Chiefs-Bengals snap counts: early-season echoes in a return to normal

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

In Week 17, the Kansas City Chiefs fell to the Cincinnati Bengals 34-31 on a last-second field goal at Paul Brown Stadium, bringing their record to 11-5.

Let’s see how the Chiefs used their players in this unexpected loss.

Starters (offensive): WR Tyreek Hill, TE Blake Bell, LT Lucas Niang, LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Andrew Wylie, TE Travis Kelce, WR Demarcus Robinson, QB Patrick Mahomes and RB Darrel Williams.

Starters (defensive): LDE Melvin Ingram, LDT Jarran Reed, RDT Chris Jones, RDE Frank Clark, LB Willie Gay Jr., LB Anthony Hitchens, LCB Charvarius Ward, CB L’Jarius Sneed, RCB Rashad Fenton, S Juan Thornhill and S Tyrann Mathieu.

Did not play: QB Chad Henne, T Orlando Brown Jr. and QB Shane Buechele.

Inactive: RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, CB Deandre Baker, OL Kyle Long and T Prince Tega Wanogho.

Offensive takeaways

Sunday’s game started with an unusual situation: starting left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. suffered a calf injury during pre-game warmups. The Chiefs responded by moving nominal right tackle Lucas Niang to the left side and giving Andrew Wylie (who had been filling in for Niang during recent games) another start on the right side. But after just five snaps, Niang left the game with a serious injury. Starting left guard Joe Thuney moved to left tackle and Nick Allegretti took his lace on the inside. Thuney, Allegretti, center Creed Humphrey, right guard Trey Smith and Wylie played the rest of the offensive snaps.

After several weeks where both Travis Kelce and Blake Bell missed time on the Reserve/COVID list — or played less after returning — the tight end position returned to normal. Kelce, Bell and rookie Noah Gray all had usage within their normal ranges.

At running back, however, the Chiefs were without starter Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who was injured in Week 16 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 15, Edwards-Helaire had been used as the bell cow running back — getting 73% of the snaps — for the first time since the opening week of the season. Against the Bengals, Darrel Williams stepped right into that role — while Jerick McKinnon (who was returning from injury) and Derrick Gore had only minimal use.

There had also been some COVID-related shuffling at wide receiver in recent weeks. Tyreek Hill didn’t have a big game against Cincinnati— but it wasn’t because he was on the field less. Instead, he was right back in his normal range. Byron Pringle had his lowest percentage of use since Week 9 against the Green Bay Packers, while Demarcus Robinson and Mecole Hardman — both of whom appeared to be on the way out earlier in the season — seem to have established new normal ranges in the last few weeks. After missing the Chargers game on the COVID list, Josh Gordon’s usage began to trend back up. We’ll see if he gets back to being a starter who sees significant usage.

Defensive takeaways

On defense, everyone was back from injury, personal and COVID-related absences. So at the back end of the secondary, we saw the usual pattern: starting safety Tyrann Mathieu and starting cornerbacks Charvarius Ward and L’Jarius Sneed were on the field for nearly every snap.

Safety Juan Thornhill’s usage was also back in his normal range — but for the first time since early in the season, was used significantly more often against the pass. Fellow safety Daniel Sorensen also returned to his normal range. Like Thornhill, he was used differently than he had been for quite a while — seeing equal use against the run and the pass.

Per Pro Football Focus, Ward was back to playing outside almost exclusively, while Sneed also returned to his normal role: playing mostly in the slot. Rashad Fenton — also back to his normal range — played mostly on the outside when Sneed was in the slot. With the secondary back to normal, Mike Hughes had only a handful of defensive snaps.

At the second level, Anthony Hitchens was also used more often than he had been since early in the season — aside from the Chargers game, where he was used more because of Willie Gay’s absence. Both Gay and Nick Bolton returned to their normal use.

Chris Jones was another player who found himself back in his normal range of use — and his normal position. According to PFF, he was on the inside about twice as often as the outside — pretty much exactly as he was used in 2020.

Meanwhile, Frank Clark and Melvin Ingram were also in their normal ranges again, with Mike Danna and Alex Okafor spelling them primarily on running snaps.

And among the rest of the defensive tackles, it was another return to normal.

Data

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