Snap Counts
In 2018, the Bills had more of a timeshare at running back that they’ve had in years past. McCoy led the way with 46.27% of the snaps, followed by Chris Ivory with 28.33%, Marcus Murphy with 18.51%, and fullback Patrick DiMarco with 15.86%.
McCoy dominated the snaps in 2017 with 68.35%, the next closest was DiMarco with 25.19%.
The key difference in the snap counts is the change in offensive coordinator. Brian Daboll took over the job for the Bills after being at the University of Alabama as their offensive coordinator. At Alabama, any player who had more than 20 carries, held an average yards per carry rate of over 4.5 yards under Daboll. The team had 43.7 attempts per game for an average of 5.7 yards per carry. Daboll knew how to spread the ball amongst his backs and he brought that mentality to Buffalo.
However, in 2018 he did it primarily with two running backs, McCoy and Ivory. The team released Ivory at the end of March, largely due to the signing of Frank Gore earlier that month. This signaled to many people that McCoy and Gore were going to see the bulk of the carries in 2019.
The signing of Yeldon complicates that thought, however. Yeldon and McCoy have a similar skillset.
Yeldon is a career 4.0 yards per carry runner, McCoy has a 4.5 YPC average.
In his four years with Buffalo, McCoy has averaged 43.8 receptions per season. Yeldon has averaged 42.8 in his four years with Jacksonville.
If the Bills were so set on using a three-back rotation, why get a back that’s similar to how McCoy plays? Are they convinced a certain team will come calling Thursday night?
