Week 18 Snap Count Analysis: Bucs vs. Saints

There were obviously two important agendas for the game on Sunday and that was to win the game to win the division and get Mike Evans the ball so he could reach 1,000 yards for the 11th straight season. Each of these goals were accomplished and the Bucs heavily leaned into making sure Evans was out there as much as possible. Evans and Jalen McMillan were tied together for the most snaps amongst skill position players at 88%.

This was the most Evans has played percentage-wise in a game all season, just topping his 87% that he played in Week 5, and that was a game that went to overtime. However, the most snaps he’s played in a game this year was 67 in Week 12, whereas he played 59 on Sunday. It was well worth it all as he broke the record with 36 seconds to go, making for an all-time electric memory at Raymond James Stadium.

After missing last week with a hamstring injury, Sterling Shepard immediately went back to his role as the third wide receiver and played around his usual snap percentage between 55 and 70%. He landed at 63% on Sunday and has been quite the conversation piece amongst Bucs fans. Shepard had a bad drop once again in the game like he did in Week 16 and had a false start penalty.

But Shepard also made an incredible catch absorbing a big hit and continues to do a lot of the dirty work for the Bucs, so his role isn’t differing. With Shepard back, all the other receivers barely saw any playing time.

All the cards are on the table when it comes to the Bucs and their running backs. Tampa Bay is leaning heavy on Bucky Irving more and more each game. Last week, there was significant gap between Irving’s 55% and White playing at 36%. This week the gap grew even further as Irving played 72% and White was in for just 27%.

It the beginning of the game, the Bucs seemed a little too hyper-focused on getting Evans the ball for his record, and understandably so, because we all wanted it. They came out throwing a lot but still had Irving in the backfield maybe trying to fool the Saints. Typically White is in on the passing plays so it was a bit of a different wrinkle. We really only saw White in Pony packages when both running backs are in, and also on third downs when Tampa Bay was in shotgun.

While Irving ran the ball 19 times, White did not register a single rushing attempt. He did take one handoff, but the play was negated after a penalty. Even Sean Tucker had more attempts, getting two in the game. The overall passing game took a while to get going and the Saints did a good job attacking the screen game, so Irving ended up having minus-5 receiving yards while White had no catches and wasn’t even targeted.

It’ll be curious to see if the Bucs will continue to ride Irving this much in the postseason or if this is just what happened in the last two games. They’ve clearly established that Irving is the main runner, and White will do most of the work in the passing game as long as it’s successful. Tight ends Payne Durham and Devin Culp played their similar amounts, each having an impact again on the game.

Bucs Defense

A lot of shuffling had to go around for the Bucs in the secondary after the unfortunate news about Jordan Whitehead getting into a car accident on Saturday. Injuries suffered in that wreck will keep him out for the rest of the season, unfortunately. Mike Edwards was going to be starting the game anyway, and Kaevon Merriweather was moved into a starting role at strong safety in Whitehead’s absence. The Bucs also signed Ryan Neal from the practice squad, but he only played for eight snaps.

Edwards played 86% and exited the game in the fourth quarter with what turned out to be just leg cramping. Merriweather went the whole distance playing 100% of the snaps, joining cornerback Zyon McCollum and Lavonte David as the defensive players that were in the entire game. After playing 87% last week, Tykee Smith’s percentage dropped 20% down to 60 for this game.

Playing opposite of McCollum was Josh Hayes, who was in for 98% of the snaps for the injured Jamel Dean. The Saints certainly targeted him a fair amount and the Bucs benefited from some poor throws by Spencer Rattler. Tampa Bay continued with its rotation at inside linebacker opposite of David with J.J. Russell playing a majority of the time at 53% and K.J. Britt popping up here and there at 24%.

Shaq Barrett made his season debut in his next chapter with the Bucs. He said during the week that he couldn’t play a whole game right now. It looks like the plan is to get him on specific pass rushing third down situations as he played 12 snaps and 18%. This is how he should be utilized for the remainder of this run.

The rest of the outside linebackers had a similar rotation between Yaya Diaby, Anthony Nelson and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka although JTS had his numbers dip a bit more than usual.

The Bucs relied heavy on their two best defensive tackles Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey. It came up big late in the game as Vea had a very important sack in the fourth quarter to help Tampa Bay stay ahead. If the Bucs want to make a run in this postseason, these two have to continue dominating to give the defense the best chance to win.