Chiefs-Chargers snap counts: Making do with reserve players

In anticipation of the postseason, the Kansas City Chiefs rested their starters during Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, giving snaps to some players who have had little to no significant use this season.

Let’s see how the team used their players in this unusual game.

Starters (offensive): WR Mecole Hardman, LT Martinas Rankin, LG Stefen Wisniewski, C Daniel Kilgore, RG Yasir Durant, RT Patrick Omameh, TE Deon Yelder, WR Byron Pringle, WR Demarcus Robinson, QB Chad Henne and RB Darwin Thompson.

Starters (defensive): LDE Michael Danna, LDT Khalen Saunders, RDT Tershawn Wharton, RDE Tim Ward, LB Willie Gay Jr., CB Darius Harris, LB Damien Wilson, LCB Deandre Baker, RCB BoPete Keyes, FS Juan Thornhill and SS Armani Watts.

Did not play: QB Matt Moore, CB Bashaud Breeland, RB Le’Veon Bell, CB Charvarius Ward, CB L’Jarius Sneed, S Daniel Sorensen, DE Frank Clark, C Austin Reiter, T Eric Fisher, G Andrew Wylie, TE Travis Kelce and DT Derrick Nnadi.

Inactive: WR Tyreek Hill, WR Sammy Watkins, QB Patrick Mahomes, RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, S Tyrann Mathieu, LB Ben Niemann and T Mike Remmers.

Offensive takeaways

• All of the nominal starters on the offensive line never saw the field on offense — although Nick Allegretti did play a few snaps on special teams. Starting offensive linemen Martinas Rankin, Stefen Wisniewski, Daniel Kilgore, Yasir Durant and Patrick Omameh played every snap.
• In this game, the Chiefs essentially went all-in on running back Darwin Thompson. He played 92% of the total offensive snaps — including 100% of the rushing plays — which is a higher percentage than we typically see from the team’s starting running back. Darrel Williams had just 8% of the total snaps — all of them on passing plays.
• At tight end, Deon Yelder had the starter-like usage, being on the field for 82% of the snaps. Nick Keizer had 40%. His usage was tilted a bit toward rushing plays.
• Wide receivers Demarcus Robinson and Byron Pringle had starter-like playing time, respectively getting 88% and 84% of the snaps. Mecole Hardman was on the field for 62% of the plays, which was in his typical range of usage. Gehrig Dieter played 36% of the snaps.

Defensive takeaways

• Typically, we see the two starting safeties and the two starting cornerbacks play all (or almost all) of the defensive snaps. That pattern continued with starting safeties Juan Thornhill and Armani Watts, along with cornerbacks BoPete Keyes and Deandre Baker — that is, until Baker was injured.
• After Willie Gay Jr. was injured, the Chiefs were in real trouble at linebacker. Gay, Darius Harris and Damien Wilson were the only linebackers suited up for the game — and it’s likely that since he had limited in practice all week, the Chiefs didn’t intend for Wilson to play. But he ended up playing on two-thirds of the snaps — and Harris became the first Chiefs linebacker this season to play every defensive snap of a game. In the second half, defensive tackle Khalen Saunders was observed playing in a linebacker role.
• Along the defensive line, Tershawn Wharton, Michael Danna, Tim Ward and Khalen Saunders all got what would normally be starter-level snaps ranging from 89% to 73%. Mike Pennel, Tanoh Kpassagnon and Alex Okafor had rotation-level use that ranged from 56% to 26%. Chris Jones had a single snap — perhaps to satisfy a contractual incentive.

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