Chiefs-Ravens: Making sense of snap counts

The Kansas City Chiefs put together an impressive 34-20 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night. Let’s see how Chiefs players were used in Week 3.

Starters (offensive): WR Tyreek Hill, LT Eric Fisher, LG Kelechi Osemele, C Austin Reiter, RG Mike Remmers, RT Mitchell Schwartz, TE Travis Kelce, WR Sammy Watkins, TE Nick Keizer, QB Patrick Mahomes and RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire.

Starters (defensive): LDE Tanoh Kpassagnon, LDT Chris Jones, RDT Derrick Nnadi, RDE Frank Clark, LB Anthony Hitchens, LB Damien Wilson, LB Ben Niemann, LCB L’Jarius Sneed, S Juan Thornhill, S Tyrann Mathieu and RCB Rashad Fenton.

Did not play: QB Chad Henne, C Daniel Kilgore and OL Yasir Durant.

Inactive: DB BoPete Keyes, DE Demone Harris, DE Alex Okafor, G Andrew Wylie and TE Ricky Seals-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 offensive line racked up another game where every starter (this time including Mike Remmers, in for Andrew Wylie) played every snap; it’s just that only one of them caught a touchdown pass.
• While wide receiver Mecole Hardman made some big plays in the game, his snap count percentages were actually down a little from the Week 2 game against the Chargers. Meanwhile, Sammy Watkins’ snaps were a little higher — despite being in the concussion protocol for most of the week.
• Running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s percentages were a little up compared to Week 2, while those of Darrel Williams and Darwin Thompson were both a little down.
• Tight end Nick Keizer’s percentages were significantly up from Week 2; he continues to be used most prominently in running plays.

Defensive takeaways

• As in Week 2, cornerback Rashad Fenton continued to be on the field for nearly every defensive snap.
• It’s likely the Chiefs kept Charvarius Ward active for the game only in case of emergency. After L’Jarius Sneed was injured, he saw 60% of the defensive snaps.
• Safety Tedric Thompson had a greater percentage of defensive snaps than in Week 2. He’s being used mostly on passing plays.
• In his first game back from suspension, defensive tackle Mike Pennel was in for about a third of the defensive snaps. Unsurprisingly, the Chiefs used him mostly against the run.
• Michael Danna continues to be on the field for roughly half of the defensive snaps.
• Tanoh Kpassagnon’s use remains pretty stable — but for the first time this season, he was used a bit more often in passing plays.
• Linebacker Ben Niemann’s snap percentages have been trending down since Week 1. Against the Ravens — just as in the first week of the season — he was used more often on passing plays.
• Rookie linebacker Willie Gay Jr. was on the field for about a fifth of the defensive snaps. He was used much more often on running plays.

Special teams takeaways

• He had been used on a handful of defensive snaps during the first two weeks, but linebacker Dorian O’Daniel was used exclusively on special teams against Baltimore.