Chiefs-Steelers snap counts: How the Chiefs covered for Chris Jones’ absence

In Week 17, the Kansas City Chiefs recorded a 29-10 road victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers to clinch the AFC’s No. 1 postseason seed.

Let’s consider how Kansas City used its players as it set a new franchise record for regular-season wins.

Starters (offensive): WR Marquise Brown, TE Travis Kelce, LT Joe Thuney, LG Mike Caliendo, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Jawaan Taylor, WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR Xavier Worthy, QB Patrick Mahomes and RB Isiah Pacheco.

Starters (defensive): DT Tershawn Wharton, DT Mike Pennel, DE Michael Danna, LB Leo Chenal, LB Nick Bolton, LB Drue Tranquill, CB Trent McDuffie, CB Joshua Williams, CB Christian Roland-Wallace, S Bryan Cook and S Justin Reid.

Did not play: QB Carson Wentz.

Inactive: DB Chamarri Conner, LB Joshua Uche, OL C.J. Hanson, T D.J. Humphries, OT Ethan Driskell, DE Malik Herring and DT Chris Jones.

The big takeaway

In Wednesday’s matchup, defensive tackle Chris Jones was on the sideline with a calf injury.

As we see here, Jones consistently plays at least 70% of the snaps — typically more than 80%. No one else on the defensive line gets nearly as much work. Therefore, going into the game, one of the biggest questions was how the Chiefs would replace Jones if he did not play.

Here’s the short answer: by almost doubling the recent use of defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton. Like Jones, Wharton is typically used more often on passing plays — so on that basis, it’s not terribly surprising.

Still, it would have been reasonable to predict that defensive end Charles Omenihu would have seen a sharp increase in use in Jones’ absence — but as shown here, that isn’t what happened. While it did increase over previous games, it looks more like Kansas City was simply continuing to ramp him up to his 2023 use: between 50-70% of the defensive snaps.

In his first game playing for the Chiefs, defensive tackle Marlon Tuipulotu was in for 18% of the snaps.

We also see something interesting with defensive ends George Karlaftis and Felix Anudike-Uzomah.

On Christmas, Karlaftis’ use dropped below his normal range of use, while Anudike-Uzomah’s jumped upwards. Was this in response to Jones missing time? That seems likely.

Otherwise, defensive linemen Michael Danna (52%), Derrick Nnadi (25%) and Mike Pennel (16%) were all in their normal ranges of use.

Offensive takeaways

• For only the third time this season — and the first time since the Chiefs’ Week 11 road loss to the Buffalo Bills — the offense (45%) was on the field for fewer snaps than the defense (55%). The offense’s pass/run ratio of 64/36 was right in the team’s normal range.
• Left guard Joe Thuney continued to play at left tackle, while reserve offensive lineman Mike Caliendo again took his place at left guard. They — along with center Creed Humphrey, right tackle Trey Smith and left tackle Jawaan Taylor — played every offensive snap. Wanya Morris (2%) was in for one.
• Tight end Travis Kelce (88%) was in his normal range, while his No. 2 Noah Gray (42%) was significantly below his normal use. Part of this was because Peyton Hendershot (5%) was back from the Reserve/Injured list, but the team also averaged 1.36 tight ends for every play, which was the season’s lowest figure.
• It seems this was because the team could finally shift its emphasis toward the wideouts. Kansas City averaged 2.63 wide receivers for each play — the season’s highest figure. Xavier Worthy (88%) led the group, followed by JuJu Smith-Schuster (53%), DeAndre Hopkins (44%), Marquise Brown (42%) and Justin Watson (34%). (That was a season-high for Brown — and a season-low for Watson). Nikko Remigio (2%) had one offensive snap.
• While running back Isiah Pacheco (34%) started the game, Kareem Hunt (49%) had significantly more snaps. Samaje Perine (17%) continued to be used mostly in the passing game.

Defensive takeaways

• While players like cornerback Trent McDuffie (85%) and safety Justin Reid (84%) are typically on the field for all of the defensive snaps, both got some time off in the fourth quarter. This allowed players like cornerback Keith Taylor (32%) and practice squad safety Deon Bush (14%) to get additional snaps.
• Safety Jaden Hicks (70%) and cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace (67% — almost all of it in the slot) both had their highest use rates of the season. Cornerbacks Joshua Williams (55%) and Nazeeh Johnson (47%) both played almost all of their snaps on the outside.
• Linebacker Nick Bolton (78%) also got some time off in the Steelers’s final drive, allowing reserve Cam Jones (8%) and practice squad player Swayze Bozeman (10%) to get some work on defense. Drue Tranquill (73%) and Leo Chenal (40%) were both in their normal ranges of use.

Data

Offense

Defense

Special Teams

All Snaps