Vikings Snap Count Analysis, Week 1: Dantzler Starts, Ngakoue Limited

Which players saw the field a lot during the loss to the Packers, and which ones didn't?

It's always fascinating to see how coaches deploy their rotations and establish roles during the first game of the year, and that's especially true in a year with a truncated offseason program and no preseason. 

Having attended training camp practices and the scrimmage a couple weeks ago, I had a fairly good idea of who was going to play a lot in the opener. Still, there were some noteworthy developments.

Let's take a look at the snap counts for every Vikings player in their Week 1 loss to the Packers and see what we can glean from that information.

Offense (52 snaps)

QB Kirk Cousins: 52

LG Dakota Dozier: 52

C Garrett Bradbury: 52

RG Pat Elflein: 52

LT Riley Reiff: 52

RT Brian O'Neill: 52

WR Adam Thielen: 50

WR Justin Jefferson: 36

WR Bisi Johnson: 33

TE Kyle Rudolph: 32

TE Irv Smith Jr: 31

RB Dalvin Cook: 30

RB Alexander Mattison: 19

FB CJ Ham: 12

TE Tyler Conklin: 8

WR Tajae Sharpe: 7

RB Ameer Abdullah: 2

Analysis: The top six don't require much explanation. Barring injury, Cousins and the five linemen are going to play every single snap. It's possible the coaching staff could shake things up at guard if Dozier and/or Elflein struggle for extended periods, but that wouldn't happen until October at the earlier, I would think. 

As I mentioned when writing about why you shouldn't panic about the Vikings just yet, the offensive line's performance was fairly encouraging from an overall perspective. Everyone outside of Elflein (five pressures allowed) held up well in pass protection, but at least Elflein was the team's second-highest graded run blocker, per PFF. It was great to see Bradbury open the season with a strong performance, though Kenny Clark missing the second half due to an injury certainly helped.

The first thing that jumps out from the offensive snap counts is that Jefferson saw the field more than Bisi Johnson. Bisi is still the starter in two-receiver sets, but the gap between him and the rookie seems to be smaller than we might've thought coming out of training camp. Johnson saw slightly more involvement in the passing game (four targets, three catches, 56 yards) than Jefferson (three targets, two catches, 26 yards), but not by much. Let's see if Cousins looks the rookie's way more often next week in Indianapolis.

Unsurprisingly, the two tight ends recorded nearly an even split in snaps. Rudolph and Smith only combined for three catches and 39 yards, but they were both solid as blockers and will have bigger receiving games in the future.

Only 30 snaps for Cook is eye-popping. He had just two games with 30 or fewer snaps in 2019 (Week 13 @ SEA, Week 15 @ LAC), and I believe he was dealing with injury issues in both of those. With the game more or less out of reach in the fourth quarter, Mattison got a lot of work and ended up finishing second on the team with four receptions. The negative game script also meant just 12 snaps for Ham, well short of his 22.1 average from the 2019 regular season.

Defense (78 snaps)

LB Anthony Barr: 78

LB Eric Kendricks: 78

S Harrison Smith: 78

S Anthony Harris: 78

CB Cameron Dantzler: 64

DE Ifeadi Odenigbo: 60

CB Holton Hill: 59

CB Mike Hughes: 58

DT Jaleel Johnson: 57

DT Shamar Stephen: 52

LB Eric Wilson: 44

DE Yannick Ngakoue: 44

DT Armon Watts: 37

DE Jalyn Holmes: 30

DE Eddie Yarbrough: 22

DT Hercules Mata'afa: 10

CB Jeff Gladney: 9

Analysis: Like with the offense, there isn't much that needs to be said about the top four. Barr, Kendricks, Smith, and Harris don't even come off the field unless they get shaken up or something along those lines. Kendricks and Smith were the defense's two highest-graded players (per PFF), but Harris and Barr had some uncharacteristic struggles.

On the first defensive play of the game, I immediately noticed that Dantzler was playing over Hill despite not being announced as a starter. The rookie from Mississippi State went on to play the most snaps of any corner, and although he experienced some growing pains against Aaron Rodgers and his receivers, he also showed some positive signs. Hill saw more of Davante Adams than anyone else on the defense, and it resulted in an ugly grade for his outing. Hughes got plenty of work in the slot against the Packers, who run a lot of three-receiver sets.

Gladney only played nine snaps and appears to be the odd man out of the cornerback group right now, though things can change quickly. “Well, we had three other guys playing," said Mike Zimmer when asked why Gladney wasn't out there more. "But we did use him some later in the ball game, and I thought he did well.” It's a tiny sample size, but PFF liked what the first-rounder did in his limited reps.

We expected Mike Zimmer and Andre Patterson to use a rotation on the defensive line, and that's exactly how things played out. Odenigbo was the only defensive lineman to play over 75 percent of the snaps, though Jaleel Johnson (73 percent) and Stephen (67 percent) weren't too far behind that mark. Somehow, Stephen led the defense with two pressures, which is one-third of his total from last year.

The big news was that Ngakoue only played 44 snaps. With Hunter out, the former Jaguar is clearly the most talented player on the defensive line. But it's going to take him some time to get fully acclimated to the playbook and his new team as a whole. Plus, he was dealing with a minor ankle injury and one of the game's best left tackles in David Bakhtiari.

"He hasn’t practiced but a week and a half or something like that, so we didn’t want to wear him out for the first ballgame," Zimmer said. "He’s still learning a lot of the things. He had some good rushes in there. The ball got out fast, so we’ll keep progressing with him and hopefully we can keep moving forward."

On special teams, Kris Boyd led the way with 24 snaps and received the highest PFF grade of any player in that area. He's a crucial part of basically all of the Vikings' special teams units. Dan Chisena, Mike Boone, Troy Dye, and Ameer Abdullah were all also heavily involved on special teams.

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