In this week's Inside the Numbers, we take a look at Dan Feeney, the Jets' recent UFA signing from the Los Angeles Chargers. And Feeney is quite the interesting dude, in part from his now trademark mullet and in part because of his friendly tough guy attitude.
For instance, in his interview with Ethan Greenberg of newyorkjets.com, he said what he'll bring to the Jets' offensive line is "a little bit of grit, a little bit of toughness, a little bit of want-to. ... We're going to do it the right way, we're going to have some competition, we're going to have some fun doing it."
Feeney's also interesting because of his numbers. Specifically, his snap counts have been through the roof since he entered the NFL as the 'Bolts' third-round pick in 2017:
■ In the past four seasons combined, Feeney has the 23rd-most offensive snap counts among all O-linemen in the league.
■ In the past three seasons, he is one of only 21 players and one of only 15 offensive linemen to start all 48 regular-season games.
■ Last season, when he played center and L.A. teammate Forrest Lamp played guard, Feeney and Lamp led the entire NFL, all positions, in most offensive snaps, playing on every one of the Chargers' plays.
That last bulleted item is impressive. It's also kind of mysterious. Exactly how many snaps did Feeney participate in? It depends.
We found four sources for snap counts in the NFL. Feeney and Lamp led the league in all four. But their snap totals are different in each one:
profootballreference.com — 1,175 snaps
Individual game play-by-play total from nflgsis.com — 1,173 snaps
360.sportradar.com — 1,169 snaps
ngs.nfl.com (Next Gen Stats) — 1,126 snaps
All these sites are reliable purveyors of NFL statistics. Which one is most accurate for Feeney's snap count? Well, the Next Gen total is closest to the Chargers' official total of 1,127 offensive plays (runs+passes+sacks).
The other three appear to use the definition of snap counts as defined by the NFL Management Council in the 2020 and previous CBAs:
For PBP [play-by-play] purposes, a play is counted towards playtime percentage if the play runs to completion, regardless if the play was nullified by a penalty (e.g., a play that is blown dead by a penalty, due to a false start or encroachment penalties, etc. do not count in this calculation).
The individual game totals taken from the play-by-plays at nflgsis are the only totals that agree with the Management Council's 1,173-play total for Feeney. Those totals, which we chart and double-check for every Jets player in every game, are the numbers we prefer to use.
But for league-wide comparison purposes, 360.sportradar is the site of choice. Using one more example, here are the top seven season snap counts compiled by 360.sportradar for centers only since 2005, when play counts became readily available:
| Yr | Center | Team | IndSnaps | TmSnaps | Pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Ryan Wendell | NE | 1233 | 1239 | 99.5% |
| 2012 | Dominic Raiola | DET | 1198 | 1198 | 100.0% |
| 2013 | Manny Ramirez | DEN | 1197 | 1206 | 99.3% |
| 2013 | Ryan Wendell | NE | 1193 | 1193 | 100.0% |
| 2018 | Matt Skura | BAL | 1185 | 1185 | 100.0% |
| 2015 | Ben Jones | HOU | 1178 | 1179 | 99.9% |
| 2020 | Dan Feeney | LAC | 1169 | 1169 | 100.0% |
By this list, Feeney in 2020 had the seventh-most offensive snaps in a season by a center in the NFL in the past 16 seasons, and is one of only four on that list to have participated in every one of his team's offensive snaps in a season.
How many snaps is that exactly? As one league observer suggested, for O-linemen, the exact counts would be nice but aren't as important as, say, starts and games played. What all these numbers suggest about Feeney is that he's always available, he's as tough as they come, and he seems to be having some kind of fun playing the game he loves. And now he's a member of the Jets' O-line.
