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Denver Broncos game 2 snap count and analysis

Who played and how much?

NFL: Houston Texans at Denver Broncos Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

An ugly win by the Denver Broncos is still a win and it’s better than a pretty loss.

Offense

Player Pos Num Pct
Dalton Risner G 72 100%
Garett Bolles T 72 100%
Graham Glasgow G 72 100%
Cameron Fleming T 72 100%
Russell Wilson QB 72 100%
Lloyd Cushenberry III C 72 100%
Courtland Sutton WR 66 92%
Kendall Hinton WR 55 76%
Javonte Williams RB 47 65%
Albert Okwuegbunam TE 38 53%
Tyrie Cleveland WR 31 43%
Eric Saubert TE 26 36%
Eric Tomlinson TE 24 33%
Melvin Gordon RB 23 32%
Andrew Beck TE 21 29%
Montrell Washington WR 12 17%
Jerry Jeudy WR 10 14%
Mike Boone RB 7 10%

Our offensive line played all 72 offensive snaps, but Graham Glasgow got shoved back into the backfield on too many plays for my liking. I guess his ability to pass block outweighs his seeming liability (relative to Netane Muti) as a run blocker. Fleming looked good in the run game again this week. The offensive line has not been called for holding on any passing plays yet this season.

The Broncos have only been called for offensive holding three times and one was on the jet sweep to Montrell Washington when Melvin Gordon got called for holding down the field. The other two were on Lloyd Cushenberry on running plays.

That call on Gordon led to an odd situation. Because the holding occurred downfield well beyond the line to gain, the Broncos gained a first down but were penalized after the first down. The next play was first and 1 from Houston 45. The penalty occurred at the Houston 35. The ball was spotted at the Denver 46 before the run. I can’t say that I have ever seen a first and one from midfield in 30+ years of playing and watching football.

The running back snaps were heavily weighted in Javonte Williams’ favor. He got 47, while Gordon got 23 and Mike Boone got 7. Williams got 15 carries and four targets on his 47 snaps while Gordon got 10 carries and one target on his 23. Boone didn’t see the ball on offense.

Albert Okweugbunam got the most snaps of the TE group, but we used all four tight ends quite a bit. Despite playing the most Albert had two targets and zero catches. He had another drop in this game on a 3rd down play where he had plenty of room to gain the first down if he had caught the ball. The Erics (Saubert and Tomlinson) played 26 and 24 snaps on offense while Andrew Beck played 21 snaps. Unlike game one, Beck only touched the ball once on offense - on that WFT? FB/TE speed option on 3rd and 1 in the 3rd quarter.

Jerry Jeudy leaving with a rib injury meant that he only played 10 offensive snaps. Courtland Sutton again was the primary target of the offense playing 66 of 72 offensive snaps and getting 11 of 31 targets. Kendall Hinton played a relatively quiet 55 snaps on offense one week after being called up from the PS. He was targeted one time and he a catch for 20 yards. Tyrie Cleveland played 31 snaps while Washington played 12. Cleveland had three targets; Washington had one.

According to PFR, Bronco receivers have five drops so far through two games. It feels like there have been more than that. For comparison, in 2019 on 516 passes, Seahawk receivers only dropped 17. Russ has had five on 73 so far this year. PFR shows that no Bronco receiver has more than one drop, but that doesn’t jive with my memory.

Calvin Anderson was the only offensive player who played on special teams but played zero offensive snaps. Brett Rypien, Netane Muti and Luke Wattenberg did not play at all from the offensive group.

Defense

Ronald Darby CB 63 100%
Caden Sterns FS 63 100%
Kareem Jackson SS 63 100%
Alex Singleton LB 60 95%
Dre'Mont Jones DE 53 84%
K'Waun Williams CB 50 79%
Bradley Chubb LB 48 76%
D.J. Jones DT 43 68%
Randy Gregory DE 43 68%
Damarri Mathis DB 38 60%
Baron Browning LB 30 48%
DeShawn Williams DT 28 44%
Jonas Griffith LB 26 41%
Patrick Surtain II CB 25 40%
Mike Purcell NT 24 38%
Matt Henningsen DE 17 27%
P.J. Locke FS 15 24%
Jonathon Cooper LB 4 6%

With Justin Simmons out Caden Sterns played every defensive snap alongside Kareem Jackson at safety. P.J. Locke played 15 defensive snaps when we used three safeties (heavy nickel).

Four cornerbacks played defensive snaps. Ronald Darby played all 63, while K’Waun Williams played 50. Patrick Surtain was limited to 25 because of injury and rookie Damarri Mathis played 38 snaps in his place.

The heavies on the defensive line played 43 (DJ Jones), 28 (DeShawn Williams) and 24 (Mike Purcell) snaps. Dre’Mont Jones and Matt Henningsen played 53 and 17 snaps.

The outside linebackers had Bradley Chubb playing 48, Randy Gregory 43, Baron Browning 30 and Jonathon Cooper 4 snaps.

Alex Singleton hardly left the field at ILB (60 of 63 snaps) while Jonas Griffith played on only 26 snaps on defense.

Defensive players who played zero defensive snaps included Justin Strnad, Aaron Patrick, Essang Bassey, Delarrin Turner-Yell, and Darius Phillips. Patrick had a nice tackle on punt coverage.

Special teams

Player Pos Num Pct
Eric Saubert TE 22 85%
P.J. Locke FS 21 81%
Jonathon Cooper LB 21 81%
Justin Strnad LB 21 81%
Aaron Patrick LB 21 81%
Tyrie Cleveland WR 18 69%
Andrew Beck TE 18 69%
Essang Bassey CB 18 69%
Jonas Griffith LB 14 54%
Montrell Washington WR 12 46%
Delarrin Turner-Yell DB 11 42%
Corliss Waitman P 9 35%
Jacob Bobenmoyer LS 9 35%
Brandon McManus K 9 35%
Mike Boone RB 8 31%
Damarri Mathis DB 8 31%
Mike Purcell NT 8 31%
Dalton Risner G 4 15%
Garett Bolles T 4 15%
Graham Glasgow G 4 15%
Cameron Fleming T 4 15%
DeShawn Williams DT 4 15%
Calvin Anderson T 4 15%
Bradley Chubb LB 3 12%
D.J. Jones DT 2 8%
Darius Phillips CB 2 8%
Ronald Darby CB 1 4%
Alex Singleton LB 1 4%
Dre'Mont Jones DE 1 4%
K'Waun Williams CB 1 4%
Randy Gregory DE 1 4%
Matt Henningsen DE 1 4%

Our core special teams guys (not counting K, P and LS) appear to be Saubert, Locke, Cooper, Strnad and Patrick. All had 21 or more special teams snaps (of a possible 26). Cleveland, Beck, and Bassey each had 18. I found it interesting that Chubb (3) and Gregory (1) both played on special teams albeit sparingly. Chubb might be on the FG/PAT block team, but I have no idea why Gregory was in on a special teams snap given his injury history.