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Eagles-Saints snap counts: Miles Sanders plays his lowest total of the season

Playing time breakdown.

New Orleans Saints v Philadelphia Eagles Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images

The official snap counts from the Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 17 loss to the New Orleans Saints are in. Let’s take a look and run through some analysis.

OFFENSE

  • Even with Jalen Hurts and Lane Johnson out, the Eagles should still be able to put up more than 10 points when their backup quarterback and offensive line plays for the entire game. It’s not like they were disrupted by in-game injuries.
  • For the first time this season, A.J. Brown played the entire game. He caught four of his nine targets for 94 yards and a touchdown. The bulk of his production came on his 78-yard score.
  • DeVonta Smith continues to look good.
  • Dallas Goedert saw six targets this week after only seeing three against the Cowboys. So, good on the team for trying to get him a bit more involved. His three catches went for 45 yards. In fairness to the Eagles, the Saints are allowing the fewest fantasy football points to tight ends this season.
  • Quez Watkins saw just one target on 28 snaps played. He played his fourth-lowest snap count percentage. Probably not unrelated to recent struggles.
  • Miles Sanders played his lowest snap count percentage of the season at 40% even. His previous low was 50.9% and that came when the Eagles pulled their starters against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Sanders’ 12 carries went for 61 yards (5.1 average). It’s fair to wonder why the coaching staff didn’t do a better job of getting him more involved on the ground. Then again, he was wearing a knee brace and might not have been able to handle a much larger workload.
  • Jack Stoll saw his lowest snap count percentage of the season. Not so much 12 personnel in this game.

DEFENSE

  • Aside from getting some rest at the end of the Tennessee Titans game, Marcus Epps has not missed a snap this year.
  • Albeit by a slim margin, Kyzir White actually outsnapped T.J. Edwards in this game. There’s a stronger case to be made White should be seeing fewer snaps, not more.
  • Brandon Graham played his highest snap count percentage by far due to Josh Sweat’s injury. Graham’s previous high this season was 47.8%. He took advantage of the extra opportunities, though, and was able to notch his first ever double-digit sack season.
  • Fletcher Cox had his most active game in a few weeks, logging his first sack since Week 14. Probably helped that he was going up against backup guards. Still, good on him for showing up.
  • Josiah Scott was still the nickel cornerback despite his struggles filling in for Avonte Maddox. He did log his second career interception by picking off Andy Dalton.
  • This was Linval Joseph’s third-lowest snap count percentage since he joined the team. Smaller role in the game plan this week.
  • Jordan Davis has not logged a solo tackle since prior to the ankle injury he suffered in Week 8.
  • For the second straight week, Nakobe Dean saw some very limited playing time on defense. Perhaps the Eagles should look to bump that up a bit more.

SPECIAL TEAMS

  • Zech McPhearson made a nice tackle on punt coverage.
  • Shaun Bradley got looked at in the medical tent at one point but was able to finish the game.
  • Kyron Johnson was active after being a healthy scratch last week due to a numbers crunch.
  • This was the first time that Grant Calcaterra was active for a game but did not log an offensive snap.
  • Not listed in the screenshot: Andre Dillard and Grant Calcaterra each played two ST snaps.

DID NOT PLAY

INACTIVE: Jalen Hurts, Lane Johnson, Avonte Maddox, Trey Sermon, Sua Opeta, Janarius Robinson

ACTIVE: Ian Book, Josh Sills

  • With Johnson out, Sills was active for the first time since Week 5 (and the second time in his career) to provide more tackle depth. But he did not play a single snap, even on special teams.
  • With Hurts reportedly expected to be available in Week 18, Book will go back to being a healthy scratch as QB3.

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