The Buccaneers’ snap counts in a 26-19 overtime loss to the Steelers told a clear story: Tampa Bay leaned hard on Bucky Irving, kept chasing a run game that wasn’t paying off, and still found a few bright spots on defense even in falling to 1-5 and 0-4 at home.
On offense, Irving carried the biggest workload by a wide margin. With Sean Tucker unavailable, he handled 85% of the snaps and finished with 19 carries for 46 yards, an ugly 2.4 yards per attempt. It was a heavy lift for a back who had already been asked to do plenty, and it came in a game where the Bucs kept hammering the same first-down shotgun runs into the middle for little or no gain.
Kenny Gainwell’s role dipped sharply. He played 11 snaps, just 15% of Tampa Bay’s offensive total, and that was his lowest snap count of the season.
The efficiency was there in flashes - he had only two rushing attempts, but they went for 17 yards, including a 14-yard run that was the longest by any running back in the game. Even so, the overall usage never really opened up.
The issue, as the game unfolded, was the repeated run calls that weren’t producing and never seemed to change.
The tight end group also stayed heavily involved in the game plan. Cade Otton was on the field for every snap, while Payne Durham logged 32%.
But the most productive tight end ended up being Bauer Sharp, who played just four snaps and still managed a 21-yard catch. The bigger picture, though, is that this group remains limited.
Tampa Bay doesn’t have a lot of punch at tight end, and the offense may be better off using more 11 personnel than leaning so heavily on two-tight-end looks.
At receiver, Chris Godwin Jr. narrowly led the group in snaps ahead of Emeka Egbuka. The more notable trend was the split between Ted Hurst III and Tez Johnson.
Johnson had the edge in Week 4, then Hurst moved ahead in Week 5, and Week 6 widened that gap again with Hurst at 50% and Johnson at 34%. That looks like the direction the Buccaneers want to go, especially if they’re trying to figure out what Hurst can give them.
And, as the game showed, there may not be much benefit in having Johnson block at the line of scrimmage.
Defensively, David Walker made the most of a bigger workload. He played 35% of the snaps, led the team with two sacks, added seven tackles and two tackles for loss, and ranked third among the outside linebackers behind Yaya Diaby and Rueben Bain Jr.
He got more run than Al-Quadin Muhammad and Anthony Nelson, and the extra snaps came with production. Bain also picked up the first sack of his NFL career, while Muhammad got his first sack as a Buccaneer.
Diaby, though, still hasn’t recorded a sack through six games.
Josiah Trotter also hit a notable milestone, playing every defensive snap for the first time in his career. He joined Alex Anzalone and Zyon McCollum as the only Bucs on defense to stay on the field the entire game. Christian Rozeboom’s 32% snap share was the other interesting wrinkle, since it suggested Tampa Bay used more three-inside-linebacker looks than usual and mixed in some 4-3 personnel rather than staying in its normal 3-4 structure.
In nickel packages, Keionte Scott continued to play a meaningful role. His snap total dipped a bit from the previous week, but he still made a major impact with a sack and eight tackles.
Up front, the rotation stayed mostly in line with what Tampa Bay has done this season. Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey carried heavy workloads, and as long as they keep helping stop the run, there’s no urgent reason to shake that up.
A’Shawn Robinson’s role could grow, though, because he’s been more impactful. He added another play to that case on Sunday with his second interception of the season, coming on a deflected pass.
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Aaron Rodgers was the latest to point it out after the game, adding an unwanted layer to a season already full of frustration for Tampa Bay. The field has drawn poor reviews in the past, in part because of the extra wear from other teams and events, and every new complaint only keeps that storyline alive for a club trying to steady itself on and off the grass. [Read more 🡒]