Week 6 Snap Count Analysis: Bucs vs. 49ers

The Bucs had significant contributions by young wide receivers Tez Johnson and Kameron Johnson on Sunday afternoon with Emeka Egbuka unable to finish the game with a hamstring injury. Tez Johnson made the play of the day with a 45-yard touchdown catch on a deep ball from Mayfield, while Kameron Johnson led the team with four catches for 64 yards and touchdown. Each score by the receivers were the first of their NFL careers.

This also led to them playing the highest amount of offensive snap percentage in their careers with Tez Johnson at 72% and Kameron Johnson at 49%, which is not surprising after Egbuka’s (53%) departure. Sterling Shepard’s snap number increased by 8%, getting to 49%, but seeing Tez Johnson with the most snaps among receiver shows Tampa Bay’s faith in the rookie receiver.

Who knows who’s going to be available for next Monday’s game with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin Jr. on the shelf and now with Egbuka hurt? But Tampa Bay is still well equipped to compete with the rest of its young wide receivers.

Tight end Cade Otton is officially an iron man having played 100% of the snaps on Sunday. He continued to have an impact in the passing game for another week in a row making five catches for 51 yards in a good performance. Tampa Bay finally had a game where it was playing with a bigger lead than usual in the fourth quarter, which allowed the team to run the ball more.

Because of that, and the fact that the Bucs didn’t have Egbuka at receiver, they leaned on more two tight end sets, giving Payne Durham 45% of the snaps and more involvement than in recent games. Third-string tight end Devin Culp even got in on three plays.

Rachaad White dominated the amount of snaps at running back at 77%, though technically it’s a 3% drop off from a week ago. He had his imprint on the game in several areas as per usual. Sean Tucker had his play increase by just 2%, but he made an impact, scoring his first touchdown of the season. It’s evident that with Bucky Irving out, they’re going to rely heavily on White while sprinkling in Tucker on certain situations.

Bucs Defense

A big difference in overall snap counts was outside linebacker Yaya Diaby having a pretty big drop going from 77% of the snaps last week to 64% on Sunday. The fresher he was, the better it became for Tampa Bay, as he recorded a team-high two sacks, which was by far his most productive game of the season. Anthony Nelson get the extra playing time at outside linebacker jumping up to 32%.

Tampa Bay has put more on the plate of rookie defensive tackle Elijah Roberts as his play increased all the way up to 51%. This allowed for Vita Vea to have less wear and tear on his body, as his snap count percentage dropped down to 72%. Yet Roberts also played more than Logan Hall, who saw time on the field 48% of the snaps. The rookie split a sack with Vea, as the team recorded a season-high six sacks on the afternoon.

Much of the snaps remained relatively the same in the secondary and that likely helped lead to more continuity and a pair of interceptions. Rookie Jacob Parrish once again played 97% of the snaps, while Kindle Vildor went from 56% last week to 57% this week.

And instead of Zyon McCollum playing all of the snaps, it was Jamel Dean in this time around. While McCollum was out due to a thumb injury Dean returned to action and arguably had the best game out of anyone on defense with a interception and a strip-sack. It was a bit surprising to see Christian Izien get just two snaps in his return from a quad injury, but with the defense playing so well in the second half, it’s hard to argue the results.

There were some slight adjustments at inside linebacker with SirVocea Dennis playing 88%, which was 4% less than last week. But Deion Jones played 12% compared to 13% a week ago, so it wasn’t a direct correlation of switching out the linebackers. The Bucs had some 4-3 defensive packages that got Jones on the field at the same time with Dennis. Regardless, it was a better showing from all the inside linebackers as they were involved in allowing just 19 points by the 49ers in a very important win.