Unpacking the KC Chiefs snap counts in Week 6

The Kansas City Chiefs answered several personnel questions on Sunday in their win over the Washington Football Team. Entering the game in must-win mode, the Chiefs pulled out all the stops with regard to personnel moves, and they are encouraging.

Let’s dive in to this week’s snap counts.

Analyzing the Offensive Snaps

The Chiefs have a new Iron Man on the offensive line. Left guard Joe Thuney didn’t practice until Friday of last week after suffering a fractured hand against the Bills, but that didn’t keep the 28-year-old Thuney off the field. Thuney has played every snap in all six of the Chiefs’ games this season, and showed no signs of fatigue against one of the league’s most talented defensive lines.

Another question from last week’s practices was whether or not Mike Remmers would receive his first start at right tackle on Sunday. He indeed did, and played very well. Remmers played 100% of snaps. Right tackle will be a position to keep an eye on at practice this week as the battle for reps there appears to have flared up again. While Remmers has gotten quite a bit of bad press for his performance at left tackle in the Super Bowl, his play at right tackle in 2020 seems to have been forgotten. Regardless of who is getting play there, the depth is a good problem, not a bad one.

Last week’s MCL injury landed starting running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire on IR, so the Chiefs had to make some moves this week, adding Derrick Gore from the practice squad. Former LSU running back Darrel Williams played well in his first regular season start (72% of snaps), garnering 89 total yards and two scores. Jerick McKinnon played a healthy 28% of snaps and gaining 15 yards on four touches.

Wide receiver had some intriguing numbers. Tyreek Hill was questionable all week, but ended up playing 47% of snaps after aggravating his quad injury. Somewhat surprisingly, Demarcus Robinson and Byron Pringle both got the start over Mecole Hardman, but Hardman (60%) still got more run than Pringle (39%).

Both Hardman and Robinson had highlight-reel catches in this game, so the wide receiver room will have a lot to celebrate in film this week.

The team did a nice job balancing the usage of its pass catchers, but part of that was due to both Hill and Kelce being dinged up during the game. Jody Fortson (left game early with a torn Achilles) and Noah Gray (46% of snaps) each contributed valuable snaps at tight end. Perhaps the biggest disappointment was the smaller usage for recently-signed Josh Gordon, who played just 11 snaps and was not targeted.