Snap Counts, Team Statistics Review from Commanders Season Opener

We will always keep an eye on snap counts throughout the season, but week one snap counts are always a little more important as it is the first time coaches show how they intend to deploy their guys. This will all come into even better focus after week two, when we have some variances to try and interpret. As the season progresses, we will work on a more pleasing format for this info, but out of the gate, let's break it down by position group. NOTE: we won't be tracking offensive line snap counts here this week.

Running Back

On offense, there was no real surprise at running back as Jacory Croskey-Merritt led the way with a 49% snap count share. His health going forward will likely dictate a slight bump there, as he showed himself to be a dynamic runner between the tackles, capable of picking up yards after contact. It was a good day on the ground, as our backs averaged 4.1 yards per carry, for 132 total yards. We didn't break any big ones, but Bill is capable.

Jacory Croskey-Merritt, 34 plays, 49%
Rachaad White, 29 plays, 41%
Kaytron Allen, 7 plays, 10%

Wide Receiver

I'm not sure if there is anything to read into the snap split between Antonio Williams and Jaylin Lane--it is quite clear Williams is going to be a factor on offense for the Commanders. To me, seeing Dyami Brown on the field for over half of the offensive snaps--and a considerable share higher than Williams--was a takeaway from David Blough's first rodeo. Veterans are typically afforded a higher degree of trust than rookies, but if any of us are betting, we would likely expect to see the gap between Brown and Williams close. That said, it also seems apparent that Brown is comfortable again back in Washington and back with Jayden Daniels. Every team has a Dyami Brown on it and none of those teams make it very far without their Dyami Brown making timely contributions. Our Dyami Brown happens to be the actual Dyami Brown, which I think can only be a feather in our cap. Jayden's 163 yards passing won't blow anyone's skirt up, and the four targets to Terry McLaurin will need to be increased, but nine different receivers were targeted, with eight of them recording a catch. In the future, we would all expect Daniels to get more out his 34 pass attempts, but that Philly defense had a lot to do with those difficulties.

Terry McLaurin, 61 plays, 87%
Stefon Diggs, 44 plays, 63%
Dyami Brown, 37 plays, 53%
Antonio Williams, 26 plays, 37%
Jaylin Lane, 18 plays, 26%

Tight End

No surprise that we worked four tight ends into the game, with Chig and Bates leading the way in snap count. Maybe a little surprise stemming from Bates getting his number called a few times in high leverage situations? No argument from me...Bates is a guy we locked up on a multi-year deal and when he isn't making impact blocks, I do expect Jayden to find him for critical completions. We will need more than 29 yards receiving out of this group.

Chig Okonkwo, 39 plays, 56%
John Bates, 34 plays, 49%
Ben Sinnott, 18 plays, 26%
Colson Yankoff, 2 plays, 3%

Defensive Tackle

We had a nice four-man rotation at DT this week, with Shy Tuttle logging nearly a third of the defensive snaps on the bottom of the rotation. Payne and Kinlaw performed well, but more importantly, there wasn't a lot of dropoff when Settle and Tuttle were on the field. Javon got the sole TFL for this group, as we will all be watching for Payne to step up this week as he always does against the Cowboys.

Daron Payne, 34 plays, 62%
Javon Kinlaw, 32 plays, 58%
Tim Settle, 19 plays, 35%
Shy Tuttle, 16 plays, 29%

Defensive End

This is where that "new car smell" is strongest, with four of the five guys snapping at DE being new to the fam. Watching #98 work was so much fun--offseason money very well-spent. In short, I thought the new look pass rush passed the eye test and the sniff test, but that is also two straight smell references so we better move on.

Odafe Oweh, 46 plays, 84%
K'Lavon Chaisson, 42 plays, 76%
Charles Omenihu, 29 plays, 53%
Joshua Josephs, 13 plays, 24%
Javontae Jean-Baptiste, 9 plays, 16%

Linebacker

Another area of the defense that has been significantly revamped (in conjunction with the pass rush/edge/OLB spots), our linebacking corps was paced by rookie Sonny Styles who came ready to play in his NFL debut. I just can't say enough about how much better we look at this level of our defense. We saw the difference on the field--it is a difference that will be responsible for wins sooner rather than later. These guys tallied three TFL's, two sacks and put some quality hits on the quarterback.

Sonny Styles, 48 plays, 87%
Frankie Luvu, 29 plays, 53%
Leo Chenal, 23 plays, 42%
Jordan Magee, 9 plays, 16%
Kain Medrano, 0 plays, 0%

Cornerback

This position group is going to have a couple tough moments in film study this week as they work to limit the big plays. Of Jalen Hurts' 203 passing yards, almost 70% of those yards came on three receptions. Everybody is piling up on Mikey, including a rare callout from Dan Quinn on the mic at his presser, but this group is going to have to rally around each other ahead of a showdown with an offense (Dallas) that has serious deep threats (CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens). I thought Rasul Douglas made the most of his time on the field, getting his name called out for making plays and potentially making the case for increased playing time.

Amik Robertson, 55 plays, 100%
Mike Sainristil, 54 plays, 98%
Rasul Douglas, 17 plays, 31%
Fabian Moreau, 0 plays, 0%

Safety

The confusion on the back end of the defense that led to or contributed to the big plays in the Eagles passing game will require some cleanup assistance from our safeties. Nick Cross' Commanders debut was a huge success in my book as he performed as advertised against both the run and the pass. Cross led the way for the defense with eight total tackles, including two tackles for loss. Our top four tacklers were defensive backs, which is fine, but you want to make sure and see those linebackers piling up more tackles than everyone else, as that usually means good things for a defense. Just because I will always look for reasons to say his name, Tyler Owens didn't factor into our safety snap count...but he was a FACTOR.

Jeremy Reaves, 55 plays, 100%
Nick Cross, 54 plays, 98%
Quan Martin, 21 plays, 38%
Percy Butler, 0 plays, 0%
Tyler Owens, 0 plays, 0%