Each week after every Bucs game, we’ll take a closer look at the snap count distribution for the Tampa Bay on offense and defense. We’ll assess what we can learn from who played the most and least from the game.

Here’s a closer look at which players received the highest and lowest number of snaps in the Bucs’ 27-17 win over the Bears in Tampa Bay’s home opener for Week 2.

Bucs’ Offense

The heat coming from the field in Tampa for the Bucs’ first home game seemed to have played a factor as more players were rotated in and out to avoid over-exhaustion. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin saw both of their play percentage drop from 84 and 85 percent, respectively, in Week 1 to 61 and 75 percent in Week 2. Despite that, Evans had a huge game with six catches for 171 yards and a touchdown.

Bucs RB Rachaad White and WRs Deven Thompkins and Chris Godwin – Photo by: USA Today

It appears that the Bucs are going with a committee approach at WR3, electing to have a stable of receivers take up the role rather than just one. Trey Palmer, who had one catch for 20 yards, and Deven Thompkins were pretty evenly spread with their snaps at 49 and 45 percent, respectively.

Rakim Jarrett saw the field 23% of the time, but that was a 14% increase from the last game. He also made his first career catch for seven yards. Each of these three receivers played a part in the Bucs’ win by making a play. Evans and Godwin will take the majority of the focus, but they’ll sprinkle in some contributions, too.

Tight end Cade Otton was an ironman again playing in 97% of the snaps. He had much more of an impact in the passing game as well, making six catches for 41 yards.

Everyone remembers the head scratching at the beginning to last week’s game when Ko Kieft got the first two targets of the game in Minnesota. Well, this week he didn’t get any targets and his playing time decreased from 47 to 25 percent. Kieft is best used as an extra blocker. His snaps went down because David Wells’ had more opportunities and also played 25%. He was rather ineffective, making two catches for minus-10 yards and a bad fumble that luckily was recovered by Baker Mayfield.

I do wonder if the running back snaps would have been different if Chase Edmonds didn’t exit the game early with a knee injury. Edmonds ripped off a great 14-yard run but was out with his injury by the time the first half had ended. Rachaad White had a heavy number of snaps again at 72%, which was third-most among skill players. Sean Tucker saw a 9% increase all the way up to 24 snaps, but only recorded seven yards on eight rushing attempts.

Bucs’ Defense

As expected, linebackers Devin White and Lavonte David played every snap after both came close last week. They joined Ryan Neal, Antoine Winfield Jr. and Zyon McCollum in playing 100% of the time. Credit to McCollum, who was starting for an injured Carlton Davis III and performed very well in his role. Jamel Dean was briefly shaken up so he missed two snaps and clocked in at 98%.

Bucs OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinka – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Despite the heat taking its toll, Vita Vea played 64% of the snaps, which is an increase from the week before. Vea looks in much better shape and doesn’t seem to be a pitch count despite being around 350 pounds. He was dominant as well, finishing with 1.5 sacks.

Logan Hall matched Vea’s snap count number at 64 with Calijah Kancey out. Mike Greene made his first ever career start and played at fair amount at 47%. Although he only played 36%, backup nose tackle Greg Gaines was in when it mattered most on the last two drives as the defense closed the game out.

It was a thrilling performance for the Bucs’ outside linebackers on Sunday. Shaq Barrett sealed the game with an electric pick-six right in front of the end zone and also recorded a sack. Joe Tryon-Shoyinka may have had his best game as a pro with two sacks, and Cam Gill had a strip-sack.

The Bucs made sure to keep this group fresh throughout the game as Barrett and JTS were only in for 53% of the snaps, but Anthony Nelson and YaYa Diaby and weren’t far behind at 45 and 43 percent, respectively. Gill was only in for six percent of the game, but evidently made the most of it.

It is easy to see why Todd Bowles said that the outside linebacker position would be the toughest when it came to roster cutdowns. The Bucs wound up keeping six outside linebackers, and five of them sack action in Sunday’s big win.