Chiefs-Colts snap counts: Nick Bolton carries the load

On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs earned a 20-17 road loss against the Indianapolis Colts.

Let’s see how Kansas City used its players in the game.

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

Starters (defensive): DE George Karlaftis, DT Derrick Nnadi, DT Chris Jones, DE Frank Clark, LB Nick Bolton, LB Darius Harris, CB Jaylen Watson, CB L’Jarius Sneed, CB Rashad Fenton, S Juan Thornhill and S Justin Reid.

Did not play: QB Chad Henne.

Inactive: RB Ronald Jones, K Harrison Butker, QB Shane Buechele, DE Michael Danna, DE Benton Whitley, DE Joshua Kaindoh and T Darian Kinnard.

Offensive takeaways

• Except for two plays, in which Prince Tega Wanogho came in for Andrew Wylie, the starting offensive linemen played every offensive snap against the Colts. Nick Allegretti had a couple of snaps as a sixth offensive lineman — and defensive tackle Khalen Saunders had one snap as a lead blocker on a goal-line play.
• For the first time this season, a running back had more than half of the offensive snaps. Jerick McKinnon was on the field for 52% of the plays, seeing more use on passing plays than on rushing plays. 62% of the Chiefs’ plays were passes, leaving 38% for the running game. Those percentages exactly match 2021’s averages.
• As we normally see, tight end Travis Kelce was on the field for about nine in 10 plays. Noah Gray continues to be used mostly in rushing situations, getting 42% of the snaps against the Colts. Jody Fortson’s percentage of use was again in the low teens.
• Marquez Valdes-Scantling (78%) continues to be the wide receiver seeing the most use, followed by Mecole Hardman (70%) and JuJu Smith-Schuster. After seeing just two snaps in Week 2, rookie wideout Skyy Moore had six in Week 3.

Defensive takeaways

• As we usually see, safeties Justin Reid and Juan Thornhill — along with cornerbacks L’Jarius Sneed and Rashad Fenton — were on the field for nearly every play. Rookie corner Jaylen Watson was in on 83% of the plays. According to Pro Football Focus, Watson played outside almost exclusively when Sneed played in the slot or the box. As we saw through the first two weeks of the season, the Chiefs only rarely had a third safety on the field; rookie Bryan Cook was in for just 12% of the plays — almost all of them against the pass. Safety Deon Bush and cornerback Joshua Willaims were used exclusively on special teams.
• Linebacker Nick Bolton was on the field for every defensive play. With Wille Gay Jr. out, Darius Harris was in for 88% of the snaps — including almost every play against the run. Rookie Leo Chenal was used almost exclusively on passing plays, getting 16% of the total snaps. Jack Cochrane and Elijah Lee stayed with the special-teams unit.
• Defensive tackle Chris Jones and rookie defensive end George Karlaftis each saw 80% of the plays. Defensive end Frank Clark was in for 71% of the snaps — shaded heavily toward passing plays. With reserve defensive end Mike Danna out with an injury, Carlos Dunlap got more time, seeing 45% of the plays. Kansas City also used Chris Jones on the outside more often. According to PFF’s numbers, Jones played 32% of his snaps lined up on the edge. That led to more snaps for both Tershawn Wharton (who mostly played inside against the Colts) and Khalen Saunders. Active for the first time this season, second-year defensive end Malik Herring was in for only four snaps on defense — plus four more with special teams.

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