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

Let’s get a closer look at the Bucs players who received the highest and lowest number of snaps in the Bucs’ home opening 29-27 win over the Jets that once again came down to the very end.

Tampa Bay let the lead slip away late after a blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown, but the clutchness of Baker Mayfield shined through once again as he led the down the field and set up Chase McLaughlin for the game winning field goal. The Bucs are 3-0 to begin the season.

Bucs Offense

It was a bit surprising to see that running back Bucky Irving took the majority of the reps at running back with 74% considering how well Rachaad White played on Monday Night Football. Also, with this being the home opener for Tampa Bay and the field conditions getting around 120 degrees, I would have thought that Tampa Bay would rotate their running backs, getting Sean Tucker in the mix, too, but it was Irving all the way with a sprinkle of Rachaad White at 28%.

Irving’s play increased by 3% while White’s play decreased by it.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving – Photo by: USA Today

The receiver who saw the most significant drop wasn’t Mike Evans when he exited the game in the second half with a hamstring injury. Rather, it was Emeka Egbuka. The rookie wideout played 64%, which was the first time he was not in the 90th percentile so far in the first three games of his career.

It was known he was going to be on a pitch count given his quad and groin injuries going into the game. The Bucs wanted to keep him fresh and it paid off greatly as he made an important 28-yard catch on the final drive that put Tampa Bay into field goal range.

We’ll be monitoring the injury situation with Mike Evans, who came limping off to the sideline and went straight to the tunnel. His snap percentages actually didn’t drop off that much despite missing the end of the game and it still came out to 72%, just 7% lower than the previous game.

Sterling Shepard was so important to the Bucs in this game, making four catches for 80 yards and a very significant 20-yard catch and run that made the field goal attempt even closer. His play actually decreased, going down to 61% on Sunday, and that might be due to Tez Johnson returning to the lineup and playing 29%, the most of his early career. Ryan Miller averaged the same amount of snaps and neither Johnson or Miller had a reception.

Bucs WR Sterling Shepard – Photo by: USA Today

With the makeshift offensive line put together, it made sense that we saw a little more two tight end personnel with Cade Otton on one end and Payne Durham on the other. Otton led all skill players at 92%, just 1% more than last week. Durham’s 32% was the most he’s averaged on the season. While Otton does run routes and Durham will occasionally too, the Bucs’ tight ends are just blockers for the moment. Neither player even had a target on Sunday.

Bucs Defense

So who was going to pick up the slack at defensive tackle with Calijah Kancey out? It turns out that it was Elijah Roberts who was the player to really step up.

Vita Vea led the way at 71% as to be expected, but it was Roberts that was next at 57% and Greg Gaines shortly after at 52%. Roberts is still adjusting to the NFL level, but he did have a pass breakup and a quarterback hit in the most playing time he’s had through three games.

It wasn’t all just Roberts, though, as Gaines played the most he has this season and that will likely continue with Kancey out for the rest of the regular season. This all might be adjusted, too, because Logan Hall exited the game early with a groin injury. Thankfully he was able to return, but it cut into his overall playing time at 32%.

Newly signed defensive tackle Elijah Simmons played 16% and could get more into the rotations once he learns the defense.

Bucs DT Greg Gaines, OLBs Yaya Diaby and Haason Reddick – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R

The game likely dictated this with the Jets needing to consistently throw the ball in the fourth quarter, but Jacob Parrish ended up playing 74%. That’s more than 10% of what he played last week and he was great throughout, recording a sack in the game on a blitz.

The Bucs continued to stick with the plan of having Benjamin Morrison play a little bit to get some experience while coming in for Jamel Dean. Morrison was in for 26% and made a nice tackle for loss, but Dean at 74% was the hero of the day with a pick-six off of Tyrod Taylor that he took to the house toward the end of the second quarter.

The same group played 100% of the snaps in Zyon McCollum, Tykee Smith and Antoine Winfield Jr. SirVocea Dennis was a newcomer to this list, and Lavonte David for the first time did not play 100% of the snaps, coming one snap shy of it. David sacked Taylor in the fourth quarter and immediately grabbed his knee, he was down for a bit and it looked like a scary situation.

Luckily, David was able to walk off on his own and literally only missed one play before coming back in. Deion Jones played the one rep that he was out of.

Bucs S Antoine Winfield Jr. and Jets QB Tyrod Taylor – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The trend of playing the starters at outside linebacker for the Bucs mostly continued. Haason Reddick was in for 80% while Yaya Diaby had 70%. They typically play around the same percentages, so that stood out. They gave slightly more opportunities this week to Anthony Nelson at 29% and Chris Braswell at 22%. Don’t expect to see a many changes to this group when everyone is good to go.