Surprising Look Inside Bears Snap Count
Sean Jensen does some excellent work breaking down the Bears’ offensive and defensive snaps for each player and there are quite a few surprises. Here’s a look at the offensive breakdown:
"OFFENSE1) Roberto Garza, J’Marcus Webb and Chris Williams with 459 snaps.2) Jay Cutler with 453 snaps.3) Matt Forte with 372 snaps.4) Devin Hester with 348 snaps.5) Chris Spencer with 342 snaps.6) Kellen Davis with 323 snaps.7) Lance Louis with 276 snaps.8) Johnny Knox with 273 snaps.9) Dane Sanzenbacher with 240 snaps.10) Frank Omiyale with 181 snaps.11) Roy Williams with 180 snaps.12) Sam Hurd with 153 snaps.13) Tyler Klutts with 133 snaps.14) Matt Spaeth with 114 snaps.15) Gabe Carimi with 100 snaps.16) Earl Bennett with 56 snaps.17) Marion Barber with 47 snaps.18) Kahlil Bell with 40 snaps.19) Edwin Williams with 24 snaps.20) Kyle Adams with 11 snaps.21) Caleb Hanie with 6 snaps."
Roberto Garza, Chris Williams and J’Marcus Webb have taken every offensive rep. That’s some stability on the left side of the line. It will be interesting to see how the offensive line shapes up with rookie Gabe Carimi coming off his injury. More to come on that subject in another post.
Thankfully, Jay Cutler is only 6 snaps behind the leaders; the 6 mop up snaps that Calen Hanie has taken.
Matt Forte’s 372 snaps shows just how versatile and important he is to this offense. And don’t let anyone tell you that Devin Hester isn’t the Bears’ #1 wide receiver; he leads the group with 348 snaps. The down side to that is that he’s only got 21 catches for 308 yards a 1 TD in all those snaps. Does that speak to the offense or Devin? Hmmm…
Mark undrafted rookie Dane Sanzenbacher as a pleasant surprise with 240 snaps while pressed into duty due to Earl Bennett’s chest injury. We’ll see how the rookie’s playing time changes with Earl schedule to come back in Week 9 against the Eagles.
I’m a little surprised the Marion Barber hasn’t seen more time with only 47 snaps. I know that he was hurt in the preseason and was slow to return to action and Forte has been playing out of his mind, but I’d look for Barber’s role to increase as the weather gets lousy and the Bears try to preserve Forte a bit to make another run at the playoffs. Check out the defensive breakdown after the jump.
"DEFENSE1) Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs with 491 snaps.2) Charles Tillman with 489 snaps.3) Tim Jennings with 485 snaps.4) Israel Idonije with 431 snaps.5) Julius Peppers with 413 snaps.6) Henry Melton with 315 snaps.7) Brandon Meriweather with 290 snaps.8) D.J. Moore with 275 snaps.9) Major Wright with 254 snaps.10) Amobi Okoye with 236 snaps.11) Nick Roach with 216 snaps.12) Matt Toeaina with 187 snaps.13) Anthony Adams with 185 snaps.14) Chris Harris with 181 snaps.15) Chris Conte with 150 snaps.16) Craig Steltz with 99 snaps.17) Nick Reed with 95 snaps.18) Stephen Paea with 71 snaps.19) Mario Addison with 18 snaps.20) Zack Bowman with 16 snaps.21) Corey Wootton with 12 snaps.22) Corey Graham with 1 snap."
My first impression is how even the number of offensive and defensive snaps are. 459 on offense, 491 on defense. No surprise that your best players – Urlacher and Briggs – are on the field the most for the defense.
Peanut Tillman and Tim Jennings are on the field just about every play as well and I have to give props to Jennings. He is one tough little SOB. I was very skeptical of him when the Bears brought him in, but he has done a decent job holding down the corner spot opposite Peanut.
The only reason that Izzy has most snaps among the defensive linemen is Peppers’ injury. I suppose if Wooten hadn’t gotten hurt he might have taken a few snaps from Idonije as well. It also speaks to how thin the Bears are at DE after Peppers and Izzy.
Obviously rookie Chris Conte will be getting a lot more time in the second half of the season, but also look for more contributions from Paea. The Bears need to see what they have in that rookie as well.