Chiefs-Bills snap counts: Edwards-Helaire, Williams split time, play different roles

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Buffalo Bills 38-24 in the AFC Championship on Sunday, advancing to their second straight Super Bowl.

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

---

Starters (offensive): WR Tyreek Hill, LT Eric Fisher, LG Nick Allegretti, C Austin Reiter, RG Andrew Wylie, RT Mike Remmers, TE Travis Kelce, WR Demarcus Robinson, WR Byron Pringle, 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, LCB Charvarius Ward, RCB Bashaud Breeland, RCB L’Jarius Sneed, FS Daniel Sorensen and SS Tyrann Mathieu.

Did not play: QB Chad Henne.

Inactive: WR Sammy Watkins, RB Le’Veon Bell, CB BoPete Keyes, LB Willie Gay Jr., OL Yasir Durant, DE Tim Ward and DT Khalen Saunders.

---

Offensive takeaways

---

The Chiefs began the game with the usual offensive line: Eric Fisher, Nick Allegretti, Austin Reiter, Andrew Wylie and Mike Remmers. Stefen Wisniewski came in for Wylie on three snaps. After Fisher left the game with an Achilles injury, Remmers moved to left tackle, Wylie moved to right tackle am Wisniewski came in at right guard. They finished the game together.

At tight end, Travis Kelce was in his normal range of us (91%) — and went back to being used more often on passing plays. Nick Keizer and Ricky Seals-Jones picked up that slack. The Chiefs had multiple tight ends on the field for five plays.

Running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire returned from his injury, pretty much splitting the snaps with Darrel Williams. But for the first time since the Week 8 game against the New York Jets, Edwards-Helaire was used significantly more often on passing plays; Williams came in significantly more often on running plays. Darwin Thompson had a handful of snaps (5%) — all of them on running plays.

At wide receiver, Tyreek Hill’s use was in the normal range, although he saw the greatest disparity of use between the passing and running plays since Week 8. Byron Pringle had a sharp uptick in use from the Divisional round game against the Cleveland Browns — only in the Week 17 game against the Los Angeles Chargers did he see more use — while Mecole Hardman’s use declined. Demarcus Robinson’s use was in a normal range (64%).

---

Defensive takeaways

---

As usual, the starters in the secondary played nearly every snap: safeties Tyrann Mathieu and Daniel Sorensen were in for every play, while cornerback Charvarius Ward missed only one and corner Bashaud Breeland missed just three. Aside from Week 17, safety Juan Thornhill saw the field more than he had since Week 12 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After returning from injury, Rashad Fenton wasn’t used at all on special teams — something that hadn’t happened since Week 4 — but had 41% of the defensive snaps.

Linebacker Anthony Hitchens had snaps consistent with his normal range (70%), but Damien Wilson saw his lowest use of the season. This is interesting because Ben Niemann also had snaps in his normal range. Chiefs linebackers had 88 total snaps on 71 defensive plays — meaning that the Chiefs had one just linebacker on the field for a substantial portion of the game. That probably accounts for the use of both Thornhill and Fenton — and the Chiefs holding Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs to just 5 catches and 33 yards until there were just over four minutes remaining in the game.

There’s not much of a story along the defensive line. Frank Clark (79%), Chris Jones (73%), Tanoh Kpassagnon (49%), Derrick Nnadi (45%), Tershawn Wharton (42%), Michael Danna (30%) and Mike Pennel (24%) all had usage in their normal ranges. But Alex Okafor saw as much use as he’s had all season.

---

Data

---

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