Chiefs-Texans: Making sense of snap counts

The Kansas City Chiefs came back from a 24-point deficit to defeat the Houston Texans 51-31 in their Divisional round game at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.

Let’s see how individual Chiefs players contributed to the win.

Starters (offensive): WR Tyreek Hill, LT Eric Fisher, LG Stefen Wisniewski, C Austin Reiter, RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, RT Mitchell Schwartz, TE Travis Kelce, WR Sammy Watkins, QB Patrick Mahomes, RB Damien Williams and WR Demarcus Robinson.

Starters (defensive): RDE Tanoh Kpassagnon, RDT Derrick Nnadi, LDT Mike Pennel, LDE Frank Clark, LB Anthony Hitchens, LB Damien Wilson, RCB Charvarius Ward, LCB Bashaud Breeland, CB Kendall Fuller, FS Daniel Sorensen and SS Tyrann Mathieu.

Did not play: QB Matt Moore and T Cameron Erving.

Inactive: QB Chad Henne, CB Morris Claiborne, LB Darron Lee, T Ryan Hunter, T Jackson Barton, 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

• The entire offensive line (and QB Patrick Mahomes) played every offensive snap. RB Damien Williams played all but two snaps. RB LeSean McCoy and RB Damien Williams were on the field for one snap each, but neither touched the ball on offense.
• TE Travis Kelce was used in the lowest percentage of offensive snaps in any game this season — just 65%. But the Chiefs had him on the field for 83% of passing plays and just 33% of running plays, which was Kelce’s largest run/pass disparity of the season. TE Deon Yelder took up the slack on running plays.
• WR Mecole Hardman had his lowest percentage of offensive snaps this season — just 14%.
• G Andrew Wylie was inactive — despite being a full participant in last week’s practices.

Defensive takeaways

• S Daniel Sorensen was on the field for every defensive snap — along with S Tyrann Mathieu, CB Bashad Breeland and CB Charvarius Ward. Sorensen’s use has steadily risen throughout the season, but it’s the first time he’s been in for every defensive snap.
• LB Anthony Hitchens was in for just 43% of snaps — a season low.
• CB Rashad Fenton was on the field for a greater percentage of defensive snaps (51%) than he has seen since the Denver Broncos game in Week 7. As in the Denver game, he was primarily on the field for passing plays.
• LB Ben Niemann also had his highest percentage of defensive snaps (56%) since Week 7. He was also used primarily on passing downs.
• After being used sparingly in the last couple of games, LB Damien Wilson was on the field for 47% of the defensive snaps.
• DE Tanoh Kpassagnon and DE Frank Clark had the lion’s share of snaps at their position. The other most active defensive linemen were Terrell Suggs, Demone Harris and Derrick Nnadi.
• For the second-straight game, LB Dorian O’Daniel had defensive snaps. While he has seen a lot of snaps on special teams this season, he was not used on defense until the Los Angeles Chargers game in Week 17. In both games, he was used only on passing plays.
• LB Darron Lee was inactive for the first time this season.

Special teams takeaways

• Sorensen, Niemann and O’Daniel — along with S Jordan Lucas — had the most special teams snaps.