Snap count notes: Washington at Buffalo Bills

This is a good week to celebrate, Buffalo Bills fans. While Washington pulled to within one score (that would have needed a two-point conversion) late in the game, this was still one of Buffalo’s more comfortable victories. Despite a scary first half of run defense, the Bills figured it out and slammed the door hard in the second half. It wasn’t gorgeous but the Bills won a game they should have in solid fashion. Let’s check in on playing time.

Offense (62 snaps)

The 100% club has its first “perfect” game of six players. The usual crew of Josh Allen, Dion Dawkins, Quinton Spain, Mitch Morse, and Jon Feliciano played the entire game. Likely due to lingering injury, Cody Ford did not play. Ty Nsekhe joins the club this week as a result.

John Brown continues to lead the team in wide receiver play time. He’s followed by Isaiah McKenzie this week, who was inactive last week. Duke Williams had been gunning for the number-two role but was inactive this week. Cole Beasley played under 50%, which is quite low for him. Andre Roberts and Robert Foster round out the group.

On the tight end front, Tyler Kroft slides down the charts. Lee Smith remained stable from last game, which was a down week. Dawson Knox led the group with 76% playing time. This is a high amount of time for a tight end and is likely a reason for Beasley’s dip.

Devin Singletary and Frank Gore continued their ²⁄₃ to ¹⁄₃ split from last week. Unlike last week, Singletary saw the ball consistently. Patrick DiMarco saw an increase in time, partially due to repeated short-yardage attempts.

The fluctuation of playing time and the inactive/active lists suggest either that the Bills are tailoring their offense to their opponent or they’re still trying to find the best combination. Most likely it’s some of both.

Oh yeah, Jordan Poyer plays offense now. For kneel downs at least.

Defense (51 snaps)

The 100% club fell one snap short of perfect this week. Micah Hyde left very briefly due to injury but came right back in. Aside from Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Tre’Davious White, Levi Wallace, Tremaine Edmunds and Matt Milano all reached the 100% mark.

For the secondary, it was business as usual with a heavy dose of nickel packages. Taron Johnson played 61% of the time and Kevin Johnson came in for a handful of plays to make up almost exactly ²⁄₃ of the time on the field. Dean Marlowe’s one play likely was in relief of Micah Hyde.

A major shakeup at defensive end saw Darryl Johnson left on the sideline. Counting up the snaps for Jerry Hughes, Trent Murphy, and Shaq Lawson we get a perfect number of snaps to suggest Shaq was the backup on both sides of the line today.

Even more major shakeups occurred on the interior of the line as Ed Oliver saw a drastic reduction in time. Vincent Taylor replaced Kyle Peko but saw limited action. Star Lotulelei remained stable from last week, which was a significant increase to that point. Kyle Peko’s remaining snaps seem to have gone to Jordan Phillips as the Bills looked to improve their running defense this week.

Lorenzo Alexander had an even split between defensive tackle (13 snaps) and linebacker (14 snaps).

Special Teams (24 snaps)

The top group for special teams has had changes for the last four weeks. This week’s top spot is a tie at 67% between Lorenzo Alexander, Senorise Perry, Jaquan Johnson, Julian Stanford, Siran Neal, Corey Thompson, and Darryl Johnson. None of these players are new to the list, but there has been a lot of rotation between these names and others, such as Maurice Alexander and Kevin Johnson, the last few weeks.