PatsFans.com Article

Total snaps taken by the 2011 Pats offense
By: John Morgan

Here is a look at who was on the field for the 1,134 offensive plays that the New england patriots ran in 2011....

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BlueThunder

Not to derail this but Gronk played 2 snaps on defense last year. Anyone know what position it was and why?

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patchick

I'm always interested in snap counts, but I wish rankings like this would indicate whether a player missed any games due to injury, being signed/activated mid-season, etc. That can really change the interpretation of the raw total.

Deus Irae

This past season is a perfect example of that. Mayo and McCourty both missed a pair of games, which is how Arrington finished above them in defensive snaps.

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patchick

And when you account for the games Hernandez missed, he played about 85% of the snaps, close to Welker's total. Really underlines that he and Gronk play totally separate positions.

brdmaverick

I don't actually recall it, but I can guarantee they were Hail Mary situations at the end of the game or half.

Randy Moss got an interception in Denver in 2009 on one of those kinds of plays.

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jmt57

I recall him being on the field as a safety in a Hail Mary situation once, similar to how they placed Randy Moss on defense a few times when he was with the Pats. I would assume the 2nd snap on defense was the same situation.

Were you thinking that they had him lined up as a pass rushing OLB/DE?

jmt57

That's a great point.


Let's start at tackle.

4. Matt Light (1034) 91.18%
8. Nate Solder (862) 76.01%
13. Sebastian Vollmer (336) 29.63%

You could speculate that about 8% of the snaps Light missed went to Solder, bringing Solder's percentage down to about 68% - which would all be replacing Vollmer's snaps (about 98% between the two of them). The wild card in all this is how much time Solder was at TE.



On the other hand you have this at WR, which was not injury related:

9. Deion Branch (820) 72.31%
15. Chad Ochocinco (324) 28.57%

Again, that adds up to close to 100% of the snaps.



Back to the line, you have this for the interior OL:

2. Brian Waters (1111) 97.97%
6. Logan Mankins (990) 87.3%
10. Dan Connolly (764) 67.37%
14. Ryan Wendell (328) 28.92%
17. Marcus Cannon (157) 13.84%
19. Nick McDonald (106) 9.35%
20. Donald Thomas (104) 9.17%
24. Dan Koppen (32) 2.82%

Based on the numbers further above I would guess that Cannon spent about 4-5% of his time at tackle (with Solder at TE) and the rest at guard. I had forgotten how much time Connolly missed, resulting in Wendell, McDonald and Thomas filling in at center due to his injury, as well as their getting playing time due to Mankins' injury.



The only thing to me that stands out is that I expected BJGE's percentage to be higher and Ridley's to be lower.

11. BenJarvus Green-Ellis (392) 34.57%
12. Danny Woodhead (367) 32.36%
16. Stevan Ridley (191) 16.84%
21. Kevin Faulk (87) 7.67%
25. Shane Vereen (26) 2.29%
26. Dane Fletcher (13) 1.15%
28. Lousaka Polite (10) 0.88%

Other than the split between BJGE and Woodhead at RB, there is a definite line between the starters and the backups; look at the dropoff after the number ten spot:

10. Dan Connolly (764) 67.37%
11. BenJarvus Green-Ellis (392) 34.57%

I think the number and percentage of defensive snaps might be more interesting to break down. Barring injury the only question on the 2011 Pats offense was which running back and whether or not Connolly would have replaced Koppen at some point. Other than Branch taking snaps away from Ochocinco I don't see anybody losing snaps due to ineffectiveness as opposed to injury. Defensive snaps are surely different.

brdmaverick

That's not to say however, that for almost 100% of the plays either Branch or Ocho were on the field. I bet a lot of the snaps occurred wiht both on the field at the same time.

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jmt57

Yes, that is true. There were some snaps with both on the field at the same time, and some with neither on the field. However, I'm sure the vast majority were with either one or the other, and not both.


That comment was in response to patchick's comment about how many snaps (or lack of) were injury related. The splits between Branch and Ochocinco were not injury related.