Chiefs-Seahawks snap counts: Valdes-Scantling, Karlaftis see reduced use

How did Kansas City use its players in Saturday’s game against Seattle?

In Week 16, the Kansas City Chiefs notched a 24-10 win against the Seattle Seahawks on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

Let’s see how Kansas City used its players in the season’s 12th win.

Starters (offensive): WR Justin Watson, TE Travis Kelce, LT Orlando Brown Jr., LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Andrew Wylie, TE Blake Bell, TE Noah Gray, QB Patrick Mahomes and RB Isiah Pacheco.

Starters (defensive): DE Frank Clark, DT Derrick Nnadi, DT Chris Jones, DE George Karlaftis, LB Nick Bolton, LB Willie Gay Jr., LB Leo Chenal, CB L’Jarius Sneed, CB Trent McDuffie, S Juan Thornhill and S Justin Reid.

Did not play: QB Chad Henne.

Inactive: QB Shane Buechele, DE Joshua Kaindoh, T Geron Christian, T Darian Kinnard, DE Malik Herring and DT Khalen Saunders.

Offensive takeaways

There were no issues with he offensive line on Christmas Eve, so Orlando Brown Jr., Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith and Andrew Wylie played every snap. No extra linemen were brought in for any offensive plays. Backups Nick Allegretti, Prince Tega Wanogho and Lucas Niang all played, but only on special teams.

Fullback Michael Burton had a handful of offensive snaps, but was — as usual — a substantial contributor on special teams.

In a now familiar pattern, rookie running back Isiah Pacheco got the start — his ninth of the season — but was used primarily on running downs. Veteran Jerrick McKinnon had the bulk of his use on passing plays. In some games, McKinnon ends up with more snaps than Pacheco — but not in Saturday’s game.

In the first two games in which Pacheco started — Week 7 against the San Francisco 49ers and Week 9 against the Tennessee Titans — the Chiefs ran their typical offensive play ratio: two or more passing plays for every running play (something around 66/34). But in the seven games since then, just one of them — Week 14 against the Denver Broncos — has been like that. All the rest have had pass/run ratios close to 56/44.

An Andy Reid offense featuring Patrick Mahomes is never likely to be perfectly balanced between passing and running plays — but it appears that Kansas City is now committed to giving a little more emphasis to the ground game.

At tight end, Travis Kelce had his usual use. Kelce had a recent stretch in which both he and second tight end Noah Gray were being used fairly equally on passing and running plays, but in the last few weeks, Kelce’s use has shifted toward the pass and Gary’s has shifted toward the run Now that Blake Bell is back in the lineup, that’s likely to continue. On Saturday, Bell had six snaps — 12% of the total.

Officially, the Chiefs started just one wide receiver: Justin Watson. They then listed Kelce, Gray and Bell as starters. But as usual, JuJu Smith-Schuster got most of the work — followed by Watson. Marquez Valdes-Scatntling’s use continues a fairly steady downward trend — especially as it now appears Kadarius Toney is ready to contribute at the same level as before. It will be interesting to see how things change when Mecole Hardman is once again available — which might happen in time for the Week 17 game against the Denver Broncos.

Defensive takeaways

In the back end, cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and L’Jarius Sneed — along with safeties Justin Reid and Juan Thornhill — were on the field for every snap. In a departure from the usual procedure, Sneed played outside on almost every snap — usually following Seattle’s D.K. Metcalf around the field. So it was Trent McDuffie who played the majority of his snaps in the slot or in the box — and when that happened, Jaylen Watson (and sometimes Joshua Williams) played on the outside. Safety Bryan Cook got a good chunk of playing time as the fifth defensive back, too.

The other every-snap defender player was — as usual — linebacker Nick Bolton. Willie Gay Jr. was the other primary defender on the second level — although his use approached a season-low. The team seems to be interested in getting rookie linebacker Leo Chenal more work on running plays in preference to Darius Harris, who had less use than he’s seen for almost the whole season.

Although he made an impact in the game, the Chiefs chose to back down the snaps of defensive end George Karlaftis, making them up with increased use for both Carlos Dunlap and Michael Danna. While he didn’t get up to the 66/34 ratio we sometimes see, defensive tackle Chris Jones did play the majority of his Saturday snaps on the outside.

Aside from the players in the secondary, Jones had more defensive snaps than anyone. With Khalen Saunders out for the game, Derrick Nnadi had a slight increase over his usual use. Brandon Williams and Danny Shelton (elevated from the practice squad for his first game in a Chiefs uniform) took up the slack on the inside.

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