On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs recorded a 25-17 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, clinching a playoff berth and their eighth consecutive AFC West title.
Let’s see how Kansas City used its players in the win.
Starters (offensive): WR Justin Watson, WR Rashee Rice, LT Wanya Morris, LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Jawaan Taylor, TE Travis Kelce, WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling, QB Patrick Mahomes and RB Isiah Pacheco.
Starters (defensive): DE George Karlaftis, DT Derrick Nnadi, DT Chris Jones, DE Michael Danna, LB Willie Gay Jr., LB Nick Bolton, LB Leo Chenal, CB Trent McDuffie, CB L’Jarius Sneed, S Justin Reid and S Mike Edwards.
Did not play: QB Blaine Gabbert and RB Keaontay Ingram.
Inactive: WR Kadarius Toney, RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, CB Nic Jones, DE BJ Thompson, T Donovan Smith, DE Neil Farrell and DE Malik Herring.
Offensive takeaways
Offensive line
Rookie tackle Wanya Morris had his fourth start at left tackle in relief of veteran Donovan Smith, who is suffering from a neck stinger. Since the result of the Week 17 matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers will now have no bearing on playoff seeding, it seems likely that Smith will miss his fifth game this Sunday. Have we seen the last of him in 2023?
Tight ends
Two weeks ago against the New England Patriots, it appeared that the Chiefs were giving tight end Travis Kelce some snaps off by shifting some of his blocking assignments to Noah Gray and Blake Bell. Since then, they have been moving Kelce back to something more like his normal use — and on Sunday, Gray had a higher percentage of snaps than he’d seen since the Week 5 game against the Minnesota Vikings. That added up to the Chiefs using tight ends more than usual against the Bengals. The team averaged 1.60 tight ends on every play — the season’s highest figure — and used a season-low of 2.38 wide receivers per play.
Running backs
With Jerick McKinnon on the Reserve/Injured list (and Clyde Edwards-Helaire inactive with an illness), the Chiefs chose to have Isiah Pacheco on the field for almost every offensive play: 92% of the snaps. That was easily a season high. In fact — except for Darwin Thompson in a rest-the-starters game against the Chargers in 2020 — it was the first time a Kansas City running back had exceeded 90% of the snaps since Jamaal Charles did it in some games during 2013 and 2014. It would appear that the coaching staff simply didn’t believe that newly activated La’Mical Perine was ready to be trusted — that is, unless Pacheco was injured.
Wide receivers
After the Week 15 game against the Patriots, we noted that Marquez Valde-Scantling’s usage had been trending downward since Week 7 — but in the last two games, it’s been back to the high percentages we saw at the beginning of the season. While Rahsee Rice continues to lead the position group in snaps, we simply cannot explain the team’s continued reliance on Valdes-Scantling, who had one catch for three yards (on four targets) during the last two games). Meanwhile, players like Richie James (who was three for three for 54 yards against Las Vegas) and just activated Mecole Hardman aren’t getting more work.
Defensive takeaways
There aren’t a lot of noteworthy takeaways from the defensive snap count data. But there are a couple of things worth mentioning.
One is that in the Week 16 loss to the Raiders, second-year linebacker Leo Chenal saw a significant spike in his usage as the team set a season-high average of 2.45 linebackers on every play. But in Week 17, everyone in the second level was back into their normal ranges of use.
In what might be a related development, defensive back Chamarri Conner’s usage settled into a more normal range after consecutive weeks in which he achieved season highs.
Otherwise, it would appear that defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s unit has found the right formula… and is continuing to stay in the groove it has established.
