Not much to say about Sunday’s game other than it was as frustrating as the rest of them. The Bolts were without a few more starters and it showed against the Carolina Panthers.
On to Tampa Bay.
Here are the Week 3 snap counts along with my notes and thoughts.
Offense
Notes
- Ekeler’s snap share shot way up this week after splitting opportunities almost down the middle with Kelley against the Chiefs. We’ll still have to wait and see if that’s the case going forward but good things seem to keep happening the more they feed Ekeler. Kelley is still fit for the short-yardage role, however so he’s not fading into irrelevancy anytime soon.
- After all five starting offensive linemen in Week 1 played 100% percent of the snaps against the Bengals, no more than three have hit that threshold in either Week 2 or Week 3. The injury bug that has followed around both Trai Turner and Bryan Bulaga through their careers has finally started to rear its head.
- 2020 seventh-round pick K.J. Hill played a career-high in snaps but let a short drag route bounce off his hands late in the game. It was an unfortunate event for the rookie who was lauded as having some of the best hands on the team in training camp.
- The Bolts didn’t use as many multiple-tight end sets this week compared to last week against the Chiefs. While all three played on Sunday, the second most tight end snaps came from Virgil Green with 12 of the 78 possible.
Defense
Notes
- This was the first game in which Chris Harris Jr. didn’t play 100% of the snaps. However, that was unfortunately due to him getting his ankle rolled up on. As far as we know, it wasn’t too serious of an injury. According to Anthony Lynn, Harris is seeing the doctors and getting MRIs today. We’ll likely see something from the team about it tomorrow.
- With Melvin Ingram and Justin Jones available, guys like Jerry Tillery and Linval Joseph were forced to play quite a few more snaps than they have been in the prior two games. That lack of rest showed when the Panthers were able to run between the tackles at will during the first half. With neither of those two coming back until after Week 5, the Bolts will have to find more usable bodies or those two will need to find another level of conditioning before the team heads to Tampa Bay.
- Kenneth Murray sat out for a handful of plays near the end of the game and I’m not entirely sure why. For a bit there, Denzel Perryman and Kyzir White were the two linebackers in Nickel, which shouldn’t be the case if it can be helped. Hopefully we don’t see an injury designation for Murray on Wednesday’s practice report.
Special Teams
Notes
- All the guys brought up from the practice squad, aside from offensive guard Ryan Groy, played only special teams on Sunday. No surprise there and it’s probably how it should have worked out, anyway.