Is the Bills need for 8 D-linemen each game costing the team in other areas?

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

23 hours ago, pennstate10 said:

“A senseless rotation that no other team finds necessary”

 

Huh. Instead of simply admitting that your statement was wrong, saying you’d take a lap, you move the goalposts. 
 

Bills play 8 DL most games. So do many, if not most NFL teams. As a simple example, look at Bills opponent in a randomly selected game. Their last one. Bengals played 8 DL for 22-79% snaps each. 
 

https://www.cincyjungle.com/2023/1/23/23567536/bengals-bills-snap-counts-nfl-divisional-round-mike-hilton-trey-hendrickson

 

Using that many guys and constantly using all of those guys is very different. I’m not wrong and I’m not going to say I am. We rotate too much. There’s a ton of grey area between using a guy a handful of snaps for a rest and using pre determined entire until rotations regularly. I don’t even know how to find stats that would show all of it all I can find is this from 21. 
 

https://billswire.usatoday.com/2021/12/04/next-gen-stats-buffalo-bills-rotate-defensive-line-sean-mcdermott/

 

at that point we had 5 games ourselves of that type of rotation and the rest of the 31 teams in the nfl had a total of 3. Using 8 guys isn’t the same as giving 8 or 9 games almost equal playing time

[pennstate10]

We've about beat this topic to death.

 

Here is real data to look at.

 

https://www.lineups.com/nfl/snap-counts/defensive-players-snap-counts

 

Choose team, choose Defense, then scroll down to look at DE and DT.

 

Here is the introductory comments from the site, cut and pasted.

 

"Whether you are playing IDP fantasy leagues or going the extra mile breaking down defenses, snap counts matter for the defensive side as well. Different defensive packages mean different snaps for the players, but things can be pretty steady in this department. Defensive snaps can show injury replacements for the defense, which doesn’t get as much coverage as offensive guys. Players in the secondary can be a bit mixed in nickel and dime packages, and vary on a week-to-week basis. The line is something that can be shuffled around, as certain defensive line players specialize in early down work as run-stoppers and take third downs off. snap counts can dictate the depth chart order for defenses, which can move throughout the season. Cornerbacks and safeties play the most snaps among the defensive units, while the lineman play the least being rotated more frequently. This is a good start to checking out who is playing the most."

 

I looked at two teams other than Bflo.  Balt and Car.  Balt had a bunch of guys with 20-60% snaps; no DL with >60%.  Cin had a bunch between 21-80 %.  Of course, this is all skewed because of injuries.  Von Miller played 61% of snaps but missed 5 full games; he was probably at 80% or more for the games he played.

 

Bottom line--if you have a stud DL -- like Miller, or Aaron Donald, JJ Watt, CHris Jones, then yes, he plays 75-85% of snaps.  You rotate the rest.