Data
Offense
Offense | All | Pass | Run |
Total | 53 (100%) |
31 (100%) |
22 (100%) |
Creed Humphrey | 53 (100%) |
31 (100%) |
22 (100%) |
Patrick Mahomes | 53 (100%) |
31 (100%) |
22 (100%) |
Wanya Morris | 53 (100%) |
31 (100%) |
22 (100%) |
Trey Smith | 53 (100%) |
31 (100%) |
22 (100%) |
Jawaan Taylor | 53 (100%) |
31 (100%) |
22 (100%) |
Joe Thuney | 53 (100%) |
31 (100%) |
22 (100%) |
Isiah Pacheco | 49 (92%) |
28 (90%) |
21 (95%) |
Travis Kelce | 44 (83%) |
27 (87%) |
17 (77%) |
Rashee Rice | 42 (79%) |
28 (90%) |
14 (64%) |
Marquez Valdes-Scantling | 37 (70%) |
21 (68%) |
16 (73%) |
Noah Gray | 31 (58%) |
16 (52%) |
15 (68%) |
Justin Watson | 24 (45%) |
16 (52%) |
8 (36%) |
Richie James | 12 (23%) |
9 (29%) |
3 (14%) |
Blake Bell | 10 (19%) |
2 (6%) |
8 (36%) |
Justyn Ross | 7 (13%) |
3 (10%) |
4 (18%) |
Mecole Hardman | 4 (8%) |
2 (6%) |
2 (9%) |
La’Mical Perine | 4 (8%) |
3 (10%) |
1 (5%) |
Nick Allegretti | 1 (2%) |
0 (0%) |
1 (5%) |
Defense
Defense | All | Pass | Run |
Total | 71 (100%) |
39 (100%) |
32 (100%) |
Mike Edwards | 71 (100%) |
39 (100%) |
32 (100%) |
Justin Reid | 71 (100%) |
39 (100%) |
32 (100%) |
L’Jarius Sneed | 71 (100%) |
39 (100%) |
32 (100%) |
Trent McDuffie | 68 (96%) |
38 (97%) |
30 (94%) |
Nick Bolton | 63 (89%) |
37 (95%) |
26 (81%) |
Michael Danna | 54 (76%) |
30 (77%) |
24 (75%) |
Chris Jones | 53 (75%) |
29 (74%) |
24 (75%) |
George Karlaftis | 50 (70%) |
29 (74%) |
21 (66%) |
Charles Omenihu | 45 (63%) |
26 (67%) |
19 (59%) |
Willie Gay Jr. | 34 (48%) |
16 (41%) |
18 (56%) |
Derrick Nnadi | 30 (42%) |
15 (38%) |
15 (47%) |
Chamarri Conner | 29 (41%) |
19 (49%) |
10 (31%) |
Drue Tranquill | 27 (38%) |
12 (31%) |
15 (47%) |
Jaylen Watson | 26 (37%) |
12 (31%) |
14 (44%) |
Tershawn Wharton | 24 (34%) |
15 (38%) |
9 (28%) |
Leo Chenal | 21 (30%) |
8 (21%) |
13 (41%) |
Joshua Williams | 19 (27%) |
17 (44%) |
2 (6%) |
Mike Pennel | 19 (27%) |
5 (13%) |
14 (44%) |
Felix Anudike-Uzomah | 4 (6%) |
3 (8%) |
1 (3%) |
Deon Bush | 2 (3%) |
1 (3%) |
1 (3%) |
Special Teams
Special Teams | Snaps |
Total | 27 (100%) |
Deon Bush | 20 (74%) |
Leo Chenal | 20 (74%) |
Jack Cochrane | 20 (74%) |
Chamarri Conner | 20 (74%) |
Joshua Williams | 20 (74%) |
Cam Jones | 17 (63%) |
Noah Gray | 16 (59%) |
Harrison Butker | 15 (56%) |
Ekow Boye-Doe | 13 (48%) |
La’Mical Perine | 13 (48%) |
Jaylen Watson | 12 (44%) |
Drue Tranquill | 9 (33%) |
Richie James | 8 (30%) |
Tommy Townsend | 8 (30%) |
James Winchester | 8 (30%) |
Nick Allegretti | 7 (26%) |
Mike Caliendo | 7 (26%) |
Creed Humphrey | 7 (26%) |
Wanya Morris | 7 (26%) |
Lucas Niang | 7 (26%) |
Trey Smith | 7 (26%) |
Jawaan Taylor | 7 (26%) |
Blake Bell | 4 (15%) |
Justyn Ross | 4 (15%) |
Justin Watson | 4 (15%) |
Michael Danna | 3 (11%) |
George Karlaftis | 3 (11%) |
Derrick Nnadi | 3 (11%) |
Justin Reid | 3 (11%) |
Tershawn Wharton | 3 (11%) |
Nick Bolton | 2 (7%) |
All Snaps
All Snaps | Off | Def | ST | Total |
Total | 53 (100%) |
71 (100%) |
27 (100%) |
151 (100%) |
Nick Allegretti | 1 (2%) |
0 (0%) |
7 (26%) |
8 (5%) |
Felix Anudike-Uzomah | 0 (0%) |
