In the Arizona Cardinals’ 21-13 preseason loss to the Indianapolis Colts Saturday night, there were 30 players that participated in at least one of the 72 defensive snaps and 53 that played at least one of the 24 special-teams snaps.
Showing an example of who played a lot after two days of practice with the Colts, look closely at those at each position led the unit in snaps.
The first number after each name is snaps and the second is the percentage. Players in bold were starters.
Defensive linemen
Phil Hoskins 35/49, Naquan Jones 35/49, Ben Stille 32/44, Myles Murphy 30/42, Khyiris Tonga 15/21, L.J. Collier 12/17, Dante Stills 9/12
Did not play: Justin Jones, Roy Lopez, Bilal Nichols, Darius Robinson
The four that didn’t play will be a large part of the rotation when the regular season starts. Lopez and the rookie Robinson played against the Saints. Asked about Robinson not playing, head coach Jonathan Gannon said, “I just like where he is at. He got a lot of work the last two days. I like where he is at. I felt like he needed to not play.”
Collier will also be in the rotation and in his productive 12 snaps had a sack and quarterback hit, and three tackles (two solo) with one for loss. The leading tacklers were Naquan Jones with four (two solo) and Stille with three solo with onje for loss and a quarterback hit.
Linebackers
ILB Tyreek Maddox-Williams 43/60, OLB Tyreke Smith 42/58, ILB Trevor Nowaske 35/49, OLB Victor Dimukeje 32/44, ILB Markus Bailey 31/43, OLB Cam Thomas 29/40, OLB Xavier Thomas 26/36, OLB Jesse Luketa 21/29, ILB Owen Pappoe 15/21, ILB Krys Barnes 8/11
Did not play: OLB Zaven Collins, OLB Dennis Gardeck, ILB Kyzir White, ILB Mack Wilson Sr.
The Thomases led the stat sheet as Cameron had two sacks plus two quarterback hits to go with four tackles (three solo) and a tackle for loss. Xavier had a sack in his second consecutive game for 12 yards, two quarterback hits, two tackles with the solo stop being for loss.
Xavier, who acknowledged being nervous on his first snap the week before, said, “Today I pretty much knew what to expect and things like that. It’s always good to get more comfortable.”
Said Cameron, “I definitely got more opportunities to put on display what I’ve got. I believe I did a pretty good job (and) maximized those opportunities.”
Luketa, Bailey and Maddox-Williams each had four tackles (two solo), while Nowaske and Smith had three tackles with former having one solo.
Defensive backs
CB Darren…
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