Falcons snap counts from a big win over Houston

Atlanta’s win over the Texans saw some pretty significant shifts in the team’s success through the air, but it turns out it also saw some dramatic shifts in playing time.

Let’s get into the snap counts for Week 5 and find out what they were.

Offense

Desmond Ridder: 77

Jake Matthews: 77

Matthew Bergeron: 77

Drew Dalman: 77

Chris Lindstrom: 77

Drake London: 66

Jonnu Smith: 49

Bijan Robinson: 47

Storm Norton: 41

Kyle Pitts: 41

KhaDarel Hodge: 37

Kaleb McGary: 36

MyCole Pruitt: 35

Tyler Allgeier: 34

Mack Hollins: 30

Keith Smith: 22

Scotty Miller: 18

Cordarrelle Patterson: 5

John FitzPatrick: 1

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Patterson’s long-awaited return the past two weeks has translated to a very small role. I believe the Falcons will find more use for him sooner than later, but they’re definitely easing the gifted runner/receiver/returner back into action.

There were other interesting changes. Mack Hollins fell all the way to a 39% snap share, by far his lowest of the season, with Scotty Miller getting a bit more work and KhaDarel Hodge getting a lot more work on Sunday. Whether that was the gameplan against Houston, a reaction to Hollins’ quieter production the past couple of weeks and sideline blowup, or a desire to work in Hodge to the offense more isn’t something we know at this point. It’ll still be worth seeing if Hodge, who doesn’t offer as much as a receiving option but is a really good blocker in his own right, winds up taking on that larger role more permanently.

This was the first game the Falcons didn’t have their full starting line for the entire afternoon, as Storm Norton had to take over for McGary about halfway through the game. Norton really held his own quite well to these eyes, which is encouraging given the major questions about Atlanta’s swing tackle essentially since the dawn of time.

Jonnu Smith, meanwhile, continues to lead the way at tight end. The Falcons have PItts dialed in to a good zone for snaps—and he ate on Sunday as one of Ridder’s favored targets—and have Smith and Pruitt playing plenty as solid options in the passing game and quality blockers. Smith’s shaky Sunday where he dropped a pass and fumbled are unlikely to shake the team’s faith in him.

Defense

Richie Grant: 58

Nate Landman: 58

Jeff Okudah: 58

Kaden Elliss: 58

Jessie Bates: 58

A.J. Terrell: 50

Grady Jarrett: 46

David Onyemata: 44

Bud Dupree: 42

Dee Alford: 36

Calais Campbell: 31

Arnold Ebiketie: 28

Lorenzo Carter: 22

Zach Harrison: 15

Albert Huggins: 9

Eli Ankou: 9

Jaylinn Hawkins: 8

Mike Hughes: 8

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This was Jeff Okudah’s return to full starter’s snaps, and he did well in coverage and in run support. Atlanta’s defense feels pretty intimidating at the moment, and having Okudah opposite A.J. Terrell is a big part of that. Alford also has been an absurdly great run defender and quietly very strong in coverage, as well.

The decision to swap to Ankou and Huggins as defensive depth mostly paid off, as Ankou delivered a handful of really quality snaps and Huggins did solid work. We should expect to see cycling here depending on the matchup, but Ankou may well become a fixture if he can be the kind of reliable run defender he was on Sunday.

After we saw some DeMarcco Hellams last week, we got none this week, and Mike Hughes was the next man up when A.J. Terrell went down. That’s more of a housekeeping note than anything else, and if the Falcons want to roll Richie Grant up closer to the line of scrimmage at times we may well see Hellams again.

Calais Campbell was injured and missed time, hence the low snap counts, and may be out for a bit. If so, expect to see Ebiketie and Harrison getting more snaps in his place. We’ll have to hope he and McGary are back next week.

Special teams

Jaylinn Hawkins: 26

Tre Flowers: 26

Tae Davis: 26

DeAngelo Malone: 23

Keith Smith: 21

KhaDarel Hodge: 17

DeMarcco Hellams: 15

Richie Grant: 14

Bradley Pinion: 12

John FitzPatrick: 11

Nate Landman: 10

Lorenzo Carter: 10

Mike Hughes: 10

Calaias Campbell: 8

Liam McCullough: 8

Zach Harrison: 6

MyCole Pruitt: 6

Cordarrelle Patterson: 6

Scotty Miller: 6

Clark Phillips: 6

Grady Jarrett: 5

Dee Alford: 5

David Onyemata: 5

Albert Huggins: 5

Arnold Ebiketie: 4

Mack Hollins: 4

Chris Lindstrom: 3

Matthew Bergeron: 3

Jake Matthews: 3

Storm Norton: 3

Younghoe Koo: 3

Ryan Neuzil: 3

Kyle Hinton: 3

Drew Dalman: 2

Kaleb McGary: 1

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With Tre Flowers officially benched, he’s back to being a valuable piece of the special teams group. Otherwise, there were no major shakeups in terms of playing time here, and the Falcons’ special teams continues to be an asset for the team minus tepid returns to this point.