Snap counts for the Oakland Raiders in their Week 4 loss to the Denver Broncos.
Sunday’s loss to the Denver Broncos was a devastating defeat for multiple reasons. The Oakland Raiders are now two games back of the division leader Kansas City Chiefs, and they now sit in third place behind the Broncos.
More importantly, the Raiders will now be without Derek Carr for the next two to six weeks after suffering a transverse process fracture in his back. This is the same injury that Tony Romo suffered that opened the door for Dak Prescott.
Let’s take a look at the snap counts for Week 4, see who played how much, and what we can learn from that information.
We’ll start with the offense:
| Player | Position | Offensive Snaps | % of Snaps | ST snaps |
| Marshall Newhouse | T | 54 | 100% | 2 |
| Donald Penn | T | 54 | 100% | 0 |
| Kelechi Osemele | G | 54 | 100% | 2 |
| Rodney Hudson | C | 54 | 100% | 0 |
| Gabe Jackson | G | 54 | 100% | 2 |
| Amari Cooper | WR | 53 | 98% | 0 |
| Seth Roberts | WR | 50 | 93% | 0 |
| Jared Cook | TE | 48 | 89% | 0 |
| Derek Carr | QB | 34 | 63% | 0 |
| Cordarrelle Patterson | WR | 33 | 61% | 11 |
| Marshawn Lynch | RB | 23 | 43% | 0 |
| EJ Manuel | QB | 20 | 37% | 0 |
| Jamize Olawale | FB | 17 | 31% | 19 |
| Lee Smith | TE | 13 | 24% | 8 |
| Johnny Holton | WR | 12 | 22% | 14 |
| Clive Walford | TE | 9 | 17% | 2 |
| Jalen Richard | RB | 6 | 11% | 9 |
| DeAndre Washington | RB | 6 | 11% | 7 |
| Jon Condo | LS | 0 | 0% | 9 |
| Marquette King | P | 0 | 0% | 9 |
| Jon Feliciano | G | 0 | 0% | 7 |
| Giorgio Tavecchio | K | 0 | 0% | 5 |
| Vadal Alexander | G/T | 0 | 0% | 2 |
What we learned
The changes we expected to see this week in the absence of Michael Crabtree were an increase in snaps for Seth Roberts and Cordarraelle Patterson. Roberts picked up the majority of the slack playing in 94% of the offensive snaps. Roberts did well with his extended reps, catching 4 balls for 49 yards.
Amari Cooper was completely shutdown by the “no fly zone” secondary of the Broncos, even though he played in 98% of the snaps. Cooper was targeted 8 times and caught 2 passes for 9 yards.
The run game was ineffective this week, only gaining 24 yards on 15 carries. Marshawn Lynch led the running back by committee with 23 snaps. Richard and Washington were non-factors, only seeing 6 plays a piece. Going forward it would be nice to see the two change-of-pace backs more involved in the game plan.
Jamize Olawale saw an small uptick in his snaps from Week 3. In addition to his 19 special teams snaps, Olawale was involved with the offense on 17 plays.
There is nothing of significance to discuss with the usage of the tight ends. Jared Cook continues to see the bulk of the work, followed by Lee Smith and Clive Walford occasionally sees the field in certain personnel packages. Walford is quickly playing himself into unemployment with the little time he does see. He missed a key block on a 4th and 1 in the second quarter of the game.
And now the defense:
| Player | Position | Defensive Snaps | % of Snaps | ST Snaps |
| Karl Joseph | SS | 64 | 100% | 3 |
| TJ Carrie | CB | 64 | 100% | 7 |
| Cory James | LB | 64 | 100% | 0 |
| Reggie Nelson | FS | 64 | 100% | 0 |
| Sean Smith | CB | 60 | 94% | 0 |
| Bruce Irvin | LB | 58 | 91% | 7 |
| Khalil Mack | DE | 53 | 83% | 7 |
| Mario Edwards Jr | DE | 44 | 69% | 7 |
| Eddie Vanderdoes | DT | 39 | 61% | 11 |
| Nick Morrow | LB | 34 | 53% | 7 |
| Dexter McDonald | CB | 31 | 48% | 5 |
| Marquel Lee | LB | 28 | 44% | 2 |
| Justin Ellis | DT | 28 | 44% | 6 |
| Treyvon Hester | DT | 24 | 38% | 6 |
| Denico Autry | DE | 19 | 30% | 0 |
| Jihad Ward | DT | 11 | 17% | 0 |
| David Amerson | CB | 9 | 14% | 0 |
| James Cowser | LB | 6 | 9% | 26 |
| Erik Harris | SS | 2 | 3% | 26 |
| Shalom Lunai | FS | 2 | 3% | 26 |
| Tyrell Adams | LB | 0 | 0% | 26 |
| Antonio Hamilton | CB | 0 | 0% | 15 |
| Xavier Woodson-Luster | LB | 0 | 0% | 12 |
What we learned
For the third consecutive week, Cory James, TJ Carrie, Reggie Nelson and Karl Joseph played 100% of the snaps. Not only have these four played the majority of the snaps on defense this year but they are also quietly having very solid seasons so far.
With Gareon Conley unavailable, Sean Smith’s snaps increased from 4 in Week 3 to 60 (90%) in week 4. When David Amerson suffered a concussion in the second quarter, Dexter McDonald was thrust into action. McDonald played a season high 31 snaps, and he played well.
The plan at linebacker remains the same — Marquel Lee plays in the base and Nicholas Morrow enters the game as the nickel linebacker. Opposing offensive coordinators are continue to force Lee to cover, as was the case against the Broncos on their first score of the game.
Because of game flow and the fact the Broncos were run heavy, Justin Ellis (24) and Eddie Vanderdoes (39) both reached a season high in snaps. Unfortunately the run defense wasn’t great, especially up the middle where the Broncos picked up the majority of their 144 yards rushing.
Jihad Ward, who was a healthy scratch in Week 3, played in 11 snaps against the Broncos.
