Preseason review to date: Snaps & Stats, position by position

[KB_fan]

Ok, I'm back to number crunching and will start posting data for the DEFENSE soon... but first the unfinished business from last night.  Here is the combined receiving data for Preseason Games 1 & 2.  This includes all WRs, and also the TEs and RBs who have had passing targets.

 

The colors for the names indicates the position played:  blue for WR, beige for TE, purple for RB.  I included Armah with the TEs...

The table is sorted in descending order by % of targets, that is, of the 55 total passes thrown in these 2 games, what % of targets went to a particular player.

As you can see, just over 50% of passing targets have gone to 4 players:  Moore, Samuel, CMC & Ian Thomas.  Clearly the focus is on getting these guys acclimated to this offense.  Moore & Thomas are obviously rookies.  Samuel had limited playing time last year due to injuries.  CMC is a crucial piece of the offense...

Not counting Fred Ross who is not listed as was injured and didn't play in either game (and was just waived), all the WRs but 2 have been targeted in the passing game.  Neither Bailey or Howard have yet had a passing target.

I was struck by Samuel & Moore's avg yards per reception.  Very nice.  They can definitely help the team if they can keep up this kind of explosiveness.   

CMC's & Samuel's completion % are both impressive at 86%.

Moore's lower completion % is not necessarily his fault.  The passing game was stuggling with the 1st team offense in game 2...

What strikes you all from this data?

[Steves89]

Thanks for this @KB_fan Outstanding as always. Most striking thing to me is CAP. I didnt think he played well the first game but seeing how far behind he is in yards bee target/touch (kudos on that stat btw’s) really makes it stand out. I think his jump in special teams snaps following a poor showing tells me that he might be on the bubble and the coaching staff is giving him an opportunity to stay with special teams play. I think the staff like him and want to keep a vet around but he’s just been outplayed plain and simple. 

My personal opinion is we screwed him and killed his motivation by not playing him. He was excellent last preseason, played well in limited action against Miami, and people forget he went for 80 yards and two TDs against a very stingy Minn defense  in 2016 when Stew was hurt. He played well in every opportunity but never got a shot even when the aging veteran ahead of him struggled. I just don’t think he cares and I think he’d be better off being the number 2 on a team that will actually give him a few carries per game.

my question is how do CAP’s snaps compare to barner with regards to role on special teams. Barner seems more a return guy which might be devalued on a team with so many whole CAP is more coverage which might help him sneak onto the 53 even if he gets outplayed as an RB  

my two cents  

 

 

[TheSpecialJuan]

1 hour ago, KB_fan said:

Ok, I'm back to number crunching and will start posting data for the DEFENSE soon... but first the unfinished business from last night.  Here is the combined receiving data for Preseason Games 1 & 2.  This includes all WRs, and also the TEs and RBs who have had passing targets.

 

The colors for the names indicates the position played:  blue for WR, beige for TE, purple for RB.  I included Armah with the TEs...

The table is sorted in descending order by % of targets, that is, of the 55 total passes thrown in these 2 games, what % of targets went to a particular player.

As you can see, just over 50% of passing targets have gone to 4 players:  Moore, Samuel, CMC & Ian Thomas.  Clearly the focus is on getting these guys acclimated to this offense.  Moore & Thomas are obviously rookies.  Samuel had limited playing time last year due to injuries.  CMC is a crucial piece of the offense...

Not counting Fred Ross who is not listed as was injured and didn't play in either game (and was just waived), all the WRs but 2 have been targeted in the passing game.  Neither Bailey or Howard have yet had a passing target.

I was struck by Samuel & Moore's avg yards per reception.  Very nice.  They can definitely help the team if they can keep up this kind of explosiveness.   

CMC's & Samuel's completion % are both impressive at 86%.

Moore's lower completion % is not necessarily his fault.  The passing game was stuggling with the 1st team offense in game 2...

What strikes you all from this data?

- It's pretty obvious we know the 6 WR's that will make the team. Torrey, Funchess, DJ, Wright, Samuel, and Byrd. Other WR's have played less, although Mose Frazier has played well I doubt he beats out Byrd due to Damiere's KR and PR abilities. 

- Damiere has some good tape on him this preseason and due to his age, speed, and low cap number might have trade value. If we decide to go with 5 WR's, Marty could get a 7th round pick for him instead of just cutting him. 

