Chiefs-Broncos snap counts: a real wide-receiver-by-committee

How did Kansas City use its players in Thursday’s game against Denver?

In Week 6, the Kansas City Chiefs went to 5-1 on the season with a 19-8 victory over the Denver Broncos on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium — and also securing their 16th consecutive victory against their AFC rival.

Let’s see how Kansas City used its players in its fifth consecutive win of the season.

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

Did not play: QB Blaine Gabbert.

Inactive: CB Nic Jones, DE BJ Thompson, OL Mike Caliendo, DE Neil Farrell and DT Keondre Coburn.

Offensive takeaways

Travis Kelce

After sustaining a non-contact ankle sprain during last Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings, the superstar tight end put in his most dominant performance of the season on just 68% of the offensive snaps — significantly below his typical use, but more than any offensive skill player besides quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Running backs

There’s no longer any doubt about it: in Kansas City, running-back-by-committee is a thing of the past. Isiah Pacheco was on the field for 64% of the snaps — tied for his highest use ever — while Clyde Edwards-Helaire was in for only 13%. Jerick McKinnon got the rest of the running-back snaps — but didn’t have a single carry in the game; both he and Edwards-Helaire were used significantly more often on passing plays, while Pacheco’s use slanted significantly more toward running plays.

It’s fair to wonder if these usage patterns are telling opposing defenses more than the team wants them to know.

Wide Receivers

Among the team’s wideouts, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Skyy Moore continued to get the largest percentages of offensive snaps — but their use has been steadily declining; neither is getting anything close to what we would consider typical use for starting wide receivers.

In fact, 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. By comparison, the target distribution is still out of whack — Valdes-Scantling and Watson each had only one target, while Rice and Moore had four and Toney had six — but for better or worse, the team really does seem to be moving toward a legitimate committee approach.

Defensive takeaways

Bryan Cook and Mike Edwards

There no longer any doubt about it: defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is putting Bryan Book on the field for about four in five plays. For about half of the remaining snaps, Mike Edwards takes his place — and the rest of the time, he’s a third safety. His use continues to lean toward passing plays.

Joshua Williams and Jaylen Watson

In this game, the two who are used as the third cornerback continued to fight it out — but this time, it was Watson (46%) who got more work than Williams (20%). We’ll see how this looks when the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers a week from Sunday.

The second level

When starting MIKE linebacker Nick Bolton was out for three games, Drue Tranquill played very well in relief. So we kind of expected to see Bolton get some time off the field on Thursday night. It looks like we can expect Tranquill to get some snaps at MIKE when Bolton is off the filed, plus other work when Bolton is out there. Wille Gay Jr. and Leo Chenal were both back to what appear to be normal usage on Thursday night.

Defensive line

As we might expect, George Karlaftis saw significantly less use (62%) after coming into the game with a hamstring injury. But Mike Danna (90%) and Chris Jones (88%) both had season-high usage. (According to PFF, Jones lined up outside on 57% of his snaps — down from 71% in Week 5). Interestingly, usage for Felix Anudike-Uzomah was significantly down from Week 5. On the inside, Derrick Nnadi and Tershawn Wharton were right in their normal ranges — and Matt Dickerson was back in the mix.

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