Chiefs-Dolphins snap counts: Willie Gay sees little use with Wilson out

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Miami Dolphins 33-27 on Sunday afternoon, advancing to 12-1 on the season and clinching the AFC West for the fifth-straight season.

Let’s see how the Chiefs used their players in the win.

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Starters (offensive): WR Tyreek Hill, LT Eric Fisher, LG Nick Allegretti, C Austin Reiter, RG Andrew Wylie, RT Mike Remmers, TE Travis Kelce, QB Patrick Mahomes, WR Sammy Watkins, RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire and FB Anthony Sherman.

Starters (defensive): LDE Tanoh Kpassagnon, LDT Chris Jones, RDT Derrick Nnadi, RDE Frank Clark, LB Anthony Hitchens, LB Willie Gay Jr., LCB Charvarius Ward, RCB Bashaud Breeland, LB Ben Niemann, FS Daniel Sorensen and SS Tyrann Mathieu.

Did not play: QB Chad Henne and C Daniel Kilgore.

Inactive: CB BoPete Keyes, LB Damien Wilson, T Martinas Rankin, TE Ricky Seals-Jones, DE Tim Ward and DT Khalen Saunders

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Offensive takeaways

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Right tackle Mike Remmers — himself filling in for Mitchell Schwartz, who remains on injured reserve — left the game in the third quarter with what was said to be a back injury. Undrafted rookie Yasir Durant came in for the rest of the snaps. Otherwise, Eric Fisher, Nick Allegretti, Austin Reiter and Andrew Wylie played all of the snaps on the offensive line. Veteran Stefen Wisniewski was elevated from the practice squad for the game, collecting only five snaps on special teams.

The Chiefs relied less on their backup tight ends than we have seen in recent games. While Travis Kelce continued to see a normal percentage of use (90% of the offensive snaps), Deon Yelder’s use was down a bit on Sunday — while Nick Keizer’s seem to be steadily decreasing.

After missing Week 13’s game recovering from an illness, running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire came back against Miami — and was on the field as much as he’s been at any point of the season. The opposite was true for Le’Veon Bell and Darrel Williams.

Wide receiver Tyreek Hill’s use was normal at 92%. Mecole Hardman’s use remained steady — although he saw more special-teams snaps than he has since Week 5. Sammy Watkins’ use was up a bit, while Demarcus Robinson’s continued to trend down.

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Defensive takeaways

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Safeties Tyrann Mathieu and Daniel Sorensen were on the field for every defensive snap; cornerback Bashaud Breeland missed only two. Charvarius Ward was on the field for just 68% of the snaps because of a concussion scare, opening the door for Rashad Fenton to have more use than he’s seen since Week 6. L’Jarius Sneed’s use was steady at 71%, while safety Juan Thornhill’s use continued to wary from week to week.

But perhaps the biggest surprise was at the defense’s second level. We had expected rookie Willie Gay Jr. to get most of Damien Wilson’s snaps while he sat out of Sunday’s game with an injury, but instead, it was Ben Niemann who got most of the extra work. Anthony Hitchen’s use was actually down.

Among defensive ends, Alex Okafor and Tanoh Kpasagonon’s use trended up, while Frank Clark’s went down. Rookie Michael Danna’s use remained pretty steady at 38%.

Along the interior of the defensive line, Chris Jones’ use was steady with 71% of the snaps, while Derrik Nnadi, Mike Pennel and Tershawn Wharton’s use continues to bounce back and forth as the coaches try to keep offensive coordinators guessing.

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Data

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Offense

Defense

Special Teams

All Snaps

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