Broncos snap counts and analysis for the loss to the Lions

Here’s who played and who didn’t during the Denver Broncos 42-17 blowout loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 15.

The Denver Broncos have way more holes than the true Super Bowl contenders like the Detroit Lions and what we witnessed on Saturday was what happens when a team with too many holes on the roster meets a team with far fewer holes.

Offense

The offensive line all played all the offensive snaps except Mike McGlinchey who missed three snaps. Cameron Fleming played three snaps for him when he was hurting. Quinn Bailey played four snaps as the sixth offensive lineman.

Javonte Williams played 31 snaps and Samaje Perine played 25 for the running backs. Jaleel McLaughlin played eight. Williams was not very effective, but all of the running backs were having to make tacklers miss behind the LOS as the Lions’ DL was winning the LOS just like the Lions’ OL was winning the LOS. Michael Burton played nine snaps.

Adam Trautman played 30 snaps while Lucas Krull played a career high 29. Krull’s heavy playing time might have hurt or running game as he is significantly worse at blocking than the other two tight ends who play. Chris Manhertz played sixteen offensive snaps.

Courtland Sutton played 60 offensive snaps (94%) while Jerry Jeudy played 40 and LJ Humphrey 37. Marvin Mims played 27 and Brandon Johnson played only four.

For the first time this season Jarrett Stidham got some snaps, getting four snaps at the end of the game. He handed off on all four. The Broncos got 26 of their 83 rushing yards on that final drive when the game was already effectively over. Prior to that drive they had 23 carries for 58 yards – 2.52 YPC. The kneel-down at the end of the first half has been removed because it shouldn’t count as a rushing attempt.

Luke Wattenberg and Dwayne Washington were the only offensive active players who did not play any offensive snaps.

Defense

Four defensive players played every defensive snap: Justin Simmons, Patrick Surtain, Alex Singleton and Fabian Moreau.

Our other safety, PJ Locke played 56 snaps. Delarrin Turner-Yell played one snap. So we had quite a few plays with only one safety on the field.

Ja’Quan McMillian played 46 snaps as CB3 while Riley Moss played one snap as CB4.

At the other ILB, Josey Jewell played 47 snaps.

At OLB, Baron Browning played 60 snaps (91%) while Jonathan Cooper played 56. Drew Sanders played eleven and Thomas Incoom played seven. Incoom was game-day active for the first time in a long time with Nik Bonitto being out with injury.

On the defensive line, Zach Allen played the most with 48 snaps. Despite that he was almost completely shut out tallying only one QBhit. Similarly, Browning had two tackles and one QBhit. Our two best front seven players were almost completely nullified by the Detroit OL.

Mike Purcell and DJ Jones played 38 and 36 snaps while Jonathan Harris, Matt Henningsen and Tyler Lancaster played 28, 17 and 11.

Defensive players who played no defensive snaps were Tremon Smith, Justin Strnad, and Damarri Mathis. Mathis has been passed on the depth chart by Riley Moss.