Chiefs-Texans: Making sense of snap counts

The Kansas City Chiefs lost their second game of the season to the Houston Texans 31-24 on Sunday afternoon. How did the members of the Chiefs contribute to the loss?

Starters (offensive): WR Tyreek Hill, LT Cameron Erving, LG Martinas Rankin, C Austin Reiter, RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, RT Mitchell Schwartz, TE Travis Kelce, WR Demarcus Robinson, RB LeSean McCoy, QB Patrick Mahomes and TE Blake Bell.

Starters (defensive): LDE Alex Okafor, LDT Khalen Saunders, RDT Derrick Nnadi, RDE Frank Clark, LB Ben Niemann, LB Damien Wilson, LB Darron Lee, RCB Charvarius Ward, LCB Bashaud Breeland, FS Juan Thornhill and SS Tyrann Mathieu.

Did not play: QB Matt Moore.

Inactive: WR Sammy Watkins, LB Dorian O’Daniel, LB Anthony Hitchens, T Greg Senat, T Eric Fisher, G Andrew Wylie and DT Chris Jones.

Editor’s Note: Arrowhead Pride obtains snap count data from the NFL’s game stats and information system, which allows us to break out snap counts by run or pass on offensive and defensive plays. Because GSIS data ignores plays that were nullified by penalties, total offensive and defensive snap counts will vary from other sources, which get their data from NFL Gamebooks

Offensive takeaways

• TE Travis Kelce was the only skill-position player with more than 90 percent of snaps. TE Blake Bell, on the field for the Chiefs’ first offensive play, registered his fourth start as a Chief.
• The Chiefs opted to ease WR Tyreek Hill back into the lineup with 27 snaps (57 percent); rookie Mecole Hardman came on for 22 snaps (47 percent).
• LeSean McCoy led all running backs with 23 snaps. More interesting was McCoy’s pass-run split. McCoy was on for 14 pass plays and nine run plays, whereas Damien Williams was on for 17 pass plays and just one run play. Chiefs seem to prefer McCoy as their rushing option—he had a team-leading eight carries to Williams’ one.

Defensive takeaways

• Only one iron man for the Chiefs this week — S Tyrann Mathieu, who was on the field for every defensive play. LB Ben Niemann came close, with 82 of 84 snaps for 98 percent.
• 70 snaps for DT Derrick Nnadi was by far a career-high. Nnadi had usually rotated with Xavier Williams, who is now on injured reserve. DL Khalen Saunders saw 52 snaps with Chris Jones out of the lineup.
• CB Kendall Fuller only recorded 31 snaps after injuring his thumb in the game.
• CB Morris Claiborne had 30 snaps (36%), which was a slightly higher percentage than he had against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 5.

Special teams takeaways

• The Chiefs used fewer players on special teams than any game this season: 28. It’s been as high as 34 (33 last week against the Colts).
• TE Blake Bell, FB Anthony Sherman and S Daniel Sorensen all had a team-leading 18 special-teams snaps. S Jordan Lucas and WR De’Anthony Thomas saw 17 and 16, respectively.