Chiefs vs. Packers: making sense of snap counts

The Kansas City Chiefs dropped their fourth and final preseason game to the Green Bay Packers, 27-20, on Thursday night.

Before we get into snap counts, let’s take a look at the game’s starters:

Starters (offensive): WR Byron Pringle, LT Dino Boyd, LG Jeff Allen, C Nick Allegretti, RG Ryan Hunter, RT Pace Murphy, TE Manasseh Garner, TE Nick Keizer, WR Cody Thompson, QB Kyle Shurmur and RB Carlos Hyde.

Starters (defensive): LDE Jeremiah Attaochu, LDT Joey Ivie, RDT Justin Hamilton, RDE Robert McCray, WLB Reggie Ragland, MLB Ben Niemann, SLB Dorian O’Daniel, LCB Mark Fields, RCB Morris Claiborne, FS Armani Watts and SS Jordan Lucas.

Here is who did not play in the game:

Did not play: QB Chad up Henne, QB Matt Moore, WR Tyreek Hill, WR Demarcus Robinson, WR Gehrig Dieter, WR Sammy Watkins, QB Patrick Mahomes, WR Mecole Hardman, CB Bashaud Breeland, S Juan Thornhill, CB Michael Hunter, RB Darwin Thompson, RB Damien Williams, CB Kendall Fuller, S Tyrann Mathieu, CB Charvarius Ward, FB Anthony Sherman, LB Darius Harris, S Daniel Sorensen, LB Darron Lee, LB Anthony Hitchens, LB Damien Wilson, DE Frank Clark, DE Breeland Speaks, C Austin Reiter, T Mitchell Schwartz, T Eric Fisher, T Cameron Erving, G Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, G Andrew Wylie, TE Blake Bell, TE Deon Yelder, TE Travis Kelce, DE Emmanuel Ogbah, DT Derrick Nnadi, DE Tanoh Kpassagnon, DT Chris Jones, DE Alex Okafor and DT Xavier Williams.

Now onto the main course:

Takeaways — in no particular order:

• Preseason game four is interesting in the sense that you probably learn more from who didn’t get snaps than who did. As Juan Thornhill alluded to on KCTV5’s telecast last night, those who didn’t play in Thursday night’s game have already turned their attention to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The players of note who did not have snaps on Thursday (thus heightening their value) were running back Darwin Thompson, cornerback Charvarius Ward, tight end Blake Bell, defensive lineman Tanoh Kpassagnon and defensive tackle Xavier Williams. Running back Carlos Hyde, by comparison, had 25 offensive snaps.
• Tight end Nick Keizer made the most of his team-leading 72 offensive snaps, recording five receptions for 33 yards and a touchdown. Wide receiver Rashard Davis, who had only 40 snaps, was targeted nine times, securing seven balls for 47 yards. Running back Marcus Marshall stood out—in his 48 snaps, he had 14 carries for 59 yards.
• Wide receivers Byron Pringle and De’Anthony Thomas, who should make the team, had seven and three offensive snaps, respectively. Running back/wide receiver Tremon Smith, who is pushing to make the club, was on the field for 19 snaps.
• It was interesting to see offensive lineman Kahlil McKenzie, who was on the 53-man roster all of last year, on the field for 36 snaps in the second half of the team’s fourth preseason game. We’ll see what that means for Saturday’s cut.
• Linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu was probably the Chiefs’ preseason game-four MVP, tallying a team-leading eight tackles and 2.0 sacks, three quarterback hits and two tackles for loss.
• Third-round defensive tackle Khalen Saunders recorded 41 defensive snaps. Mo Claiborne, who the Chiefs won’t see until Week 5, was on the field for 32 snaps. Reggie Ragland saw nine defensive snaps. We explained why he was on the field for game four here.
• Cornerbacks Herb Miller and D’Montre Wade came on for the fourth quarter and had 24 and 19 snaps, respectively. They were receiving starter consideration mere weeks ago.
• The special-teams grinders were Keizer, Raymond Davidson and Attaochu, who each had 19 special teams snaps. Tremon Smith had 17 special-teams snaps.