Stat Snip: Playoff Prep - Tight End Change Up

Since the Broncos have a bye week coming up I thought I'd take a look and see what trends were taking place near the end of the regular season to see if we can comment on these changes and take a look at what effect they may have on the post-season.

As in past weeks this tidbits of statistics won't be indepth, rather they are just a cursory look at a few different metrics to see how they might explain a topic. Hope you enjoy.

Tight End Switch Up:

During the majority of the season Jacob Tamme has been taking the 2nd most snaps behind Joel Dreessen as the receiving tight end but since the return of Virgil Green he's seen his snaps go down. While Dreessen's snap percentage has remained the same, between 70%-75%, Tamme's have been in decline. Tamme had been taking around 50%-55% of the total snaps over the past eight weeks Green has been on the rise. That's not to say Tamme has fallen from grace because that's not true, he's getting just as many targets as before, but he's losing snaps because he's not as versatile as Green and Dreessen. While it's clear Joel Dreessen is the #1 tight end because he can block and receive so well, Tamme was always so limited because while he's a good receiver, he's not much of a blocker.

Since Green's return from his suspension he seems to have proven his ability to both block and catch have earned him a bigger role in the offense. Since his return he's played in an average of 21% of the teams snaps but it's been steadily growing over the past few weeks. While he has yet to surpass Tamme regularly in snaps, he is slow sapping them away.

To get a better idea of when they are using Green I went back and rewatched his role in the previous games. After doing that I came to the conclusion that Green would come in on 2nd and 3rd downs as the 2nd tight end (either to Dreessen or Tamme) when versatility is important. On those downs being able to receiver or block, depending on what Peyton Manning sees, is more important that one or the other.