GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers got a lot of mileage in 2015 out of their last two first-round picks.
Safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, the 21st overall pick in the 2014 draft, played all but three of the 1,183 defensive snaps this season.
Cornerback Damarious Randall, the 30th overall pick in the 2015 draft, played nearly three quarters of the snaps.
On the flip side, the Packers could lose a lot of defensive experience in free agency this offseason. Between their five key unrestricted free agents on that side of the ball – cornerback Casey Hayward, defensive linemen Letroy Guion and B.J. Raji, plus linebackers Mike Neal and Nick Perry – they totaled 3,133 snaps this season.
Below are the total snaps counts on defense from this past season (the offensive breakdown can be found here). For comparison, here are last year's defensive totals.
Total defensive snaps (including plays wiped out by penalties): 1,183
Defensive line
Mike Daniels: 803 (67.9 percent)
B.J. Raji: 492 (41.6 percent)
Datone Jones: 422 (35.7 percent)
Letroy Guion: 372 (31.5 percent)
Mike Pennel: 314 (26.5 percent)
Josh Boyd: 26 (2.2 percent)
Bruce Gaston: 16 (1.4 percent)
Linebackers
Clay Matthews: 1,148 (97.0 percent)
Mike Neal: 825 (69.7 percent)
Julius Peppers: 783 (66.2 percent)
Nate Palmer: 534 (45.1 percent)
Nick Perry: 402 (34.0 percent)
Jake Ryan: 329 (27.8 percent)
Joe Thomas: 318 (26.9 percent)
Jayrone Elliott: 174 (14.7 percent)
Andy Mulumba: 44 (3.7 percent)
Sam Barrington: 15 (1.3 percent)
Defensive backs
Ha Ha Clinton-Dix: 1,180 (99.7 percent)
Casey Hayward: 1,042 (88.1 percent)
Damarious Randall: 870 (73.5 percent)
Morgan Burnett: 820 (69.3 percent)
Sam Shields: 757 (64.0 percent)
Micah Hyde: 681 (57.6 percent)
Quinten Rollins: 356 (30.1 percent)
Chris Banjo: 101 (8.5 percent)
Demetri Goodson: 72 (6.1 percent)
Sean Richardson: 48 (4.1 percent)
LaDarius Gunter: 10 (0.8 percent)