What the snap counts tell us from the Chiefs win over the Broncos

A closer look at the snap counts and what they mean from the Chiefs win over the Broncos.

On Sunday night, the Kansas City Chiefs did what they had to do to put away the Denver Broncos. Unfortunately, the team left a lot on the table offensively in game that was too close for comfort. The officials certainly didn’t help things, but red zone issues and a generally conservative approach frustrated fans all night long. A win is a win, yes, but no one is overly excited after that one.

Still, the Chiefs are now bound for the postseason with an 11-1 record and they’ve put away the Broncos on 11 straight occasions. Let’s look at the snap counts to see what we can learn from Sunday night’s win.

O-line continuity

A quick look at the top snap counts on the offensive side shows that the Chiefs decided not to mess with their offensive line despite having more options at their disposal than they’ve had in some time. Injuries have decimated the offensive front this season with numerous starters missing half or even all of the regular season—from Kelechi Osemele to Laurent Duvernay-Tardif to Mitch Schwartz. Yet on Sunday night, Andy Reid went with the horses who brought him this far even with some restocked shelves.

The Chiefs have recently added both Martinas Rankin and Stefen Wisniewski to the active roster and both were ready on game day, but in the end, it was the same core line of Eric Fisher, Nick Allegretti, Austin Reiter, Andrew Wylie, and Mike Remmers starting up front for the Chiefs. That’s a good sign for the likes of Allegretti and/or Wylie especially that they’re holding onto jobs despite very real competition.

It’s hard to say whether this will hold up over time, but the Chiefs can keep everyone hungry for those reps with this sort of competitive bunch. Hopefully that will lead to improved play, especially along the interior.

CEH was really sick

Running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire missed practice last week due to an illness, but he was listed as questionable before the game and was active on Sunday night. Still it was interesting that the Chiefs never once turned to him during the game. Instead, Le’Veon Bell received more touches than ever before and Darrel Williams stepped up to make some key plays in CEH’s absence.

In fact, Bell and Williams nearly split the load 50-50, as Bell had 33 snaps to Williams’ 31. That shows a couple key things. First, Edwards-Helaire was/is quite ill after all. It also shows that Williams isn’t some also-ran who represents some precipitous fall on the depth chart. The Chiefs trust him and even when one of their primary backs aren’t available, they plug him in all the same, as if they have three trusted players here instead of just two.

The Need for Sneed

L’Jarius Sneed is looking more and more like the shutdown surprise he was before his fractured collarbone, and the Chiefs are responding with extra playing time each week for the rookie cornerback.

Sneed played on 73 percent of the defensive snaps on Sunday against Denver, which shows that the team is easing him in over time after missing nearly two months due to injury. He played 22 percent of all snaps against the Raiders in Week 11 and 54 percent against the Bucs in Week 12. He came up big on several stops/plays against Denver and it’s easy to see why the Chiefs are rewarding him along the way.

Tanoh on the decline

For much of the season, Tanoh Kpassagnon was holding down the starter’s snaps opposite Frank Clark along the Chiefs’ defensive front—that is, until three weeks ago. While Kpassagnon is still starting games for K.C., he’s playing less than ever over the last three weeks.

Going into the bye, Kpassagnon was being given the majority of playing time at defensive end—from 72 to 94 percent of all defensive snaps in a given game. Since then, he’s yet to crack the 50 percent mark. Part of that is about Alex Okafor being healthy again, but there’s a clear delineation that’s easy to track back to the bye. Clearly the week off brought some adjustments in PT from Steve Spagnuolo.