As promised, here's the snap count info on the defense from week 1. I may or may not do this weekly due to the amount of time it takes and if it continues to show us anything useful or not as we get more used to seeing how our team sets itself up. You'll notice some of these snaps listed as slot CB, wide CB, etc. This doesn't appear to mean they have to be literally playing a classic CB position, just that they're walked out into the slot or wide on somebody (most of the wide CB snaps are traditional CB snaps though).
Nebby had 75 offensive snaps, 45 pass plays and 30 run plays. More balanced than I'd have thought.
D Line - I included the Edge or Interior moniker on guys here mostly because I'm curious to see if and how PFF updates these over the course of the year. Most guys are still bearing the Edge/Interior positioning from last year. Unfortunately, I don't have snaps for where on the line guys were lining up, so I can't see if any were moving inside and outside at all. TBH, I can't think of any times a single guy went to a particularly exotic stance, so the line seemed pretty vanilla.
Adebawore, Edge, 280 LBs - 62 snaps: 23 rush defense, 37 pass rush, 2 coverage
McLaughlin, Edge, 275 LBs - 57 snaps: 20 rush defense, 35 pass rush, 2 coverage
Holmes, Interior, 315 LBs - 58 snaps: 24 rush defense, 34 pass rush
ORourke, Edge, 265 Lbs - 48 snaps: 24 rush defense, 24 pass rush
Hubbard, Edge, 235 Lbs - 31 snaps: 10 rush defense, 20 pass rush, 1 coverage
Johnson, Interior, 280 Lbs - 26 snaps: 11 rush defense, 15 pass rush
Story, Edge, 250 Lbs - 9 snaps: 3 rush defense, 6 pass rush.
Bastone, Edge, 265 Lbs - 9 snaps: 6 rush defense, 3 pass rush
Tomi, McLaughlin, and Homes each played around 80% of the game, all three of them playing basically equally as often in passing and running situations. O'Rourke came in tilted towards running downs. Hubbard was maybe a little more of a pass rush guy. I suspect one guy on this list may have number swapped with somebody else like Picozzi did. I'll update it is that's the case. Honestly this is a pretty normal rotation and mix, not a lot of guys who are very obviously situational or being used unusually.
I do have concerns about size when we play larger opponents. Tomi is our second biggest guy out at end. With McLaughlin and O'Rourke we have some decent size outside elsewhere as well, but inside is an issue. Outside of Holmes we don't have anybody else with significant size in this rotation. Without somebody like Butler, Barndt, or Gold, I have pretty serious concerns when we run into a more physical offense line that wants to run downhill.
Linebacker
Gallagher - All 75 snaps, 30 rush D, 2 pass rush, 43coverage. 67 in the box, 7 in the slot, 1 wide.
Mueller - All 75 snaps, 30 rush D, 5 pass rush, 40 coverage. 52 in the box, 22 in the slot, 1 wide.
Metz - 21 snaps: 12 rush D, 1 pass rush, 8 coverage. 13 in the box, 8 slot.
Uihlein - 1 snap
Metz is the interesting one here. As we'll see in the DB breakdown, he's pretty much alternative with Heard. Metz is playing a more traditional coverage linebacker spot whereas Heard was more of a true Nickel. Metz did do more coverage, but still was mostly in the box defending the run. I'll talk about this more when i do grades, but given how well Metz played I wonder if we'll see this mix change. I'm looking forward to seeing Metz have the chance to play a lot as a hybrid against teams who have less WR's on the field and maybe see him get a chance against good TEs more often. COol to see Mac get out there for a snap.
DBs
Azema - All 75 snaps, 30 rush D, 2 pass rush, 43 coverage. 30 in the box (including 4 "on the line"), 17 slot CB, 28 at FS.
Lewis - 74 snaps, 29 rush, 45 coverage. 23 in the box, 20 slot CB, 1 wide CB, 30 FS.
Mitchell - 69 snaps. 9 in the box, 59 at wide cb, 1 at FS.
Hollis - 55 snaps. 6 in the box, 48 wide CD, 1 FS.
Heard - 47 snaps, 18 rush defense, 1 pass rush, 28 coverage. 21 in the bos, 26 slot CB.
Hampton - 19 snaps. All out at wide CB.
Jaheem Joseph - 7 snaps, all at FS in coverage
Theran Johnson - 6 snaps, all at wide CB.
Garner Wallace - 1 snap
Some things we know, some things we can clarify here. As I mentioned above, Heard and Metz are the two switching back and forth. I'm very curious to see if they're really calling Metz a hybrid LB or not since heard is playing a sort of box nickel similar to last year. Those two seem to be two sides of the same coin with Heard doing by far the most run support of CBs like Metz is doing the most coverage among LBs. Other than that, all the other CBs are all exclusively outside. It's interesting none of the young guys who came in at CB spent any time at slot, indicating there are some special qualities to the Heard position in our 4-2-5 look. As we know, our safeties move all over the field. Coco and Lewis played the entire game and both move all over the place, walking into the box, walking out to slot CBs, and staying deep. It's remarkable how little these numbers show any extreme differentiation between those two in terms of positioning.