4 (6%) |
0 (0%) |
4 (3%) |
Blake Bell | 10 (19%) |
0 (0%) |
4 (15%) |
14 (9%) |
Nick Bolton | 0 (0%) |
63 (89%) |
2 (7%) |
65 (43%) |
Ekow Boye-Doe | 0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
13 (48%) |
13 (9%) |
Deon Bush | 0 (0%) |
2 (3%) |
20 (74%) |
22 (15%) |
Harrison Butker | 0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
15 (56%) |
15 (10%) |
Mike Caliendo | 0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
7 (26%) |
7 (5%) |
Leo Chenal | 0 (0%) |
21 (30%) |
20 (74%) |
41 (27%) |
Jack Cochrane | 0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
20 (74%) |
20 (13%) |
Chamarri Conner | 0 (0%) |
29 (41%) |
20 (74%) |
49 (32%) |
Michael Danna | 0 (0%) |
54 (76%) |
3 (11%) |
57 (38%) |
Mike Edwards | 0 (0%) |
71 (100%) |
0 (0%) |
71 (47%) |
Willie Gay Jr. | 0 (0%) |
34 (48%) |
0 (0%) |
34 (23%) |
Noah Gray | 31 (58%) |
0 (0%) |
16 (59%) |
47 (31%) |
Mecole Hardman | 4 (8%) |
0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
4 (3%) |
Creed Humphrey | 53 (100%) |
0 (0%) |
7 (26%) |
60 (40%) |
Richie James | 12 (23%) |
0 (0%) |
8 (30%) |
20 (13%) |
Cam Jones | 0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
17 (63%) |
17 (11%) |
Chris Jones | 0 (0%) |
53 (75%) |
0 (0%) |
53 (35%) |
George Karlaftis | 0 (0%) |
50 (70%) |
3 (11%) |
53 (35%) |
Travis Kelce | 44 (83%) |
0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
44 (29%) |
Patrick Mahomes | 53 (100%) |
0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
53 (35%) |
Trent McDuffie | 0 (0%) |
68 (96%) |
0 (0%) |
68 (45%) |
Wanya Morris | 53 (100%) |
0 (0%) |
7 (26%) |
60 (40%) |
Lucas Niang | 0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
7 (26%) |
7 (5%) |
Derrick Nnadi | 0 (0%) |
30 (42%) |
3 (11%) |
33 (22%) |
Charles Omenihu | 0 (0%) |
45 (63%) |
0 (0%) |
45 (30%) |
Isiah Pacheco | 49 (92%) |
0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
49 (32%) |
La’Mical Perine | 4 (8%) |
0 (0%) |
13 (48%) |
17 (11%) |
Justin Reid | 0 (0%) |
71 (100%) |
3 (11%) |
74 (49%) |
Rashee Rice | 42 (79%) |
0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
42 (28%) |
Justyn Ross | 7 (13%) |
0 (0%) |
4 (15%) |
11 (7%) |
Trey Smith | 53 (100%) |
0 (0%) |
7 (26%) |
60 (40%) |
L’Jarius Sneed | 0 (0%) |
71 (100%) |
0 (0%) |
71 (47%) |
Jawaan Taylor | 53 (100%) |
0 (0%) |
7 (26%) |
60 (40%) |
Joe Thuney | 53 (100%) |
0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
53 (35%) |
Tommy Townsend | 0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
8 (30%) |
8 (5%) |
Drue Tranquill | 0 (0%) |
27 (38%) |
9 (33%) |
36 (24%) |
Marquez Valdes-Scantling | 37 (70%) |
0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
37 (25%) |
Jaylen Watson | 0 (0%) |
26 (37%) |
12 (44%) |
38 (25%) |
Justin Watson | 24 (45%) |
0 (0%) |
4 (15%) |
28 (19%) |
Tershawn Wharton | 0 (0%) |
24 (34%) |
3 (11%) |
27 (18%) |
Joshua Williams | 0 (0%) |
19 (27%) |
20 (74%) |
39 (26%) |
James Winchester | 0 (0%) |
0 (0%) |
8 (30%) |
8 (5%) |
Mike Pennel | 0 (0%) |
19 (27%) |
0 (0%) |
19 (13%) |
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