The Kansas City Chiefs opened the 2022 NFL preseason, giving fans a first true look at the 90-man offseason roster in game-day activities.
We can’t glean quite as much from the Chiefs’ preseason snaps counts as we can during the regular season. It’s still a worthy endeavor to dive in and make a few observations about how playing time went in the first week.
Here’s how the snaps came down in preseason Week 1:
*Snap counts via NFL Game Statistics and Information System
Observations
- The extent of the first team’s play was 16 offensive snaps, with the offensive line getting some extra work blocking for Chad Henne. Patrick Mahomes was out of there after the team’s 11-play scoring drive to open the game.
- Of the starters, Mecole Hardman played the least snaps on offense (3), while Frank Clark, Chris Jones and Derrick Nnadi played the least on defense (6).
- The Chiefs got an extended look at several of their defensive rookies. Joshua Williams and Leo Chenal both played over 50% of the defensive snaps. Jaylen Watson, Nazeeh Johnson and Bryan Cook were close behind those two. Even George Karlaftis played over 35% of the team’s defensive snaps. Williams’ 48 total snaps (defense and special teams) were the most of any rookie.
- Skyy Moore, surprisingly, led all Chiefs offensive rookies in snaps with 27. He played the majority of those snaps in the first and second quarters. He played some special teams in the third quarter.
- Shane Buechele played the most snaps of any quarterback, showing that Kansas City wanted to get an extensive look at the second-year player. He was the only QB outside of Patrick Mahomes to throw a touchdown.
- CB Rashad Fenton and TE Jody Fortson were held out of the game as expected. They’d both recently returned to practice from injury. Perhaps a preseason Week 2 debut is in order for both players should they put in a good week of practice.
- OG Mike Caliendo led offensive undrafted free agents in snaps (he also led all offensive players), while LB Jack Cochrane led defensive undrafted free agents in snaps. Cochrane’s 13 snaps on special teams led all players.
- DT Kehinde Oginni Hassan (who is improperly listed as a TE by the NFL) played just five defensive snaps, tied with CB Chris Lammons and DE Azur Kamara for the least. He’s a project at this point, so this is terribly surprising.
- Malik Herring, who sat out the 2021 NFL season with a knee injury, led all defensive players in snaps with 40. He looked a bit rusty at times, but also made some key progress in his first game back.
- Rookie RB Isiah Pacheco played just eight snaps of offense and only played offense in the first quarter. It tells you that Kansas City has some big plans for the rookie this season.
- WRs Devin Gray and Aaron Parker played just three offensive snaps each. They’re both still fairly new to the team. It makes me wonder whether either will be among the team’s first wave of cuts.
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