As we continue to break down the Tennessee Titans’ painful Week 1 loss to the New Orleans Saints, it’s time to take a look at how the team divvied up the snaps.
One of the things we’re most interested to see is how the Titans deployed two of their young studs on offense, tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo and wide receiver Treylon Burks, both of whom didn’t get nearly enough snaps in 2022.
Buy Titans TicketsSomething that was apparent in Week 1 before even getting a gander at the snap counts was the Titans didn’t have running back Derrick Henry on the field enough.
But exactly how many snaps did he see? And how many did his backfield mate, rookie Tyjae Spears, get in comparison?
All of those questions on offense and more on defense get answered as we take a look at the Titans’ snap counts on both sides of the ball from their season-opening loss to the Saints.
Snap counts and analysis: Offense
-How Tyjae Spears out-snapped Derrick Henry in a game where Henry was great in the first half and the Titans lost by one point is beyond me. As much as I like Tyjae Spears, this shouldn’t have happened.
-It was encouraging to see Treylon Burks play a career-high 57 snaps and more than any other receiver, but he only saw three targets.
-The same can be said for Chig Okonkwo’s career-high 52 snaps, but as was the case with Burks, he didn’t see nearly enough looks with only two targets.
-Nick Westbrook-Ikhine (51) played more snaps than DeAndre Hopkins (49), and Chris Moore (nine) was nowhere to be found, even though I think he’s a better receiver than NWI. And it’s not like the Titans ran the ball a ton and needed NWI’s blocking skills. NWI had the second-most targets, also.
-Rookie Josh Whyle played just two snaps.
Snap counts and analysis: Defense
-Sean Murphy-Bunting and Kevin Byard were the only defenders to play every snap.
-Kristian Fulton, who suffered a hamstring injury during the game before returning late, played just 21 snaps.
-Arden Key wasn’t an every-down player for Tennessee in Week 1, with Key seeing the field for 55 percent of the plays (36 snaps) in his Titans debut.
-Monty Rice didn’t see a single snap on defense, while Jack Gibbens played 42 alongside Azeez Al-Shaair, who led the way among linebackers with 64. We thought Rice would at least play a rotational role, but that was not the case in Week 1.
-Tennessee’s two slot corners, Elijah Molden and Roger McCreary, both played significant snaps, with McCreary seeing 57 and Molden 49. Some of that likely had to do with Fulton missing a lot of the game due to injury.
-After head coach Mike Vrabel hinted he might manage Harold Landry’s snaps, the Boston College product ended up playing 57 of the 65 plays. Whatever the case may be, it was a good sign to see Landry was able to handle that many in his first game back.
-Trevis Gipson was almost non-existent, seeing the field for just seven snaps. It’s possible that was a result of him still having to get acclimated in the defense. Rashad Weaver didn’t play much, either, seeing just nine snaps.
