Buffalo Bills snap counts vs. Seattle Seahawks: Injuries and game plan impact numbers

I know a lot of people, myself included, who talked about how the Buffalo Bills could beat the Seattle Seahawks. There wasn’t a lot of the Buffalo Bills will beat the Seattle Seahawks though. I think that technically makes this an upset, but perhaps we need to stop considering any Bills win an upset at this point. This wasn’t a lucky break kinda game as even the turnovers were almost completely skill based. Let’s see who contributed and how much in this thrilling victory.

Offense (68 snaps)

The offensive line has struggled with injuries this year. Jon Feliciano came back last week at guard and almost immediately went to center after Mitch Morse exited with a concussion. That swap remained for this week too and Cody Ford returned to the lineup. Briefly. He was replaced by Ike Boettger. Brian Winters and Darryl Williams also left the field for a bit with injuries, being replaced respectively by Ryan Bates and Ty Nsekhe. That leaves the 100% club half the desired amount with Josh Allen, Dion Dawkins, and Feliciano reaching that number.

The Bills essentially ignored the running game until the very end of the game so let’s see if the snap counts reflect that.

Stefon Diggs was actually a touch lower than normal. John Brown and Cole Beasley were around their normal snap counts. Isaiah McKenzie and Jake Kumerow both saw a few plays as well. McKenzie had the honor of opening up the scoring and had a heck of a day for only five snaps. Believe it or not, the overall WR snaps were a touch low.

The tight end group hit over 100% snaps as a group, which has been rare for the Bills. Against the Kansas City Chiefs this dipped below 70% and last week’s 90% of the time seemed like an anomaly. Tyler Kroft and Dawson Knox were pretty even. Reggie Gilliam was in his usual three spot but saw a decent bump in playing time.

At the running back spot, Zack Moss had the edge this week over Devin Singletary by a small margin. Based on counts, there was one play in which both were on the field at the same time.

Defense (65 snaps)

The 100% club was in decent shape this week. Tremaine Edmunds, Jordan Poyer, Levi Wallace, and Micah Hyde all hit the mark. All four looked to be in their “last year” game shape with Tremaine Edmunds looking like his earlier injury is finally behind him. Tre’Davious White was replaced by Dane Jackson at the end of the game and is a situation worth monitoring for next week. A.J. Klein, who fans had been asking to see much less of this week, was given MORE time against the Seahawks. For this week, the correct way to feel about this is “Happy to have been wrong.”

As is our typical nickel watch, Taron Johnson sets the floor with 68% of snaps. Adding in Dean Marlowe and Siran Neal we land at a perfect 100% of nickel snaps for this week. With Seattle’s running back room decimated and Russell Wilson the obvious threat, the Bills played the pass all game.

For defensive ends, Jerry Hughes edged out Mario Addison by one snap. Addison, however, likely filled in for the three linebacker snaps that kept Klein from joining the 100% club this week. Trent Murphy—who I’d consider better at playing the run—fell off a bit this week. A.J. Epenesa and Darryl Johnson round out the snap counts at the position.

Harrison Phillips who led the tackles last week was a healthy scratch as the Bills said a big “nope” to run defense this week. Quinton Jefferson and Ed Oliver returned to the top of the heap. Vernon Butler and Justin Zimmer were the “backup” crew but still saw significant playing time.

Special Teams (34 snaps)

First off, that’s a lot of ****ing snaps for special teams. This doesn’t happen unless there’s a shootout as every score doubles up on special teams snaps (FG or XP, plus kickoff). Tyler Matakevitch still led the way with 74% of play time in this phase. It was a steep cliff from there though as the high-scoring affair skewed the type of plays that occurred. Jaquan Johnson was next up at 56%. He was followed by Siran Neal, Andre Smith, and Tyler Bass at 53%. Remember that kickers don’t usually show up on the list of highest snap counts.