- No other TE on the roster has impressed enough to take Chris Manhertz 3rd TE spot. Even injured, Chris is still better than anyone else on the roster other than Olsen and Ian Thomas of course. 

[KB_fan]

3 minutes ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

No other TE on the roster has impressed enough to take Chris Manhertz 3rd TE spot. Even injured, Chris is still better than anyone else on the roster other than Olsen and Ian Thomas of course

Agree with you on this. It will be interesting to see if Manhertz makes the roster or starts on the PUP. 

Starting with only 2 TEs on the 53 would help the number crunch at other positions.

Armah has gotten reps with the TEs I believe. He could be emergency TE backup... 

[TheSpecialJuan]

3 minutes ago, KB_fan said:

Agree with you on this. It will be interesting to see if Manhertz makes the roster or starts on the PUP. 

Starting with only 2 TEs on the 53 would help the number crunch at other positions.

Armah has gotten reps with the TEs I believe. He could be emergency TE backup... 

Right. We may just move on from Chris altogether and sign another TE (Vander Laan) to the 10 man practice squad as injury insurance.  

[KB_fan]

Apologies for the long delay in getting around to posting the defensive stats... got distracted by some other stuff the past few days.

Anyway, here's a review of the defensive stats to date for each player during the 1st 2 preseason games.  I honestly didn't find the week by week comparison of the snap counts to have too much interesting info, so let me cut right to the chase and look at each player's stats in terms of tackles, sacks, QHs etc...

The table below is sorted by position group, and within each position group, it's sorted by the far right column, a stat I've created "impact / snap" - i.e. the total of tackles & other stats divided by total snaps played.

It's great to see guys like Obada, Haynes, Butler, Jermaine Carter & Corn Elder showing up so impressively in terms of their impact on the field and the game:

 

 

[KB_fan]

That above table is sorted by position group...  Here are the defensive stat leaders (per snap played) when you sort by stats/snap regardless of position.

Shaq is on fire!

6 of the top 10 defensive leaders in terms of stats/snap are LBs.

Obada leads the DEs

Butler leads the DTs

Colin Jones paces the Safeties

Corn Elder is the pick of the crop among the CBs.

[TheSpecialJuan]

38 minutes ago, KB_fan said:

That above table is sorted by position group...  Here are the defensive stat leaders (per snap played) when you sort by stats/snap regardless of position.

Shaq is on fire!

6 of the top 10 defensive leaders in terms of stats/snap are LBs.

Obada leads the DEs

Butler leads the DTs

Colin Jones paces the Safeties

Corn Elder is the pick of the crop among the CBs.

Obada has really impressed. It's going to be interesting to see if we keep in on the 10 man p-squad or if he makes the 53.

[KB_fan]

Given the various discussions and questions about players like CAP, CJ Anderson & Byrd, I thought it would be helpful to look at the breakdown of their rushing attempts and passing targets by which half of the games they occurred.

A better analysis would be snaps played with which offense/QB, but I can't do that quickly, and the following was quick and easy:

This covers preseason games 1-3.  Rushing attempts and pass targets for our main RBs and Receivers:

 

Two observations:

1) I hadn't realized CJ Anderson got ANY 1st half playing time.  So, seeing him get half his carries in game 2 in the first half, ahead of CAP, perhaps quiets the question of why is CAP always getting snaps ahead of him.  I'm now thinking the reason CJ Anderson hasn't gotten much early playing time is to really test whether CMC can be our feature back.  CMC has answered 100%.  I had not realized that NO OTHER BACK got a carry in the first half of gam 3 apart from CMC.  Wow.

However Barner has gotten NO 1st half carries, so this data doesn't really answer the question of whether we keep Barner over CAP or whether there is room for both.

 

2) Every time I've convinced myself that Byrd is safe, I find some other reason to worry.  It's really pretty surprising that he's had 0 targets i the first half of any of the 3 games...  (I don't know whether he's had any 1st half SNAPS apart, perhaps, from special teams... I'll try to find out.)  Really, the only way it looks like he'll likely be active right now is as a returner.  But then again, Norv may just be hiding part of the playbook too.  Let's hope so.  Hate it for a guy who has worked so hard.  I hope this proves to be meaningless data.

 

[RumHam]

lol torey smith. gtfo

[KB_fan]

Given all the talk of whether Byrd will make the roster, I thought kick return and punt return stats might be helpful.

Here are screenshots from the NFL GSIS database.

Byrd and Barner are your two guys. Hope we keep both... We'll see.