Vikings Snap Counts vs. Buccaneers: Addison, Pace Play Big Roles in Debuts

There's always a lot to learn in Week 1. After months of analyzing and projecting and speculating, there's now an actual, meaningful game to break down. Not a training camp practice or a preseason game, but a regular season contest where the coaching staff deploys the players they think give them the best shot to win.

Let's take a look at the Vikings' snap counts from Sunday's season-opening loss to see what they tell us.

Vikings offensive snap counts vs. the Buccaneers (out of 64)

QB Kirk Cousins: 64
RT Brian O'Neill: 64
RG Ed Ingram: 64
LG Ezra Cleveland: 64
WR Justin Jefferson: 63
LT Christian Darrisaw: 58
WR K.J. Osborn: 58
C Austin Schlottmann: 57
TE T.J. Hockenson: 48
RB Alexander Mattison: 47
WR Jordan Addison: 36
TE Josh Oliver: 30
FB C.J. Ham: 22
RB Ty Chandler: 11
C Garrett Bradbury: 7
LT Oli Udoh: 6
TE Johnny Mundt: 5

Coming into this game, the thing I was most curious to see on offense was how the Vikings used Osborn and Addison. As expected, when they opened the game in 12 personnel with Oliver on the field, it was Osborn out there as No. 2 receiver, not Addison. Osborn wound up as nearly a full-time player in the Adam Thielen role, sitting out for just six snaps.

Still, Addison had a big role in his NFL debut. He played just 56 percent of the snaps, but ran a route on 89 percent of his snaps compared to Osborn's 77.5 percent mark. He also matched Osborn with six targets and had the more productive day as a receiver with a 4-61-1 line (Osborn went 3-31-0 and was the target on Cousins' interception). I'd expect Addison's role to gradually grow even larger in the coming weeks.

Welcome to the NFL, Jordan Addison 🔥
pic.twitter.com/87MVA9y5Sr
— PFF (@PFF) September 10, 2023

30 snaps for Oliver feels about right. He made a positive impact as a blocker and also caught three passes, one shy of his career high. Mattison out-snapping Chandler 47-11 while Myles Gaskin didn't leave the sideline also falls in line with expectations.

Up front, Bradbury (back) was knocked out of the game very early and seems unlikely to play on Thursday night, which sets up Schlottmann to make his 12th career start. Darrisaw (ankle) only missed six snaps and figures to be available in Philadelphia.

Vikings defensive snap counts vs. the Buccaneers (out of 68)

CB Byron Murphy Jr: 68
S Camryn Bynum: 67
LB Jordan Hicks: 66
S Harrison Smith: 65
CB Akayleb Evans: 62
DT Harrison Phillips: 60
OLB Danielle Hunter: 58
S Josh Metellus: 57
OLB D.J. Wonnum: 54
LB Ivan Pace Jr: 46
DT Dean Lowry: 46
OLB Pat Jones II: 40
DT Jonathan Bullard: 29
CB Mekhi Blackmon: 15
DT Khyiris Tonga: 9
LB Brian Asamoah: 2
LB Troy Dye: 2
S Theo Jackson: 1
OLB Benton Whitley: 1

Oh, this is fascinating stuff.

Murphy is the only player who never left the field once on Sunday, though Bynum/Hicks/Smith were essentially full-time players too. Same with Evans, who set a career-high in snaps and only allowed two catches on six targets.

Then you've got Phillips, a sixth-year veteran, playing a career-high 60 snaps. His 2022 average, excluding the Bears game where he only played a few series, was 42.5 snaps. With no Dalvin Tomlinson, the Vikings may need to use Phillips more than they did last season. He was clearly their best interior defensive lineman on Sunday.

On a related note, why only use Tonga for nine snaps? He played well last season as a 20-30 snap guy. The Vikings could seemingly give Phillips more rest by upping Tonga's snap count, unless they view him as a poor fit for Brian Flores' system.

Minnesota's third safety (Metellus) finished with 42 more snaps than its third cornerback (Blackmon). That's not a big surprise considering what we saw from Flores throughout training camp, but I didn't expect the disparity to be quite that big.

The Vikings are clearly fond of their three-safety looks. Bynum was the true deep guy, playing 42 snaps at free safety and 12 in the slot. Smith was all over the place: 20 snaps in the box, 19 in the slot, and 18 as a deep safety. Metellus played 30 snaps in the box and 21 in the slot. The versatility provided by that trio is huge.

It was rather surprising to see Pace not only start, but out-snap Asamoah 46 to 2. Flores seemed to indicate last week that Asamoah would play a lot, but that just wasn't the case at all. The second-year LB played as many defensive snaps as Dye. That's stunning stuff. I'm very curious to see if Asamoah is again limited to a special teams role on Thursday night, but Pace showed why the Vikings are so high on him with a strong first game.

The Vikings' highest-graded defensive players yesterday, per PFF:

Camryn Bynum — 82.5
Ivan Pace Jr. — 75
Josh Metellus — 72.2
Harrison Phillips — 71.6
Jordan Hicks — 70.6
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) September 11, 2023

Wonnum and Jones both played a ton with no Marcus Davenport, who has a chance to make his Vikings debut against the Eagles.

Even Jackson and Whitley got in for one snap apiece as the Vikings used 19 different defensive players. Whitley very nearly picked up his first career sack on his lone snap.

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