Three Chiefs Week 4 Snap Count Trends That Stand Out
The Kansas City Chiefs needed a win in order to right the ship and in Week 4, they did so in outstanding fashion.
In Kansas City's Sunday night win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, just about everything was rolling for Andy Reid's squad. Offensively, the running game was stellar and the offensive line allowed Patrick Mahomes enough time to pull off some terrific feats. Defensively, Steve Spagnuolo's group did a good job keeping the Buccaneers' offense away and keeping the game in check. Considering strength of opponent, this was easily the Chiefs' most impressive win of the still young 2022 season.
Facing arguably the best defense in the NFL on one side of the ball and the best quarterback to ever play on the other, the Chiefs got the most out of their depth on Sunday. Not many stones were left unturned, and just about everyone played at least a minor role in the win. On offense, defense and special teams alike, multiple key contributors stepped up when needed.
Now that snap counts have been released (courtesy of the NFL Game Statistics & Information System), what jumped off the page? Let's take a look at three notable takeaways from another week of Chiefs football.
1. Skyy Moore's usage is on the rise
After he logged 13 offensive snaps in Week 1, many wondered exactly how frequently the Chiefs would get rookie wide receiver Skyy Moore involved. His special teams utilization as a punt returner remains mostly consistent four weeks into the year but after back-to-back weeks of single-digit snaps on offense, Moore broke through and logged a whopping 22 snaps against the Buccaneers. For reference, he had a combined 23 in the three games prior to that.
In response to seeing the field more often in Week 4 than he ever had before as a Chief, Moore was targeted four times and hauled in a pair of passes for 31 yards. Behind JuJu Smith-Schuster on the Chiefs' wideout hierarchy, not much is known. Marquez Valdes-Scantling continues to log heavy snaps and Mecole Hardman is the veteran in terms of experience in Kansas City's offense, but Moore's ability to separate against man coverage could be what gets him on the field more often. Many folks in Chiefs circles were waiting for the Western Michigan product to see an increased workload, and Week 4 could be a teaser of what's to come if the team liked what it saw on Sunday Night Football.
2. Did Isiah Pacheco take a grown man's job?
Sure, the star of the show for the Chiefs' running back group against the Buccaneers was starter Clyde Edwards-Helaire. After all, the third-year vet toted the ball 19 times for 92 yards and had a pair of touchdowns on the night. He also dominated the workload relative to his peers, logging a season-high 45 snaps (56% of available reps in the backfield). With that said, rookie Isiah Pacheco made his presence felt in a major way against Tampa Bay. Edwards-Helaire didn't outshine him by much.
Playing 17 offensive snaps, Pacheco logged 11 carries and recorded 63 rushing yards. That 5.7 yards-per-attempt average was his best of the 2022 campaign thus far, and the fact that the seventh-round pick finished just behind Jerick McKinnon (18 snaps) in terms of playing time is an interesting development. Even if McKinnon continues to see the field more often than Pacheco moving forward, Kansas City may have discovered something in regards to in-game workload management between its two best active pure runners. Pacheco appears to be a good complement to Edwards-Helaire and if the Chiefs agree, the rookie could keep cutting into McKinnon's carries as the season progresses.
3. The Chiefs spent a lot of time in sub-packages
The domino effect of an NFL game truly ran its course on Sunday. Once the Chiefs got out to an early lead and showed no signs of letting up, Tampa Bay completely abandoned its running game and opted to throw the ball 50-plus times by the time it was all said and done. As such, Spagnuolo's defense spent plenty of time in its sub-packages in an effort to get more defensive backs on the field and put better pass-rush packages up front.
As a result of this shift, players such as rookie Bryan Cook (73% of snaps), Tershawn Wharton (66%) and Carlos Dunlap (44%) saw the field plenty in Week 4. Others like nose tackle Derrick Nnadi (23%) and rookie linebacker Leo Chenal (6%) were taken off the field and replaced with others. This game isn't worth reading into too much in regards to defensive snap counts, as the dynamic of the Chiefs' offense being so effective had an impact on how the defense was used on the field. The splits are still interesting, though, and the fact that Spagnuolo was willing to mix things up is a positive development.
