KC Chiefs vs. Raiders: Analyzing snap counts from Week 10

The Kansas City Chiefs are coming off quite an exciting night. The offense imposed its will on the Las Vegas Raiders. The defense thwarted plans for the other side. Special teams had a miscue here and there, but there were also several plays to celebrate on that end as well. It was the sort of overwhelming performance that had Chiefs Kingdom resting easy in the wake of the Sunday night victory.

The only downside to such a complete game from the Chiefs is that it makes snap counts a bit more difficult to evaluate. We’ll take it, of course! That said, in terms of snap counts, when a team thoroughly dominates another opponent, it often means that starters sit and reserves play, making it harder to get a read on how players are trending.

That said, this game is what it is, so let’s take a look and see what the snap counts tell us, if anything at all.

Dorian O’Daniel can’t get garbage time

On a night when Armani Watts led the team in tackling because of how much garbage time he was able to pick up, the Chiefs still decided not to give him a single rep on defense. At this point, it’s shocking to believe that a player can take up permanent residence on the active roster of a Super Bowl contender by playing only special teams duties but that’s exactly what Dorian O’Daniel has done for the last few years in Kansas City.

The Chiefs didn’t play O’Daniel when they were down a starting linebacker or two due to injury. Now they’re not playing him when they’re already up on the Raiders by 27. It’s one of the rare head-scratching roster moves on the part of a talented Chiefs team, but suffice it to say, we’ve officially stopped wondering about DOD. He’s an expiring roster item set for S/T duties and nothing more.

Noah Gray is in play

Up until this week, we’ve not seen much of Noah Gray despite the preseason hype and the promised help for Travis Kelce. As a fifth round pick, he was already destined to sit most of this season anyway, but it didn’t help to have a clear No. 2 in Blake Bell or that Jody Fortson had also earned a spot on the active roster as a long, athletic pass catcher.

Gray caught his first pass at the pro level in Week 3 and then waited another month for this next one in Week 7. He hadn’t caught a single pass since then, but on Sunday, the Chiefs gave him one to remember with a good end zone grab that also gave him his first touchdown with the Chiefs.

What was interesting about this particular series is that the Chiefs seemed intent on feeding Gray in particular in the red zone until something happened. Gray also played on 33 percent of the snaps, which is his second highest total of the season. (He surprisingly played in 46 percent of snaps against the Washington Football Team yet never received a single target.)

Maybe the Chiefs were allowing some kids to have fun. Maybe it’s a sign that Kelce is going to get a bit more rest. If Gray can provide the occasional tough catch while allowing Kelce to get some extra rest on a series or two each game, he’ll have done his job well.

Kelce – Hill – Pringle?

The Chiefs have been openly shopping for a wideout to fill the spot that would naturally be named after Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce when describing the Chiefs’ best offensive weapons. However, they keep coming up empty in their pursuit of players like Odell Beckham Jr. or JuJu Smith-Schuster. However on Sunday, it was Byron Pringle who received the most snaps and played 61 percent of them overall. What does that mean? It’s hard to say.

Pringle actually earned more playing time in this contest than Josh Gordon or Demarcus Robinson while Mecole Hardman played the least of any player. How much of this is about the garbage time effect? How much of this is distrust in Hardman? And what does this mean for Pringle? These are all great questions.

Pringle has already set plenty of career marks with 22 catches for 301 yards and 3 touchdowns in 2021 in 10 games. He’s only averaging 30 yards/game, so he’s not in the realm yet of any WR2, but he’s a far cry from averaging 10 and then 12 yards/game on offense. The Chiefs have steadily brought him along and it will be interesting to see how things develop at the position for the rest of the year.