Chiefs-Jaguars snap counts: Justin Watson and Carlos Dunlap get lots of work

In Week 10, the Kansas City Chiefs collected a 27-17 home victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, pushing their record to 7-2 on the season.

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

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Starters (offensive): WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling, TE Travis Kelce, LT Orlando Brown Jr., LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Andrew Wylie, TE Noah Gray, QB Patrick Mahomes and RB Isiah Pacheco.

Starters (defensive): DE George Karlaftis, DT Derrick Nnadi, DT Chris Jones, DE Carlos Dunlap, LB Nick Bolton, LB Willie Gay Jr., CB Joshua Williams, CB L’Jarius Sneed, CB Trent McDuffie, S Juan Thornhill and S Justin Reid.

Did not play: QB Chad Henne.

Inactive: RB Ronald Jones, QB Shane Buechele, S Nazeeh Johnson, WR Mecole Hardman, DE Joshua Kaindoh and T Darian Kinnard.

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Offensive takeaways

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Offensive linemen Orlando Brown Jr., Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith played every offensive snap. Andrew Wylie had 25 snaps before leaving the game with an injury, so Prince Tega Wanogho came in for the final 37 snaps. Per Pro Football Focus, Wylie earned a grade of 66.5 — his best mark since Week 1 — before stepping out. Wanogho earned a 57.7 grade in relief. Nick Allegretti had just one snap as a sixth offensive lineman — and fullback Micahel Burton was in for just 3% of the offensive snaps — his lowest figure for the season.

At running back, seventh-round rookie Isiah Pacheco started his third consecutive game, with his percentage of use rising to another season high. He tended to be on the field on running downs, while veteran Jerick McKinnon slanted toward passing plays. For the third consecutive week, Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s use hit a season low — but experience tells us that it still wouldn’t be surprising to see him be the lead running back in the next game.

For Sunday’s game, the Chiefs’ pass/run ratio came in at 56/44. That wasn’t the team’s biggest reliance on the run this season — but it was close. The ratio was 52/48 in Week 4’s 41-31 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Tight end Jody Fortson was back on the field against the Jaguars — but the team did the same thing they did for the Week 9 game against the Tennessee Titans: they put a little less emphasis than usual on their tight ends; the position averaged 1.31 players on each snap. With Fortson getting 11% of the snaps as the team worked him back into the offense, that added up to a little bit of a lighter load than usual for both Travis Kelce and Noah Gray.

On his 24th snap of the day, the team’s leading wide receiver JuJu Smit-Schuster was knocked out of the game with a concussion. With Mecole Hardman out, that opened up opportunities for other wideouts to step up. No one benefitted more than Justin Watson, who got a starter-like use in the game. But since the offense was leaning a bit more on wideouts, Kadarius Moore got a significant amount of use, too. Only Skyy Moore failed to get any more work than usual.

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Defensive takeaways

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It was pretty simple at the back end of the Kansas City defense. Cornerbacks L’Jarius Sneed and Trent McDuffie — along with safeties Juan Thornhill and Justin Reid — were on the field for every snap. Rookie corner Joshua Williams got most of the snaps (52%) on the outside when Sneed was playing in the slot, but fellow rookie corner Jaylen Watson also saw significant use (34%).

The Chiefs averaged 5.11 defensive backs on the field for each play. That wasn’t the season’s highest mark, but it was on the high side of normal.

At the second level, linebacker Nick Bolton continues to be the defense’s central player — running the show and staying on the field for every snap. On Sunday, Willie Gay Jr. was alongside him for about two-thirds of the snaps — but unlike the game against the Titans, he was used equally against the pass and the run. In this game, it appears that linebacker Leo Chenal and safety Bryan Cook served as the second-level’s run and pass specialists.

With defensive end Frank Clark serving the second (and last) game of his suspension, veteran Carlos Dunlap and rookie George Karlaftis shouldered most of the responsibility at EDGE — with Michael Danna and Malike Herring pitching in. Dunlap saw his highest use of the year, while Karlaftis was back at his participation level from early in the season.

Of course, defensive tackle Chris Jones also carried some responsibility on the edge. On the field for 87% of the unit’s snaps, PFF data shows that he lined up on the outside for just over half of his reps against Jacksonville. Derrick Nnadi and Khalen Saunders — with a bit of help from Taylor Stallworth — continued to split up the rest of the work on the inside.

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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