Chiefs-Bears snap counts: Chris Jones, Kadarius Toney see little action

How did Kansas City use its players in Sunday’s game against Chicago?

The Kansas City Chiefs hammered on a hapless Chicago Bears team on Sunday, getting to 2-1 on the season with a 41-10 victory on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

Let’s see how the Chiefs used their players in Week 3.

Starters (offensive): WR Skyy Moore, LT Donovan Smith, LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Jawaan Taylor, TE Travis Kelce, TE Noah Gray, 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 Drue Tranquill, DB Chamarri Conner, CB Trent McDuffie, CB L’Jarius Sneed, S Justin Reid and S Bryan Cook.

Did not play: None.

Inactive: CB Nic Jones, LB Nick Bolton, DE BJ Thompson, OL Wanya Morris, T Lucas Niang and DT Keondre Coburn.

Offensive takeaways

• The impression most had of the game proved to be correct: the Chiefs passed on just 51% of their snaps — and ran the ball on 49%. To be fair, some of that was because Kansas City ran out to a substantial lead fairly early in the game. And while this proportion is fairly uncommon for an Andy Reid team, it’s not exactly unknown. In two of last season’s games — in Week 4 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Week 18 against the Las Vegas Raiders — Kansas City also split the passing and running plays almost right down the middle. In seven other 2022 games — most of them after running back Isiah Pacheco became the starter — the Chiefs ran passing plays on fewer of 60% of their snaps.
• Kansas City ran 75 offensive plays, while Chicago ran just 51 — an excellent ratio. That’s what you see when the offensive is efficient and the defensive is good at getting off the field. Against the Detroit Lions in Week 1, it was 62/29 — and 64/64 against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2.
• As it has done pretty consistently since the gameday roster rules were changed in 2020 — and for the third time this season — Kansas City dressed 48 players for Sunday’s game. (If at least eight offensive lineman are active, NFL teams can dress an extra player beyond the normal limit of 47). This is despite the fact that offensive linemen Lucas Niang and Wanya Morris have both been inactive for all three games this season; Prince Tega Wanagho, Nick Allegretti and Mike Caliendo have dressed for every game.
• Since the Chiefs held a 34-0 lead going into halftime, a lot of reserves got extra playing time. Allegretti and Caliendo each got seven snaps — and Wanogho ended up getting 14 after he filled in for Jawaan Taylor’s six snaps on the sidelines.
• This also means that skill position players who might normally get snap count percentages of around 80% or higher didn’t come close to that. For example: Skyy Moore (64%) and Marquez Valdes-Scantling (53%) led the wide receivers in reps — but Rashee Rice (51%) and Justyn Ross (36%) both got more offensive work than we’ve seen so far this season.
• Somewhat mysteriously, wide receiver Kadarius Toney was on the field for just two offensive snaps. It is unknown whether the team originally intended to hold him in reserve, or if his toe injury flared up during warmups (or early in the game).

Defensive takeaways

• Just as with the offensive players, reserves got more playing time than usual after halftime. Safety Bryan Cook, however, was on the field for every defensive snap. Cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and L’Jarius Sneed — along with safety Justin Reid — were all on the sideline during Chicago’s lone touchdown drive.
• Linebacker Drue Tranquill stepped right into starting MIKE linebacker Nick Bolton’s shoes. Like McDuffie, Sneed and Reid, he was also off the field during the Bears’ only touchdown drive.
• Defensive ends George Karlaftis (65%) and Michael Danna (57%) once again held down the outside of the defensive line. Rookie defensive Felix Anudike-Uzomah was in for almost half of the plays. But for unknown reasons, star defensive tackle Chris Jones was only in for 31% of the snaps. That led to Tershawn Wharton getting a very high proportion (76%) of the reps.
• Since linebacker Cole Christiansen had been elevated from the practice squad — and the Chiefs were taking care of business — Kansas City was able to get special-teams whiz Jack Cochrane 25% of the snaps at linebacker. Willie Gay Jr. got some extra time on the sideline, but second-year linebacker Leo Chenal (67%) got some extra work.
• Joshua Williams and Jaylen Watson once again split up the time as the third cornerback — although those number have probably been skewed a bit by starters resting in the fourth quarter. For now, it at appears that neither has taken a firm grasp on the rols — and it might be they will be continue to be platooned for the rest of the season

Special teams takeaways

• We expected that when wide receiver Montrell Washington was elevated from the practice squad for this game, he would get special-teams snaps in preference to a player such as Justyn Ross, who would be in position to get more offensive work with Richie James on on injured reserve. Instead, Ross got the extra reps on offense (while still carrying his usual load as a gunner for Dave Toub) while Washington took over all of James’ return duties. Now it appears that Washington has that job for the forseeable future — and after his practice-squad elevations are used up (he can be elevated twice more in the regular season), he might actually find himself on the team’s active roster. (At this writing, the team has not yet filled James’ roster spot; the Chiefs currently have 52 players on the roster).

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