Snap Count Notes: Colts at Bills Preseason Week 1

Buffalo Bills snap count notes are a bit more meaningful in the regular season, where the team isn’t as likely to tinker just for the heck of it, but there’s likely some good data during the preseason. Let’s take a look and see how things look from the team’s Week 1 scrimmage against the Indianapolis Colts!

Offense (66 snaps)

We won’t examine the usual stuff like the 100% club, etc. but perhaps offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey wants to practice some of his offensive play-calling and tipped his hand on personnel groupings. It could happen!

The usual personnel stuff may not have too much rhyme or reason, which is why we don’t dive into it. For example, Derek Kerstetter and Jordan Simmons both played significant time on offense. They were cut. Jalen Wydermyer did not play significant time. He too was cut. So let’s talk raw numbers...

They don’t say a whole lot yet. If you add up the running back snaps they equal 100%, which means Buffalo did what they’ve been doing for quite some time at running back. That is, not using more than one at a time. This did change a bit last year, and some fullback snaps should be expected once the starters get some time.

At tight end, there was a surplus of 12%, which is the amount with two tight ends on the field. That’s not any sort of shift from last season so the numbers add up to one thing. Buffalo really did run a vanilla offense this week.

Defense (73 snaps)

Of note on the defensive side, a higher number of names that have a shot at starting or as rotational depth played. Kaiir Elam headlines that list, but A.J. Epenesa, Tim Settle Jr., and Boogie Basham stand out as well. Shaq Lawson could make a case too.

On the numbers side of things, the defensive line played it mostly straight rotation wise with the defensive ends at 201% and the tackles at 198% of snaps. Or in other words, there was likely one play with three defensive ends on the field.

Buffalo may have been trying to get a feel for more of their linebacker depth. They played nickel just 73% of the time, which is pretty low for the Bills.

Special teams (23 snaps)

On special teams, we’ll figure out the core guys when rosters are pared down. For now the main story doesn’t involve snap counts. The punter battle leaned toward Matt Araiza as he drilled one of the most impressive touchbacks I’ve ever seen and had no issues holding for Matt Haack.