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Welcome back to the snap report, a weekly feature where we look at the Chargers players involved in each offensive and defensive snap and track how players earn and lose playing time as the year continues. As always, these snap counts come from the NFL and the numbers are rounded to the nearest percent.
Last week, the Chargers once again won the time of possession and offensive play count battle, which tends to happen when the longest of your opponent's four touchdown drives lasts just 3:26. Meanwhile, the Chargers had a 9:20 drive that ended in a 26 yard field goal. Rough stuff. Here's the snap counts for the offense:
Once again, injuries along the offensive line came into play last week against the Broncos. Both King Dunlap and Nick Hardwick were forced to missed time, resulting in Chad Rinehart and Rich Ohrnberger getting a good amount of snaps.
It appears that Dunlap's injury will cause D.J. Fluker to make his first start at left tackle for the Chargers this week against the Dolphins. Fluker's versatility this season has been impressive, especially as a rookie, as the big man barely misses a beat when asked to step into another role. I know a lot of people were upset with this draft selection, but I think Fluker has done a lot this season to prove his selection and will be an important part of the Chargers' offensive foundation going forward.
Increased snaps for Ryan Mathews AND Ladarius Green? Sounds too good to be true!
Here's a look at the snap counts for the defense:
Donald Butler returned to the field against the Broncos, which is apparently bad news if your name is Andrew Gachkar or Reggie Walker. You'd think a player coming back from injury would be eased into game action, but I guess that's not how John Pagano rolls.
On the other hand, injuries to Larry English and Jarret Johnson meant a lot of playing time for Thomas Keiser and Tourek Williams.
It sounds as though I might be adding another name to the secondary this week, with Brandon Taylor possibly making his season debut after Jahleel Addae sprained his ankle in practice. It's always exciting to see a new player, and realistically, how much worse can he be for this secondary?