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Week 2 snap count: Injuries force new names with high counts

Injuries have led to changes even relative to Week 1 for the Denver Broncos. Here are the snap counts from their loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Denver Broncos v Pittsburgh Steelers Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images

Let me begin by mentioning the Denver Broncos players who did not play any offensive or defensive snaps: Joseph Jones, Trey Marshall, Derrek Tuszka, Austin Calitro, LeVante Bellamy, De’Vante Bausby, Davontae Harris, Austin Schlottmann, Calvin Anderson, Demar Dotson.

Dotson is conspicuous as he is the only member of the group to also not play a single special teams snap. Since our coverage teams were terrible against Pittsburgh, this group of mostly defensive players needs to step it up and wrap up on punt and kick-off returners. Joseph Jones played the most, 25 special teams snaps, which was 86% of all special teams snaps (he was one every special teams snap save the FG/XP team).

The game-day inactives for this game were: Tyrie Cleveland, Phillip Lindsay, Mark Barron, Netane Muti, Anthony Chickillo, Albert Okwuegbunam, Melvin Agim.

Offense

Player Position game 1 game 2
Elijah Wilkinson T 100% 100%
Dalton Risner G 100% 100%
Garett Bolles T 100% 100%
Graham Glasgow G 100% 100%
Drew Lock QB 100% 17%
Lloyd Cushenberry III C 100% 100%
Tim Patrick WR 85% 65%
DaeSean Hamilton WR 80% 44%
Jerry Jeudy WR 75% 57%
Noah Fant TE 73% 79%
Melvin Gordon RB 63% 79%
Phillip Lindsay RB 32% 0%
Jake Butt TE 27% 9%
Nick Vannett TE 27% 30%
Andrew Beck TE 10% 9%
Diontae Spencer WR 10% 4%
Royce Freeman RB 10% 21%
Tyrie Cleveland WR 8% 0%
Jeff Driskel QB 0% 83%
KJ Hamler WR 0% 62%
Courtland Sutton WR 0% 40%
Demar Dotson T 0% 0%
Calvin Anderson T 0% 0%
Austin Schlottmann G/C 0% 0%
LeVante Bellamy RB 0% 0%

Drew Lock played 13 snaps before getting hurt. Jeff Driskel played the remaining 64.

For the second game in a row our entire offensive line played the entire game. They did not play very well despite allowing the run game to generate 4.0 yards per carry, because our QBs were harassed early and often. Including non-plays we dropped back to pass 51 times on Sunday. Our QBs were pressured on 24 of those (47 percent) and hit on 19 of those including seven sacks. Don’t confuse this with the QBhit stat which only counts a QBhit when the QB is hit, but not sacked.

The running back group saw Melvin Gordon taking 61 snaps (79 percent) with Royce Freeman getting the other 16. As mentioned earlier Levante Bellamy was active but played no offensive snaps.

The tight end group saw Noah Fant getting 61 offensive snaps (like Gordon) and Nick Vannett a distant second at 23. Andrew Beck and Jake Butt each received seven apiece.

For the second straight game Tim Patrick got the most offensive snaps of the WR group with 50, but KJ Hamler (48) and Jerry Jeudy were close (44). DeSean Hamilton (34) and Courtland Sutton (31) also saw the field a great deal. Sadly those 31 snaps will be all we see of our best offensive player from 2019. Diontae Spencer got three offensive snaps but was not targeted.

Defense

Player Position game 1 game 2
Justin Simmons S 100% 100%
Alexander Johnson ILB 100% 100%
Kareem Jackson S 100% 100%
Bryce Callahan CB 99% 100%
Josey Jewell ILB 98% 97%
Michael Ojemudia CB 79% 100%
Jeremiah Attaochu OLB 74% 62%
Bradley Chubb OLB 73% 86%
Jurrell Casey DE 70% 78%
Essang Bassey CB 56% 72%
Shelby Harris DE 56% 51%
Mike Purcell NT 51% 63%
Dre'Mont Jones DE 47% 31%
Malik Reed OLB 41% 48%
A.J. Bouye CB 35% 0%
DeMarcus Walker DE 21% 6%
Trey Marshall S 1% 0%
Joseph Jones ILB 1% 0%
Duke Dawson CB/S 0% 6%
P.J. Locke S 0% 0%
Derrek Tuszka OLB 0% 0%
Austin Calitro ILB 0% 0%
Davontae Harris CB 0% 0%
De'Vante Bausby CB 0% 0%

While we had three defensive players play every defensive snap in game one, we had five do it in game two. Justin Simmons, Alexander Johnson, Kareem Jackson, Michael Ojemudia and Bryce Callahan. Ojemudia was forced in greater usage with the injury to A.J. Bouye.

We only had three OLBs who played defensive snaps with Bradley Chubb playing 86 percent (56 snaps), Jeremiah Attaochu 62 percent (40) and Malik Reed 48 percent (31). I worry that the heavy workload is going to hinder/slow the full recovery of Chubb. Chubb was more visible in this game with three tackles (all solo) including one TFL, but he still didn’t sniff the opposing QB which is worrisome.

According to pro-football-reference.com we only had three QBhits and one sack. Those QBhits were credited to Mike Purcell (he also had the sack), Dre’Mont Jones and Alexander Johnson. Remember a QBhit is not the same as a sack and counts separately, i.e. if you get a sack on a play you do NOT also get a QBhit.

Along the defensive line Jurrell Casey play 78 percent (51 snaps), Mike Purcell 63 percent (41), Shelby Harris 51 percent (33), Dre’Mont Jones 31 percent (20) and DeMarcus Walker six percent (4).

The inside linebackers saw Johnson getting all 65 defensive snaps with Josey Jewell on the field for 63. No other ILB got defensive snaps.

The cornerback group had the previously mentioned Ojemudia and Callahan taking every snap. Essang Bassey saw the next most action with 47 snaps for 72 percent. Duke Dawson was the only other CB (although he is a hybrid CB/S) to play defensive snaps with four. Despite being gameday active Bausby and Harris, who were both starters for us at various points in 2019, did not play a single defensive snap. They both lost out to an undrafted college free agent in Bassey.

No safety played any defensive snaps besides our two starters Simmons and Jackson. Trey Marshall did play 24 special teams snaps, though.