The Buffalo Bills hosted the New York Jets to close their regular season. In anticipation of their Wild Card Playoff game, the Bills rested some starters, while many others played sparingly. This week’s notes won’t look like any other week, but we can still have some fun with it.
Offense (64 snaps)
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On offense, Quinton Spain is the only member of the 100% club. Starting linemen saw a wide range of playing time ranging from Spain’s “all game” to Jon Feliciano’s 11%. Dion Dawkins and Mitch Morse saw very limited time while Cody Ford saw a large chunk. Ford was hurt during the game as was Ty Nsekhe who was returning from a prior injury. Both will be important to keep an eye on this week. Spencer Long, Ryan Bates, and Ike Boettger got valuable playing time on the line.
Josh Allen saw a smidge of action, but it was B-B-Barkley vs. the Jets for most of the game. Yes we were saying this all game. Maybe the rain made us loopy. Apologies to Matt Barkley.
Devin Singletary rested his legs for the playoffs. T.J. Yeldon took over the bulk of the day with Frank Gore seeing time early. Special teams mainstay Senorise Perry also saw limited time.
Robert Foster saw a lot of time, but it was Duke Williams who had the big day. Possibly the most popular backup receiver in the league, the crowd popped hard at every catch with our best bass “DUUUUUUUUKE!” Isaiah McKenzie played a pretty ordinary time as the third (and final) receiver.
Tommy Sweeney and Tyler Kroft got in some extra time with Dawson Knox considered too “key” to play. Lee Smith saw the field a decent amount and Patrick DiMarco continues to exist on occasion.
Defense (67 snaps)
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A lot of the primary starters played, but sparingly. There was no member of the 100% club. Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Matt Milano, and Tremaine Edmunds saw very limited time. Jerry Hughes also fell into this category.
Star Lotulelei barely outplayed Isaiah McKenzie on defense. That’s right, due to resting Tre’Davious White and injuries to Levi Wallace and Taron Johnson, the wide receiver played a few reps at corner. These injuries are also ones to keep an eye on this week.
The defense got so wacky I’ll let you peruse rather than detailing every position group as usual. Jordan Phillips, Ed Oliver, and Trent Murphy had the highest counts among the usual starters.
We’ll get at least one more Lorenzo Alexander watch next week, but in what is likely his last home game, Alexander saw one snap that was ceremonial in nature.
Special teams (25 snaps)
With Sean McDermott usually playing starters on special teams, the core group got a bump in playing time here as well. Darryl Johnson Jr. and Julian Stanford both hit 92% this week, while Siran Neal reached 84%.