Each week I’ll take a closer look at the snap count distribution for the Bucs offense and defense, assessing what we can learn from who played the most and who played the least on game day.

Here’s a look at which Bucs played the most – and the least – in the team’s 30-27 season-ending loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

Bucs Offensive Snap Counts

What a wild season at wide receiver. From Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown to Evans, Scotty Miller and two tight ends to finish the season. The final bit of bad injury luck hit the Bucs on Sunday, as Tyler Johnson and Jaelon Darden both exited with second half injuries. In the end, the Bucs didn’t even have enough capable receivers to run 11 personnel. John Brown got five snaps, but he wasn’t ready to play an every down role.

That forced the Bucs to try to rally by using 12 personnel. With Cam Brate a net negative all year long, the struggle was real. Brate played the most snaps since Week 7, but caught just one pass for nine yards. He also dropped a critical third down pass just outside the red zone. It was a miserable season for Brate, but the Bucs had no other options late in the game. O.J. Howard played only 11 snaps in what should be his final game in Tampa Bay.

Giovani Bernard was one of the heroes in the Wild Card game, but played only nine snaps on Sunday. Leonard Fournette returned and almost went the distance, playing all but 10 snaps against the Rams. Both running backs will be free agents this offseason, but the Bucs will likely try to re-sign at least one of them. Fournette’s price will be a big factor. Bernard should be much easier to retain.

On the offensive line, Josh Wells gutted it out on a bad quad. He struggled all game, but playing hurt against Von Miller and Aaron Donald is a tough ask. Nick Leverett got nine snaps in his stead, and Aaron Stinnie got four as an extra blocker. None of it made a dent in the Rams ferocious pass rush, as Tom Brady was under siege all game long.

Defensive Snap Counts

In the Bucs’ first game of the season with their starting defense on the field together, the results couldn’t have been much worse. At cornerback, Carlton Davis missed just four snaps with a brief injury. Meanwhile, Jamel Dean started in base over Sean Murphy-Bunting, a good call by the coaches. Still, Murphy-Bunting played all but ten snaps. Mike Edwards saw the field for 16, but struggled again against the Rams. Lavonte David was also briefly injured, coming off the field for four snaps.

Several egregious coaching decisions occurred on the defensive line. Jason Pierre-Paul, he of 2.5 sacks this season, played 86 percent of the team’s defensive snaps. Despite being injured and ineffective all season long, Pierre-Paul got 62 of 72 reps. It’s clear Todd Bowles was going down with his favorites on the field, but Pierre-Paul was a negative all season long. That was the case again on Sunday.

Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, who has been used mostly as an interior rusher, spy or in coverage, played just 14 snaps. Bowles never really gave him an extended chance at playing his actual position and being an every-down rusher off the edge. Tryon-Shoyinka was used like a chess piece all season, so it’s hard to gauge his development after one year. His 14 snaps were the least he’s played since Week 8. Anthony Nelson, clearly better than Pierre-Paul all season, played just 10 snaps.

So if Bowles was going to go down riding Pierre-Paul, wrong as he is, why not Vita Vea too? The Bucs big money defensive tackle was clearly the team’s most effective pass rusher against the Rams. But Vea somehow played only 34 snaps! That’s 47 percent of the defensive reps. In a gotta-have-it game? In the playoffs? Your best defensive linemen, fresh off a massive contract, isn’t even playing 50 percent of your snaps? I get keeping him fresh, but come on.

If Vea can’t play more than this moving forward, the Bucs made a mistake re-signing him. You can’t make a defensive tackle one of the highest paid players at his position and then ask him to play less than half your snaps. Especially in the most important game of the season. Why is Ndamukong Suh able to play 14 more snaps than Vea? And why is Rakeem Nunez-Roches playing one less snap than your franchise defensive tackle? In a season full of hard-to-understand personnel decisions by the Bucs defensive coaches, this one is perhaps most puzzling.