Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has described the first quarter of the season, the first four games, as a period to settle into the scheme and learn his personnel. It’s been a strong start to the year, but the young, fresh-faced unit needs to improve moving forward.
Schematic changes in Week 6 and beyond could be based on what the group has put on film so far. Don’t be surprised if the rotation gets tweaked immediately after the bye week.
So let’s dive into the snap counts,
courtesy of Pro Football Focus, to see how the group is shaping up and what it suggests for the rest of the season.
The 11 “starters”
The top 11 players by defensive snaps through Week 4
- Linebacker Nick Bolton (100% of snaps)
- Safety Alohi Gilman (97%)
- Cornerback Nohl Williams (93%)
- Defensive end George Karlaftis (86%)
- Linebacker Drue Tranquill (84%)
- Safety Jaden Hicks (80%)
- Cornerback L’Jarius Sneed (77%)
- Defensive tackle Chris Jones (70%)
- Cornerback Mansoor Delane (56%)
- Defensive end R Mason Thomas (53%)
- Defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah (48%)
While Bolton has never left the field, Gilman has been a mainstay in the back end of the Chiefs’ pass defense that has allowed the fifth-lowest passing yards per attempt(6.2) so far this season. He has played free safety on 65% of his snaps, putting Hicks, Conner and Sneed in position to roam the middle of the field and play closer to the line of scrimmage.
Safety Chamarri Conner played 75% of the defensive snaps in his only game against the Las Vegas Raiders, indicating he will be part of this top-11 moving forward. Hicks has played well enough to maintain a consistent role in the starting offense, regardless.
Chris Jones has been primarily used as a pass rusher, getting after the quarterback on 69% of his snaps this year. He has aligned over or outside the offensive tackle on 56% of his snaps, but has generated pressure on only 8% of his pass-rush snaps, with just two quarterback hits and no sacks.
Thomas (68%) and Anudike-Uzomah (64%) have also been tasked with pass rushing on the majority of their snaps. While Thomas has stuck to the edge, Anudike-Uzomah has lined up in the B-gap for 47 snaps. His impact as an interior pass rusher has generated eight pressures over 84 pass-rush snaps (9.5%) and has the third-most quarterback hits (4) on the team.
The rotational players
4 players that are just outside of the top-11 for snap counts
- Defensive tackle Peter Woods (46%)
- Nose tackle Khyiris Tonga (44%)
- Cornerback Kristian Fulton (42%)
- Defensive end Ashton Gillotte (41%)
Woods leads the Chiefs in B-gap snaps (95) through four weeks; 75% of his snaps have aligned as the three-technique Jones has excelled at throughout his time in Spagnuolo’s scheme. It speaks to Woods’ impact on early downs, spelling Jones and being a handful for blockers on both run and pass plays. 43% of Woods’ snaps have been to defend the run; he has three Stops (tackles that constitute a failure for the offense), which is one less than Jones and Thomas.
Tonga has seen the eighth-most run-defense snaps (66) through four weeks, indicating that he is a regular on neutral downs. When the downs get long and the game situation becomes late in the half or late in the game, he isn’t on the field. That speaks to the team’s success, playing with a lead for the majority of the season.
Fulton may not be on the field as much with Delane healthy, but he has an impressive stat line in his rotational role so far: eight targets, four catches, 19 yards, one interception, and a 16.7 passer rating allowed when targeted.
46% of Gillotte’s snaps have come against the run; he has played more run-defense snaps than Anudike-Uzomah and Thomas.
Sub-package players
2 players who only see the field for specific roles
- Linebacker Jack Cochrane (25%)
- Safety Christian Roland-Wallace (20%)
When the Chiefs run base formations, Cochrane has been the third linebacker. It will be interesting to see whether second-year linebacker Jeffrey Bassa can fill that role in packages moving forward; he has only seen 18 snaps so far this year.
When Kansas City plays dime defense, with six defensive backs on the field, Roland-Wallace has appeared as the second slot defender opposite Sneed most of the time.
The bottom line
Kansas City’s back-end rotation will need to sharpen with Conner’s return; Hicks is making too many downhill plays to keep him off the field, but Conner makes similar plays. It will be interesting to see how the team deploys the two.
Woods seems to be properly spelling Jones, so the All-Pro pass rusher needs to take advantage of that and be more disruptive when he is on the field.
The Chiefs’ defensive backfield looks strong on the perimeter, but watch for Williams or Delane to play more in the slot at some point this season to maximize the group’s talent.
