Chiefs-Raiders snap counts: DeAndre Hopkins gets more reps than thought

On Sunday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs advanced to 7-0 with a 27-20 road win against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Let’s take a look at how Kansas City used its players.

Starters (offensive): TE Travis Kelce, TE Noah Gray, TE Jared Wiley, LT Wanya Morris, LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Jawaan Taylor, WR Justin Watson, QB Patrick Mahomes and RB Kareem Hunt

Starters (defensive): DE George Karlaftis, DT Chris Jones, DT Tershawn Wharton, LB Nick Bolton, LB Drue Tranquill, LB Leo Chenal, CB Trent McDuffie, DB Chamarri Conner, S Justin Reid, S Bryan Cook and S Nazeeh Johnson

Did not play: QB Carson Wentz

Inactive: WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, DE Michael Danna, OL C.J. Hanson, OT Ethan Driskell and DT Marlon Tuipulotu

The big takeaway

At wide receiver, Justin Watson (76% of offensive snaps) continued to get the most work among the Chiefs’ wide receivers. But for the third straight week, Xavier Worthy’s use declined. At 53% against the Raiders, it was almost the lowest percentage of the season — and as time goes on, he’s appearing on lower percentages of running plays, too. (Watson’s running and passing percentages are close to the same).

Of course, might be that part of the reason that Worthy’s use dropped was that newly-acquired wideout DeAndre Hopkins was on the field for 32% of the snaps — which is higher than many probably expected (or even realized). It’s also true that the team backed away from its wideouts a little on Sunday, averaging 1.99 of them on each play. That’s the season’s lowest figure.

Meanwhile, while wideout Montrell Washington did take some of Mecole Hardman’s special teams snaps, he was in for 7% of the offensive reps, too. Like Skyy Moore before him, almost all of them were running plays.

Offensive takeaways

• In Week 7 against the San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City called the highest percentage of running plays in four years (57%). On Sunday, the team flipped the script by passing the ball on 57% of its offensive snaps. The Chiefs’ coaches are either adjusting their game plans pretty substantially based on what opponents do, or they’re making sure that no one can predict what they’ll emphasize in a given week. Or maybe… it’s a little of both.
• Left tackle Wanya Morris, left guard Joe Thuney, center Creed Humphrey, right guard Trey Smith and right tackle Jawaan Taylor were on the field for every offensive snap. Reserve guard Mike Caliendo made it onto the field for one snap, for which he reported as an eligible receiver on a third-and-2 at the Raiders’ 9-yard line. The play went to tight end Travis Kelce.
• Speaking of tight ends, Kelce (79%), Jody Fortson (26%) and Jared Wiley (22%) were all in their normal ranges of use. But Noah Gray (72%) had his highest usage of the season, which tended fairly strongly toward the running game — essentially the inverse of Kelce’s use against the Raiders. The team leaned into their tight ends in this matchup, averaging 2.00 tight ends on every play. By a fair amount, that’s the highest average in any game this season.
• Among the running backs, Kareem Hunt (57%) was in his normal range. Carson Steele (10%) was down a bit — but that appeared to be because special teams coordinator Dave Toub gave him more work (38% of snaps) on special trams. Samaje Perine (32%) took up the slack on offense.

Defensive takeaways

• As usual, cornerback Trent McDuffie and safety Justin Reid were in for all the defensive reps. We would normally expect Nazeeh Johnson (filling in for Jaylen Watson) to also have that many — but he was only in for 30% of the snaps before he left the game early in the second quarter. It appears that Joshua Williams (68%) simply stepped into his spot — while Christian Roland-Wallace (52%) took over Williams’ previous defensive role and newly-promoted corner Keith Taylor took over a piece of Williams’ special teams snaps.
• While safety Bryan Cook (84%) would also typically be in for all of the defensive plays, it appears that Jaden Hicks (16%) took the rest — all of them in the third quarter. That’s the second straight week he’s had the most defensive use he’s seen all this season. Meanwhile, safety Chamarri Conner (46%) had his use trend down for the second straight week. It hasn’t been that low since Week 1.
• At the second level, linebacker Nick Bolton (93%) was in his normal range of use, along with Leo Chenal (45%). But Drue Tranquill (70%) was used less often than in any other game this season.
• At defensive tackle, Chris Jones (82%), Tershawn Wharton (73%), Mike Pennel (29%) and Derrick Nnadi (18%) were all in their typical percentages of reps. Among the defensive ends, George Karlaftis (89%) was also in his normal range — but with Mike Danna missing another game on Sunday, both Felix Anudike-Uzomah (64%) and Malik Herring (41%) had season-high percentages. Cameron Thomas was active but played only on special teams.

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