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After Indianapolis Colts first-round draft pick Malik Hooker got his first career start in Week 2 against Arizona, coach Chuck Pagano was asked how he would go about dividing the snaps when veteran Darius Butler returned from his one-week injury-related absence.

His answer: “We’re going to need them all,” Pagano said, referring to Hooker, Butler and strong safety Matthias Farley.

And, now, we know exactly what he meant.

Pagano and defensive coordinator Ted Monachino used a three-safety rotation in Sunday’s game, with Hooker playing practically all the snaps and Farley and Butler rotating as situations dictated.

The snap counts from Sunday’s game, a win over the Cleveland Browns, give a better indication of how this might work moving forward. Hooker started at free safety and played 76 of 77 defensive snaps (99 percent). Farley started at strong safety and played 51 snaps (66 percent) while Butler rotated in periodically and played 37 snaps (48 percent).

This tells us a few things about the Colts’ plans at safety. They appear to have reached the conclusion that Hooker needs to stay on the field and will be a fixture in the lineup the rest of the way. This was less certain two weeks ago, when Butler and Farley started against the Los Angeles Rams and Hooker played a backup role.

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As for Butler and Farley, their usage will be based on situations.

On Sunday, the Colts appeared to use Farley in tandem with Hooker on early downs, with Farley near the line of scrimmage and Hooker playing the deep safety. When obvious passing situations arose, the Colts, if possible, seemed to substitute Butler for Farley, giving the Colts two safeties with considerable speed and range on the field at the same time. This answers the question about whether the Colts could play Hooker and Butler simultaneously, seeing how both have free-safety skill sets.

Interestingly, in some of those instances, it was Hooker who lined up near the line of scrimmage, typically matching up with a tight end in pass coverage. That left Butler to drop as the deep safety, playing centerfield.

The tactics worked, allowing each safety to get a piece of the action. Hooker had a pass deflection and a game-sealing interception on the final snap. Butler had a pass deflection as well. And Farley, who is solid in run support, added a tackle for loss.

Here are some other takeaways from this week’s snap counts:

>> Tight end Jack Doyle played every offensive snap (66), rare for a tight end. The Browns’ aggressive defense – it blitzed 70 percent of the time – was likely the reason for this. Doyle was used in a variety of ways, including as a blocker in the offensive backfield.

Also at tight end, we’re starting to see Darrell Daniels get a bigger share of the No. 2 tight end reps. Daniels played 17 snaps (26 percent) while Brandon Williams played 16 (24 percent).

>> Finally, the defensive line is proving to be deep, as predicted. That is reflected in the evenly spread playing time. Six defensive linemen played in the game: Henry Anderson, 43 snaps (56 percent); Johnathan Hankins, 38 snaps (49 percent); Margus Hunt, 31 snaps (40 percent); Al Woods, 27 snaps (35 percent); and Grover Stewart, 11 snaps (14 percent).