Chiefs-Chargers snap counts: Felix Anudike-Uzomah gets plenty of work

How did Kansas City use its players in Sunday’s game against Los Angeles?

On Sunday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs recorded a 17-10 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, pushing their record to 4-0 — and 1-0 in the AFC West.

How did the team use its players during its Week 4 victory?

---

Starters (offensive): TE Travis Kelce, WR Rashee Rice, LT Wanya Morris, LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Jawaan Taylor, WR Xavier Worthy, WR Justin Watson, QB Patrick Mahomes and FB Carson Steele.

Starters (defensive): DE George Karlaftis, DT Chris Jones, DT Mike Pennel, DE Felix Anudike-Uzomah, LB Nick Bolton, LB Drue Tranquill, LB Leo Chenal, CB Trent McDuffie, CB Jaylen Watson, S Justin Reid and S Bryan Cook.

Did not play: QB Carson Wentz.

Inactive: DE Michael Danna, OL C.J. Hanson, OT Ethan Driskell and DT Marlon Tuipulotu.

---

Offensive takeaways

---

Offensive line

Wanya Morris got his second start at left tackle. Morris, Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith and Jawaan Taylor (and of course, Patrick Mahomes) played every offensive snap. Mike Caliendo was in for a couple of snaps as an extra blocker.

Tight ends

Once again, Travis Kelce showed no signs of being limited — and this time, that showed up in the box score, too. In for 86% of the snaps, he had the highest percentage of any offensive player aside from Mahomes and the offensive linemen. That figure was right in the middle of the 80-90% range we have seen this season. Behind him, Noah Gray had 52% while Jared Wiley had 16%. Those figures were also in their normal ranges.

Running backs

Listening to people talk about the game, it may have seemed like Kareem Hunt stepped in right after Carson Steele’s first-quarter fumble. But head coach Andy Reid did what he usually does: Steele went right back into the game. He stayed in for the whole first quarter and had a couple of snaps in the third quarter before coming back for the three kneel-downs that ended the game.

Hunt came in as the second quarter began, remaining until the game was no longer in doubt. It looked like the team did what it had planned to do all along: start the game with Steele, then put Hunt on the field in the second quarter and see what happened. Samaje Perine played throughout the game, appearing mostly on later downs.

As you can see, Steele was taken off special teams duty for Week 3 and Week 4. It’s reasonable to expect he’ll get some snaps with that unit going forward.

Unsurprisingly, Hunt’s snaps were skewed toward running plays, while Perine’s leaned toward passing plays.

Wide receivers

Rashee Rice was injured on his fourth snap of the game. Xavier Worthy led the wide receiver group, followed closely by Justin Watson.

While the team only rarely targeted JuJu Smith-Schuster, he was in for 52% of Sunday’s offensive plays. That was apparently the plan all along, since he had a nearly identical percentage of offensive snaps in Week 3. It will be interesting to see if that changes as the team plans for life without Rice.

---

Defensive takeaways

---

Defensive backs

As usual, cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson joined safeties Justin Reid and Bryan Cook, playing nearly all of the defensive snaps together. Safety Chamarii Conner had 57% of the snaps, while cornerbacks Nazeeh Johnson and Jaden Hicks and 30% and 9% respectively.

Linebackers

At the second level, Nick Bolton and Drue Tranquill were in their normal percentages of use at 96% and 87% respectively. Leo Chenal was back in his normal range after being on the field for relatively few snaps in Week 3 — and for the first time in two weeks, did not get any offensive snaps

Defensive line

With defensive end Mike Danna held out of the game with an injury, it was up to others to pick up the slack. Felix Anudije-Uzomah, Malik Herring and George Karlaftis all held their shoulders to the wheel longer than usual. At 49%, Anudike-Uzomah had more snaps than he’s had in any Kansas City game — except last season’s Week 17 game against Los Angeles, when most of the starters sat out.

Defensive end Cameron Thomas got his first snaps as a Chief — mostly on special teams — but also contributed to filling in for Danna.

Along the interior, Chris Jones (79%), Tershawn Wharton (66%), Mike Pennel (32%) and Derrick Nnadi (23%) were all in their normal ranges.

---

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