Snap-count notes: Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins

With six games left to play in the regular season I think we can all agree on one thing: It sure would be great to see a few more games like this one. The Buffalo Bills put a hurtin’ on the Miami Dolphins for nearly the entire 60 minutes. Let’s check in and see who played and how much in this thorough victory.

Offense (72 snaps)

The 2019 version of the 100% club had another perfect game. Josh Allen, Jon Feliciano, Dion Dawkins, Mitch Morse and Quinton Spain all played the entire game on offense. The worst news of the day was what looked like a significant injury to right tackle Ty Nsekhe. Often rotating with Cody Ford, the injury to Nsekhe put Ford in a little more permanently.

John Brown was one snap away from the 100% club and made good use of his time on the field gaining 137 yards and two touchdowns. Cole Beasley wasn’t far behind at 90% and had four catches for 38 yards. Isaiah McKenzie hit 78%. These were season highs for both Beasley and McKenzie. It’s also the first time three receivers immediately followed the 100% club on the list.

Devin Singletary’s 53 snaps was threatening to triple the play time of Frank Gore. Singletary had twice the playing time as Gore last week. A changing of the guard seems to be official at this point. Patrick DiMarco had his lowest total of the season. The same is true for Lee Smith. With extra snaps going to receivers this week, this is not unexpected.

Dawson Knox continues to see the highest amount of playing time for tight ends. The gap between Knox and Tyler Kroft only widened this week.

Jordan Poyer played one down this week. If you recall the last time Poyer saw time on offense, he’s behind Allen on kneel downs in case there’s a fumble.

Defense (69 snaps)

Big news this week for the 100% club. Jordan Poyer, Matt Milano, Tre’Davious White, Tremaine Edmunds, and Micah Hyde all made it. Levi Wallace, who did not have a reported injury, fell all the way to 48% of playing time. Kevin Johnson’s 52% tells you the rest of the story.

Taron Johnson hit 90%, which sets our nickel playing time. What’s interesting is that the Bills were dominant with run defense allowing only 23 yards on the ground with a nearly exclusive nickel defense. The Bills also didn’t utilize a larger defensive back for a “big nickel” look, relying solely on Johnson.

Shaq Lawson continues to make the case for paying three starters at defensive end. His flexibility on both sides of the line has allowed him to have a similar amount of playing time as Jerry Hughes and Trent Murphy. And this week, he actually eclipsed Murphy comfortably. Darryl Johnson saw a few reps as well.

At defensive tackle, Jordan Phillips leads the way at 61%. He’s followed by Ed Oliver at 51%, Star Lotulelei at 42% and Corey Liuget at 28%. The change here is to Lotulelei’s playing time which settled back to his normal. It had been elevated the past few weeks as the Bills tried to adjust their rushing defense.

Last but certainly not least, Lorenzo Alexander picks up the remaining snap counts from the team, which come out to four reps at defensive end, 13 at defensive tackle, and seven at linebacker.

Special teams (33 snaps)

If there was any concern yesterday it was special teams. There was another shakeup here in a unit that’s had it’s core group change nearly weekly. Julian Stanford, Senorise Perry and Corey Thompson all reached 70%. These names aren’t new to the top of the list. They were followed closely by Kevin Johnson (67%), Lorenzo Alexander (67%), and Robert Foster (64%). While all three have had significant time on the field for special teams, these are pretty high for all three. Also of note, special teams mainstay Siran Neal played on only eight snaps, or 24%, after exiting due to injury.