As a second-round pick last season, the hope is that tight end Trey McBride will blossom into a top offensive weapon for the Cardinals.
He had one of his better games Sunday against the Rams, and ended up with more snaps that fellow tight end Zach Ertz, and it will be interesting to watch how McBride's usage develops as the team moves forward. McBride had 44 snaps compared to Ertz's 35 (and he had four catches for 62 yards on five targets; Ertz was two catches for 22 yards on five targets.) Geoff Swaim had 15 snaps.
Dennis Daley, in his first game back, got 19 snaps at left guard, with starter Elijah Wilkinson getting the other 57.
With James Conner out, the running back snaps broke down this way: Emari Demercado (33), Keaontay Ingram (28), and Damien Williams (13). (That doesn't count the handful of backfield snaps Rondale Moore -- who had 50 snaps total -- played.) What was notable that the touches didn't necessarily match the snap counts: Ingram had 12, Williams had 9, and Demercado 3.
Greg Dortch (16 snaps) and Zach Pascal (11) got season-high offensive snaps, but that didn't hamper the snaps of the other receivers: Hollywood Brown (68), Michael Wilson (67), and Moore.
On defense, rookie cornerback Starling Thomas got his first defensive work of the season (25 snaps), taking time from fellow rookie Kei'Trel Clark (32). That was Clark's lowest total of the season. Antonio Hamilton (45) was trending toward 100 percent like Marco Wilson (57 snaps) before his groin injury.
The 100 percent snap club, besides Wilson, was linebacker Kyzir White and safeties K'Von Wallace and Andre Chachere. Safety Joey Blount (10) also got some defensive work.
Jonathan Ledbetter returned from a finger injury and led the defensive line with 35 snaps, followed by Kevin Strong (28), Dante Stills (27), Leki Fotu (20), and Ray Lopez (19).
At outside linebacker, Zaven Collins (37), was followed by Dennis Gardeck (26), Cameron Thomas (25), Victor Dimukeje (18) and BJ Ojulari (18). At inside linebacker, it was White and Josh Woods (34).
