The Kansas City Chiefs had five more special teams snaps in Week 2 than they did in Week 1, yet the action in that phase was sparse overall in the win over the Los Angeles Chargers compared to the previous week.
Why is that? It could be that eight of the 11 kickoffs resulted in touchbacks, or that five of the 12 punts resulted in fair catches. There were also more extra points (six) than field goals (three) — and let’s face it — players tend to try much harder blocking field goals than extra points.
That all adds up to almost 60 percent of special teams plays being, well, uneventful. Those weeks will happen. When it comes to special teams, there are usually just a handful of plays that have a game-swinging impact. And when those plays come, you’ll be thankful to have a prepared squad and a good special teams coordinator like Dave Toub.
This week I have just one particular play to highlight, plus several notes about other special teams subunits. I also finished charting the snaps for each subunit and assigned grades to each player and play. You can find my snap counts and grades here via Google Sheets.