Chiefs-Vikings: Making sense of snap counts

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings 28-25 at Arrowhead Stadium on Friday night, completing their 2021 preseason schedule with a 3-0 record.

Let’s see how the Chiefs used their players in the final exhibition game.

Starters (offensive): WR Tyreek Hill, TE Blake Bell, LT Orlando Brown Jr., LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Lucas Niang, TE Travis Kelce, WR Mecole Hardman, QB Patrick Mahomes and RB Jerick McKinnon.

Starters (defensive): LDE Alex Okafor, LDT Jarran Reed, RDT Khalen Saunders, RDE Michael Danna, LB Ben Niemann, LB Anthony Hitchens, LB Willie Gay Jr., RCB L’Jarius Sneed, LCB Charvarius Ward, S Tyrann Mathieu and S Daniel Sorensen.

Did not play: QB Chad Henne, RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, CB Rashad Fenton, RB Darrel Williams, DE Frank Clark, OL Austin Blythe, G Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and DT Chris Jones.

Offensive takeaways

• Chiefs head coach Andy Reid had indicated his starters would be on the field through the first half. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the majority of the starting offense actually stayed on the field only through two possessions, coming out of the game near the end of the first quarter, following 15 snaps in which they had put 14 points on the board.
• With running backs Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Darrel Williams both out of the game, Jerick McKinnon started at running back — the clearest indication yet that he is in line to be the third running back on the depth chart. Derrick Gore had significantly more snaps than Darwin Thompson, suggesting that despite Gore’s big plays in the last two preseason games, Thompson might have the edge to become a fourth running back — providing the Chiefs decide to keep that many.
• Likewise, tight end Blake Bell’s starting spot would suggest that he is unlikely to be replaced by either Noah Gray or Jody Fortson — both of whom had exactly the same number of offensive and special teams snaps. Just as after Week 2, we can’t really draw many conclusions about how the Chiefs rank the two of them in the tight end group.
• Outside of the starting five linemen, Nick Allegretti, Yasir Durant and Prince Tega Wanogho had the most offensive snaps, while Mike Remmers, Andrew Wylie and Wyatt Miller had the least.

Defensive takeaways

• Unlike Week 2, the starting defenders were aligned in a 4-3-4 instead of a 4-2-5. Ben Niemann was the third linebacker in Week 3, while Mike Hughes was the nickel cornerback in Week 2.
• After that, Spagnuolo’s varied alignments make it difficult to draw too many conclusions from snap counts alone. As in Week 2, linebacker Darius Harris had the highest defensive snap count — likely because he is best-suited to be the defensive play-caller once Anthony Hitchens and Nieman are off the field. After that, the Chiefs gave the most defensive snap counts to defensive ends Joshua Kaindoh, Tim Ward and Austin Edwards.
• Defensive back Chris Lammoms — who led special-teams snaps in Week 2 but had no playing time on defense — remained at the top of the special-teams counts, while also playing over a third of the defensive snaps.