Do teams not use the same 11 players on field goal blocks for every play?
I can understand how you get 12 players on defense because someone was confused about what package you’re running, but if you’re the 12th guy on special teams shouldn’t you stop and think “Hey, I’m not usually out here for these plays, maybe I’m an extra?”
No one has mentioned it yet but Leonard Floyd was the specific player who was the “12th” man on the missed kick. He was the only player not out on the field for the game winning FG that was on the field previously.
Floyd was one of several players on regular defense on 3rd down that didn’t run off after the kneel.
According to someone on Twitter, Floyd was on the field for the most recent 3 FG block plays in the game prior to the penalty. Meaning he didn’t start the game on the FG block unit but an injury at some point had him on the field midway through the game.
My speculation is that the injured player came back but this either wasn’t communicated to Floyd or he forgot during the rush of the sudden change.
Again, just speculating here from the available evidence. Surprisingly I haven’t seen anyone do a thorough film breakdown yet to verify if these claims are true.