Mike Pennel, Why does he get such little playing time?
 

Mike Pennel seems to make a pretty big impact in the run game, but he hasnt had more than 18 defensive snaps since week 13 against the Faid. This is his amount and percentage of defensive snaps by week.

Week/Defensive Snaps/Percent of Total D. Snaps
8/23/34%
9/21/30%
11/23/29%
13/24/41%
14/18/27%
15/17/27%
16/14/22%
17/14/17%
19/13/16%

So I dont know if he is just in bad shape or what but his usage has dropped pretty significantly since his first few weeks. Even though he has very limited playing time he has produced at a pretty amazing level. He's had a tackle in every single game and outside of week 16 he has had multiple tackles. In week 17 he had 6 tackles in 14 snaps. That is pretty amazing. Even with the drop in play time he has recorded just as many tackles as he was getting before the decrease. In previous years he has gotten between 40% and 50% of his team's snaps, so its not like he is incapable of playing that much.

Pennel is probably our 2nd best defensive tackle behind Chris Jones. He has been just as productive as Derrick Nnadi on much fewer snaps. Derrick Nnadi has started every game and has 599 snaps with 48 tackles, that breaks down into 1 tackle every 12.5 snaps. Now look at Mike Pennel who has 24 tackles in just 154 snaps, which is good for a tackle every 6.4 snaps. I really think Pennel, especially today, should get closer to 30 snaps. He is a pretty big reason why our run D has improved so much.

Maybe they've been saving him for this game.

Because he probably tires out fairly quickly

They were saving him for this game? Seriously though, I'm not sure that the coaching staff is as sold on him as we are. I think that they believe that the rest of the guys on the line are more talented overall. And, they probably are. We shipped off Dee Ford because he was only a situational player. Pennell is also a situational player. He's good against the run, but not all that effective against the pass. Now, with the Titans undoubtedly focusing mostly on the run, I would expect to see more of Pennell today. But in the weeks that you listed, how many teams focused on the run as heavily as the Titans do? I would say none. Denver was expected to, but we took that away.....and with minimal snaps from Pennell.

He needs to play a metric shit ton in this one.

At least he’s active this time vs Tennessee

He’s gonna **** bitches in the ass.

With his leg sized arm!

He's a specialist