Chiefs-Dolphins snap counts: Moving away from wide-receiver-by-committee?

On Sunday morning of Week 9, the Kansas City Chiefs welcomed the Miami Dolphins to Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany — and collected a 21-14 victory to extend their season record to 7-2.

Let’s see how Kansas City used its players in the team’s latest win.

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Starters (offensive): WR Rashee Rice, LT Donovan Smith, LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Jawaan Taylor, TE Travis Kelce, WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling, WR Justin Watson, QB Patrick Mahomes and RB Isiah Pacheco.

Starters (defensive): DE George Karlaftis, DT Chris Jones, DT Derrick Nnadi, DE Michael Danna, LB Drue Tranquill, LB Leo Chenal, DB Chamarri Conner, CB Trent McDuffie, CB L’Jarius Sneed, S Justin Reid and S Bryan Cook.

Did not play: QB Blaine Gabbert.

Inactive: RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, DE BJ Thompson, OL Mike Caliendo, DE Neil Farrell and DE Malik Herring.

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Offensive takeaways

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Passing plays percentage

After setting a season-high percentage (72%) against the Denver Broncos in Week 8, the Chiefs ran a perfectly reasonable percentage of passing plays against the Dolphins in Frankfurt: 57%. It was a bit below the typical percentage (around low to mid-60s), but not all the way down to Week 4’s season-low: 47%. As we saw in the 13-play, 95-yard drive that led to the team’s second touchdown, it was enough to take time off the clock and keep the defense honest against the passing attack — without depending so much on the ground game that it reduced the offense’s efficiency.

Tight ends

Since tight end Travis Kelce had only four targets for three receptions (and a season-low 14 yards), it led to a perception that he wasn’t on the field as much as we typically see. In fact, Kelce’s snaps (75%) were right in his normal range of use. As head coach Andy Reid noted, the Dolphins were careful to give Kelce very little space in which he could work.

“I said, ‘Doggone it Travis, I need to get the ball to you a little bit more.’” Reid recalled after the game. “And he goes, ‘Hey, the offensive line played great. You know we were running the ball well.’ So I appreciate that attitude.”

Running backs

Fans need to stop suggesting that running back Isiah Pacheco be made the bell cow of the Kansas City running game — because he’s already got the job. His percentage of offensive snaps against Miami (70%) was the highest of his career — and given that the Chiefs like to have a different back on the field on third down (normally Jerick McKinnon, who had 23% of Sunday’s snaps), it would be hard for Pacheco to be more... shall we say... bovine. As it is, there are barely enough snaps remaining for a third back (normally Clyde Edwards-Helaire — but against the Dolphins, elevated practice-squad back L’Mical Perine) to keep their hand in.

Wide receivers

As we noted following the Week 6 win over the Broncos, Kansas City had actually managed to create a wide-receiver-by-committee approach:

Five of the six wideouts who had offensive snaps on Thursday — Valdes-Scantling, Moore, Rashee Rice, Kadarius Toney and Justin Watson — were grouped together between 57% and 41%. With the exception of Justyn Ross (13%), it was the closest we’ve seen to a true wide-receiver-by-committee distribution.

But in the games since then, the Chiefs have been moving away from that. On Sunday, three wideouts each had at least 50% of the offensive snaps: Rashee Rice (70%), Justin Watson (63%) and Marquez Valdes-Scantling (54%). The other three active wide receivers each had a share below 25%: Skyy Moore (23%), Mecole Hardman (21%) and Kadarius Toney (13%). It certainly looks like the team is narrowing down the list of receivers it wants to emphasize.

Meanwhile... Toney’s low use in 2023 remains a mystery. His production hasn’t been very impressive — 28 targets for 20 receptions, 127 yards and a touchdown — but it’s hard to argue that another wideout has produced so much with so little opportunity; Toney has been on the field for just 24% of the offensive snaps. (With 72% of the snaps, that would translate to 60 receptions and 381 yards, which would lead all Kansas City wideouts). How he is used down the stretch (and in the postseason) could be very interesting.

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Defensive takeaways

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Defensive backs

In the secondary, defensive backs were used in the ways (and in the proportions) we have come to expect — with one exception: cornerback Joshua Williams appears to have finally lost the battle to be Kansas City’s third cornerback.

As we see here, Williams has had 20% (or fewer) of the defensive snaps in each of the last four games — and has been on a downward trend all season. That’s not to say that against a given opponent, the team couldn’t decide that Williams would be a better matchup against a particular set of receivers — but for now, it looks like Jaylen Watson has won the job the two of them have been competing to get since both were drafted in 2022. In the meantime, you can also see that Williams has been getting plenty of work on special teams; he remains a valuable contributor.

Linebackers

Just as we would expect, Drue Tranquill has been filling in for the injured Nick Bolton on pretty much a snap-for-snap basis.

But in Sunday’s game, Willie Gay Jr. registered his lowest use of the season: 36% of the defensive snaps. It would be easy to attribute this to getting some snaps off because of the lower back injury he suffered in Week 8 — and that could be exactly what happened — but in recent weeks, we have also seen his use trending downward.

And whose use has been trending up during roughly the same period? Second-year linebacker Leo Chenal.

Could the Chiefs be thinking about how they can proceed without Gay — who will be a free agent in 2024? That’s certainly possible. In the meantime, another second-year linebacker — Jack Cochrane — now seems to be grabbing some second-level snaps in addition to his special teams work.

Defensive line

Kansas City’s defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo (and for that matter, defensive line coach Joe Cullen) are known for using edge rushers all across the line. So it is not surprising that against the Dolphins’ passing attack, the best pass rushers on the defensive line would get the most use: Chris Jones, Michael Danna, George Karlaftis and Charles Omenihu had defensive snap shares ranging from 83% to 74%. After those four, the defensive linemen with the most snaps were Tershawn Wharton (36%) and Derrick Nnadi (33%). That allowed the Chiefs to collect three sacks against Miami. It was just the third time this season the Dolphins have given up three or more in a game.

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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