The NFL season is a grind, especially now that the league has expanded to 17 games. Players deal with aches and pains, even if they aren’t showing up on the injury report and missing games.
But not every player can be on the field for every snap of a season. Injuries and personnel packages make it difficult for any player to have a chance of playing all 1,000-plus snaps.
According to Greg Auman of Fox Sports, only nine offensive players played the entire 2024 NFL season without missing a snap. Two of those were Vikings left guard Blake Brandel and center Garrett Bradbury. They played all 1,117 snaps.
Brandel, in his fifth season, became a full-time starter in 2024. Although Pro Football Focus (PFF) ranks him 64th out of 77 guards, he has been reliable in availability. It should be noted that right guard Ed Ingram was replaced for on-field performance, not Brandel. He also played all 90 snaps on the field goal team.
Bradbury is ranked 29th of 43 centers, but his grasp of the playbook and offensive line calls make him the most important player on the offensive line. He will never make an All-Pro appearance, but Bradbury’s availability kept the Vikings from being forced to put Dan Feeney or rookie Michael Jurgens in the lineup during their first years with the team.
The other seven players on the list were also offensive linemen. It makes sense for a few reasons. First, teams usually activate only seven or eight linemen for games. So even if a game gets out of hand, teams can’t pull their entire line.
Second, offensive linemen usually don’t get substituted in and out of lineups during a game. Most other positions have different personnel packages requiring different players or positions to combat certain situations.
The Vikings had three other players who played at least 1,000 snaps on offense. This included Sam Darnold (1,110), Brian O’Neill (1,100), and Justin Jefferson played (1,043).
