Chiefs' Week 2 snap counts: Drue Tranquill's playtime on the rise

The Kansas City Chiefs notched their first win of the season against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2. It was a tremendous showing for the defense, but the offense still has some cleaning up to do in both the passing game and the running game. What exactly can we learn about the win from the […]

Charles Goldman — NFL Managing Editor

Sep 18, 2023 12:56 PM EDT

What exactly can we learn about the win from the snaps? Here’s a look at how the snaps came down in Week 2 followed by some takeaways:

Snap counts via NFL Game Stats Information System

Snaps Part 1

Snaps Part 2

Drue Tranquill sees a big jump in defensive snaps

In Week 1 against the Detroit Lions, Tranquill played just 13 defensive snaps. This week he saw his defensive snaps practically double. He's on the field in the 3-3-5 nickel defense, buffalo nickel, and other sub-package defenses. He's quickly proving to be the team's best coverage linebacker with the greatest range sideline-to-sideline. I think that we'll continue to see his role expand and grow as the season goes on.

Travis Kelce and Chris Jones played a good amount

Kelce and Jones both played a healthy amount of snaps in their Week 2 debuts. Kelce averaged 75% of the offensive snaps per game last season. He played 64% of the snaps on Sunday in his return from a knee injury. Jones played over 50% of the snaps on Sunday, but he averaged 80% of the snaps per game during the 2022 NFL season. Expect both to see a gradual increase in Week 3 against the Chicago Bears.

Chamarri Conner sees defensive playtime dip

After playing 10 defensive snaps in Week 1, Conner saw just two snaps on defense in Week 2. That number was good for the least of any defensive player on the team. Conner tried to steal a snap even, coming into the game when he was supposed to for a "too many men on the field" penalty.

Special teams observations:

Only three players (non-specialists) had special teams-only snaps this week (Cam Jones, Mike Caliendo, and Jack Cochrane). Noah Gray led offensive players with 13 special teams snaps. Leo Chenal had the most among defensive players with 19 snaps on special teams.