williams also ranked in the top-five in defensive snaps played last season. Much was made of cornerback Eli Apple’s knee injury late against the Chicago Bears, but it hasn’t slowed him down after the initial scare.
Defensive lineman Cameron Jordan is averaging 54.7 snaps per game, compared to 60.1 in the first eight games in 2018 and 58.8 in the same span back in 2017. Even if he’s only resting on a couple of more plays per game, the Saints are finally able to ask their best defensive player to not shoulder such a heavy load, which will only help keep him fresh and energized later in the season.
The Saints are continuing to play an extra defensive back rather than a third linebacker, with only two linebackers getting on the field often at the midway point (Demario Davis at 470, A.J. Klein at 418); Kiko Alonso, a preseason trade acquisition, is a distant third with 110 snaps in eight games (13.8 per game). When the Saints can field strong tackling defensive backs like Bell, P.J. Williams, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson, they can afford to keep that third linebacker on the sidelines.
And a few other quick observations:
- Nose tackle Malcom Brown was a sizable signing in free agency (three years, $15 million) and he’s already paid dividends, averaging 30.5 snaps per game. That lines up well against workload seen by the player he replaced, longtime starting nose tackle Tyeler Davison, who logged 30.1 snaps per game last year.
- The Saints are almost back to their balanced snap counts at three-technique defensive tackle; in five games together, Sheldon Rankins has averaged 31.4 snaps per game, while David Onyemata has played 30.4. Rankins has played more often in their last two games (67 combined snaps, against Onyemata’s 55) before the bye week. They split time almost evenly as co-starters last year, with Rankins averaging 40.1 snaps per game and Onyemata getting in on 38.5 plays each week.
