2018 NFL Rosters: Snaps Gained and Lost

While we go into every season expecting similar results to the year before the fact is teams change year to year, often dramatically. Now that the 53 man rosters are set I wanted to look at the amounts of snaps that were lost and gained by each team.

The teams that look to be the most similar to last year are the Falcons (2,863 snaps lost), Steelers (3,153), Saints (3,508), Jaguars (3,943), and Titans (4,898). The teams with the most changes from last years roster are the Cardinals (12,404), Giants (12,378), Bills (9,943), Colts (9,671), and Raiders (9,307).

Some of these teams turned to free agency while others turned to the draft to try to fix things. The teams that added the most snaps in via free agency, trades, claims, etc… are the Browns (9,260), Raiders (8,402), Giants (8,232), Seahawks (7,083), and Dolphins. The teams that avoided the more proven free agents are the Chargers (1,742), Ravens (1,760), Steelers (1,801), Bengals (1,898), and Bears (1,903). The Bears made me do a double take because I knew they signed a lot of players but it was high risk types like Allen Robinson and Trey Burton who were injured or part timers last year.

If you use the two sets of numbers you can also get an idea of how many snaps teams need to be replaced by players who were perhaps injured last year (think Sam Bradford) and draft choices. The team with the most snaps to replace overall by those players are the Cardinals (7,220), Colts (6,518), Bills (6,254), Chiefs (6,060), and 49ers (5,323). Those with the least to replace are the Saints (-679), Browns (-224), Jaguars (265), Falcons (572), Titans (624), and Packers (792).

When looking at that Bears stat I then decided to look at how much contract money per year each team added on a per snap basis. The Bears paid a whopping $32K per snap due to the type of targeted players. The next closest team, was at $13K, so the Bears put a lot of money in Allen Robinson, Trey Burton, Aaron Lynch, Chase Daniel, and Taylor Gabriel. The group maxed out at 508 snaps for Gabriel. It was a risky offseason. The other teams that added a lot of money to the teams and likely have increased expectations were the Browns, Giants, Cardinals, Jets, and Raiders.

The two tables will give a breakdown of the snaps lost and gained this year as well as spending on new players this season. Please note that the contracts used here were current as of Monday September 3rd.

2018 Snaps Gained and Lost from Prior Season

2018 New Veteran Player Contracts