So what did I learn out of all this? Basically that our defense is a fairly vanilla 4-2-5 with the primary wrinkle being how the nickel LB spot is treated. Neither Heard really seem to play like either a pure Nickel or a pure LB. The safeties are fairly active as we expected, and neither of the two really has a significantly different role. After all our talk about the possibility of more exotic systems, odd fronts, two points stances, bandit roles, etc... it's a pretty traditional defense.
Nebby had 75 offensive snaps, 45 pass plays and 30 run plays. More balanced than I'd have thought.
D Line - I included the Edge or Interior moniker on guys here mostly because I'm curious to see if and how PFF updates these over the course of the year. Most guys are still bearing the Edge/Interior positioning from last year. Unfortunately, I don't have snaps for where on the line guys were lining up, so I can't see if any were moving inside and outside at all. TBH, I can't think of any times a single guy went to a particularly exotic stance, so the line seemed pretty vanilla.
Adebawore, Edge, 280 LBs - 62 snaps: 23 rush defense, 37 pass rush, 2 coverage
McLaughlin, Edge, 275 LBs - 57 snaps: 20 rush defense, 35 pass rush, 2 coverage
Holmes, Interior, 315 LBs - 58 snaps: 24 rush defense, 34 pass rush
ORourke, Edge, 265 Lbs - 48 snaps: 24 rush defense, 24 pass rush
Hubbard, Edge, 235 Lbs - 31 snaps: 10 rush defense, 20 pass rush, 1 coverage
Johnson, Interior, 280 Lbs - 26 snaps: 11 rush defense, 15 pass rush
Story, Edge, 250 Lbs - 9 snaps: 3 rush defense, 6 pass rush.
Bastone, Edge, 265 Lbs - 9 snaps: 6 rush defense, 3 pass rush
Tomi, McLaughlin, and Homes each played around 80% of the game, all three of them playing basically equally as often in passing and running situations. O'Rourke came in tilted towards running downs. Hubbard was maybe a little more of a pass rush guy. I suspect one guy on this list may have number swapped with somebody else like Picozzi did. I'll update it is that's the case. Honestly this is a pretty normal rotation and mix, not a lot of guys who are very obviously situational or being used unusually.
I do have concerns about size when we play larger opponents. Tomi is our second biggest guy out at end. With McLaughlin and O'Rourke we have some decent size outside elsewhere as well, but inside is an issue. Outside of Holmes we don't have anybody else with significant size in this rotation. Without somebody like Butler, Barndt, or Gold, I have pretty serious concerns when we run into a more physical offense line that wants to run downhill.
Linebacker
Gallagher - All 75 snaps, 30 rush D, 2 pass rush, 43coverage. 67 in the box, 7 in the slot, 1 wide.
Mueller - All 75 snaps, 30 rush D, 5 pass rush, 40 coverage. 52 in the box, 22 in the slot, 1 wide.
Metz - 21 snaps: 12 rush D, 1 pass rush, 8 coverage. 13 in the box, 8 slot.
Uihlein - 1 snap
Metz is the interesting one here. As we'll see in the DB breakdown, he's pretty much alternative with Heard. Metz is playing a more traditional coverage linebacker spot whereas Heard was more of a true Nickel. Metz did do more coverage, but still was mostly in the box defending the run. I'll talk about this more when i do grades, but given how well Metz played I wonder if we'll see this mix change. I'm looking forward to seeing Metz have the chance to play a lot as a hybrid against teams who have less WR's on the field and maybe see him get a chance against good TEs more often. COol to see Mac get out there for a snap.
DBs
Azema - All 75 snaps, 30 rush D, 2 pass rush, 43 coverage. 30 in the box (including 4 "on the line"), 17 slot CB, 28 at FS.
Lewis - 74 snaps, 29 rush, 45 coverage. 23 in the box, 20 slot CB, 1 wide CB, 30 FS.
Mitchell - 69 snaps. 9 in the box, 59 at wide cb, 1 at FS.
Hollis - 55 snaps. 6 in the box, 48 wide CD, 1 FS.
Heard - 47 snaps, 18 rush defense, 1 pass rush, 28 coverage. 21 in the bos, 26 slot CB.
Hampton - 19 snaps. All out at wide CB.
Jaheem Joseph - 7 snaps, all at FS in coverage
Theran Johnson - 6 snaps, all at wide CB.
Garner Wallace - 1 snap
Some things we know, some things we can clarify here. As I mentioned above, Heard and Metz are the two switching back and forth. I'm very curious to see if they're really calling Metz a hybrid LB or not since heard is playing a sort of box nickel similar to last year. Those two seem to be two sides of the same coin with Heard doing by far the most run support of CBs like Metz is doing the most coverage among LBs. Other than that, all the other CBs are all exclusively outside. It's interesting none of the young guys who came in at CB spent any time at slot, indicating there are some special qualities to the Heard position in our 4-2-5 look. As we know, our safeties move all over the field. Coco and Lewis played the entire game and both move all over the place, walking into the box, walking out to slot CBs, and staying deep. It's remarkable how little these numbers show any extreme differentiation between those two in terms of positioning.
So what did I learn out of all this? Basically that our defense is a fairly vanilla 4-2-5 with the primary wrinkle being how the nickel LB spot is treated. Neither Heard really seem to play like either a pure Nickel or a pure LB. The safeties are fairly active as we expected, and neither of the two really has a significantly different role. After all our talk about the possibility of more exotic systems, odd fronts, two points stances, bandit roles, etc... it's a pretty traditional defense.
