Chiefs snap counts: Nick Bolton surges to career-high
Overtime games always bring a large number of snaps and this game was no different. While the defense never stepped foot on the field in overtime save for the coin toss, they had eight more total snaps compared to the offense. Five of those snaps came when Brandon Staley went for it on fourth down.
What else can we learn from this week’s snap counts? Here’s a look at how the snaps played out in Week 15:
*Snap counts via NFL Game Statistics and Information System
Observations
Even exiting the game briefly at the start of overtime, Tyreek Hill managed to play the most snaps of any offensive skill player for Kansas City. Travis Kelce was a close second, though.
Last week, Clyde Edwards-Helaire split snaps evenly with Darrel Williams. This week he played more than double the snaps to his former LSU teammate. Derrick Gore did not play any snaps on offense after scoring a 51-yard touchdown the week prior.
Demarcus Robinson edged out Byron Pringle for second-most snaps by a receiver this week. Neither player saw much production in the passing game with most of the action going to Hill and Kelce.
Mecole Hardman played 31 snaps on offense this week, his highest total in a single week since Week 9 against the Green Bay Packers.
Noah Gray saw more snaps to Blake Bell this week. That wasn’t the same case last week.
Michael Burton did a lot with just six offensive snaps on Thursday. I have to think they’ll get him more involved in the game plan down the line.
Tyrann Mathieu was the lone defender to play 100% of the defensive snaps against the Chargers. Just another reason why he’s a rare player.
Rookie LB Nick Bolton was right behind Mathieu, playing 79 total snaps, the highest in a single game of his NFL career. It’s no shock that he was able to amass his third double-digit tackle game and have such an impact when he was on the field with such frequency. It was easy to get him this many snaps with Willie Gay out. Hopefully, Steve Spagnuolo can continue to do so moving forward.
Tershawn Wharton split snaps among the Derrick Nnadi in the absence of Chris Jones. They both played more snaps on Thursday night than they have in a single game this season.
Charvarius Ward and Mike Hughes played the most snaps among cornerbacks on Thursday. Rashad Fenton mixed in a bit more this week compared to last week, with Mathieu playing more safety than slot.
Juan Thornhill and Daniel Sorensen saw their snaps dip a bit this week. That tells you that the team wasn’t able to run their big nickel package as frequently as they would have liked.
Cortez Broughton was the only practice squad elevation to play any snaps on defense. He had three snaps against his former team, but he didn’t record any stats.
Daurice Fountain, Armani Watts, Dorian O’Daniel, Dicaprio Bootle, Derrick Gore, Andrew Wylie and Darius Harris all only played on special teams.
