Comparing Ken Whisenhunt and Bruce Arians and how much young players played

Frequently there are ideas and notions fans get about players and coaches in the NFL. They are created by quotes and events and are perpetuated on the Internet. They aren't always accurate. We have a plethora of such notions about Bruce Arians' raucous two-year start as Cardinals head coach, that has led to 21 wins and one playoff appearance for the Arizona Cardinals.

I've seen the idea that one of the reason for Arians success is his willingness to play his young guys, while his predecessor, Ken Whisenhunt, hated the idea of rookies.

I always wondered, is this accurate?

For this I wanted to look at the first two years of the Whiz era and compare it to the Arians era, look at the rookies drafted, how much they played and what type of impact they had.

I have not graded the Whiz era guys from his first two years, so for fairness, I am using only Pro Football Focus snap counts to see just how much impact the rookies had. I won't make any distinctions about role, injuries or anything, this is just a straight numbers dump. It is also important to note playoff performance was not taken into consideration.

Here we go:

Ken Whisenhunt years:

Round 1:

Levi Brown
2007: 763 of 1093 = 70 percent of snaps played
2008: 1065 of 1068 = 99 percent

Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (2008)
2008: 820 of 1061 = 77 percent

Two-year totals: 2648 of 3222 = 82 percent

Round 2:

Alan Branch
2007: 153 of 1077 = 14 percent
2008: 106 of 1061 = 10 percent

Calais Campbell
2008:186 of 1061 = 18 percent

Two-year total: 445 of 3199 = 14 percent

Round 3:

Buster Davis (2007)

Zero percent of snaps played -- he was cut before even making the team his rookie season.

Early Doucet
2008: 83 of 1068 = 8 percent

Two-year total: 83 of 3206 = 3 percent

Round 4:

No fourth round pick in 2007

Kenny Iwebema
2008: 72 of 1061 = 7 percent

Total: 72 of 1061 = 7 percent

Round 5:

Steve Breaston
2007: 76 of 1093 = 7 percent
2008:812 of 1068 = 76 percent

Tim Hightower
2008: 494 of 1068 = 46 percent

Two-year total: 1382 of 3229 = 43 percent

Round 6:

No sixth round pick in 2007; Chris Harrington cut in 2008.

Round 7:

Ben Patrick
2007: 218 of 1093 = 20 percent
2008: 207 of 1068 = 19 percent

Brandon Keith
2008: 0 of 1068 = 0 percent

Two-year total: 425 of 3229 = 13 percent

Clearly the Cardinals got killed in rounds two through four in these two drafts.  Let's take a look at the Arians era.

Bruce Arians years:

Round 1:

Jonathan Cooper
2013: 0 of 1108 = 0 percent
2014: 189 of 1089 = 17 percent

Deone Bucannon
2014: 705 of 1077 = 65 percent

Two-year total: 894 of 3274 = 27 percent

Round 2:

Kevin Minter
2013: 1 of 1107 = less than 1 percent
2014: 325 of 1077 = 30 percent

Troy Niklas
2014: 90 of 1089 = 8 percet

Two-year total: 416 of 3273 =13 percent

Round 3:

Tyrann Mathieu
2013: 803 of 1107 = 73 percent
2014: 438 of 1077 = 41 percent

Kareem Martin
2014: 186 of 1077 = 17 percent

John Brown
2014: 678 of 1089 = 62 percent

Two-year total: 2105 of 4350 = 48 percent

Round 4:

Alex Okafor
2013: 5 of 1107 = less than one percent
2014: 719 of 1077 = 67 percent

Earl Watford (2013)
2013: DNP
2014: 9 of 1089 = less than one percent

Logan Thomas (2014)
Does not count

Two-year total: 733 of 3273 = 22 percent

Round 5:

Stepfan Taylor
2013: 135 of 1108 = 12 percent
2014: 215 of 1089 = 20 percent

Ed Stinson
2014: 208 of 1077 = 19 percent

Two-year total: 558 of 3274 = 17 percent

Round 6:

Andre Ellington
2013: 414 of 1108 = 37 percent
2014: 545 of 1089 = 50 percent

Two-year total: 959 of 2197 = 44 percent

Clearly the injuries at the top of the draft hurt the Cardinals playing time, as the Arians era falls short in both the first and second round against the Whiz era.

The Whiz era was extremely productive within the fifth round, which is impressive, while the Arians era has killed the sixth round.

Obviously, in terms of pure playing time Whisenhunt's players took 5055 snaps out of 17146 or 29.4% of possible snaps while Arians 5665 snaps out of 19641 snaps possible or 28.8%.

While Arians players played more snaps, they played a lower percentage, but they were virtually the same in terms of amount of time played.

Now, who had more impact? That's for another time.