Playing time for Bryant same; Harrison bottoms out
A focus on running the football headlines this week’s playing time totals for the Steelers offense. The usual suspects, such as the offensive linemen and Ben Roethlisberger played a full game, but it was the tight ends and fullback Roosevelt Nix who saw an uptick in snap totals on Sunday in a win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Jesse James led the way with 50 snaps (72%) while Vance McDonald was on pace to have a play a season-high before leaving the game with a knee injury in the third quarter. As a result, Xavier Grimble went from afterthought to contributor, playing 28 snaps, his most since Week 2 (16).
Nix also had a season-high with 22 reps.
The receivers had the usual split despite some off-field rumblings quoting differently. Antonio Brown led the way again with 93% of the total offensive plays. JuJu Smith-Schuster was out-repped by Martavis Bryant 31 snaps to 36 – Bryant’s share good for 52% of all offensive plays, while Eli Rogers came in for 11 plays, Darrius Heyward-Bey for five, and Justin Hunter was inactive.
Rookie RB James Conner made another brief appearance for six plays, which is about his average through seven games this season.
On defense, James Harrison regressed back to a mere seven snaps after an uptick to 15 a week before. Bud Dupree saw 44 plays and T.J. Watt 42, of 51 total for the Steelers D. Anthony Chickillo saw two more plays than Deebo with nine.
LB Ryan Shazier has yet to miss a snap this season; contradictory to his previous “made of glass” reputation. His counterpart Vince Williams played 3/4 of the game.
Nickel corner Mike Hilton actually saw his lowest output of the season with 29 reps, while William Gay was also utilized for only 13 plays. Joe Haden and Artie Burns left the field for one and two plays each. J.J. Wilcox entered the game for a single play as Sean Davis also saw a complete game. Mike Mitchell went out for all but six plays, as Robert Golden saw four snaps.
Situational football saw Daniel McCullers play in only his second game of the season with two snaps. L.T. Walton wasn’t seen much either, dropping to seven snaps in favor of Tyson Alualu who stepped in mostly for an injured Stephon Tuitt with 80% of the game played. Javon Hargrave was rotated in a bit more than usual, seeing more than half of the defensive snaps for the third time in seven games this season.
Conclusion
The Steelers were set with a gameplan focused on running the football, which could be the format moving forward. For the talk about Bryant’s lack of playing time, he has nearly split and sometimes even edged JuJu Smith-Schuster in several games this season. Eli Rogers has become a non-factor when it comes to playing time.
On defense, the team is content with keeping James Harrison in bubble wrap. The move was bold as both starting outside linebackers, Dupree and Watt, contributed a sack in this game. We can expect similar time shared going forward.
