Falcons vs. Chiefs: Snap counts and notes

The Falcons didn’t play the way they had hoped on Sunday, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t play. Here’s a look at who played and how much they played.

Offense

The Atlanta offense played 73 snaps on Sunday.

Chris Chester, G: 73 (100%)

Andy Levitre, G: 73

Ryan Schraeder, T: 73

Matt Ryan, QB: 73

Mohamed Sanu, WR: 62

Julio Jones, WR: 47

Austin Hooper, TE: 46

Devonta Freeman, RB: 42

Tom Compton, T: 41

Levine Toilolo: 41

Jake Matthews, T: 33

Tevin Coleman, RB: 32

Taylor Gabriel, WR: 28

Patrick DiMarco, FB: 27

Aldrick Robinson, WR: 25

Justin Hardy, WR: 12

Most of this is pretty run of the mill, other than the injury to Jake Matthews, leading to more than half the snaps at LT going to Tom Compton. Another interesting note was the decreased number of snaps Taylor Gabriel got despite the fact that the offense actually played more snaps than last week—Gabriel had 35 snaps on 70 carries last week.

It was clear that the Falcons wanted to play a bit more conservative against a great defense like Kansas City, as they didn’t really take shots down the field as much as they normally do. This would explain the decrease in snaps for Gabriel, Hardy, and Robinson.

Defense

The Kansas City Chiefs ran 49 plays on Sunday.

Robert Alford, CB: 49 (100%)

De’Vondre Campbell, LB: 49

Jalen Collins, CB: 49

Keanu Neal, S: 48

Deion Jones, LB: 44

Ricardo Allen, S: 44

Grady Jarrett, DT: 36

Brian Poole, CB: 25

Vic Beasley, LB: 25

Tyson Jackson, DE: 24

Jonathan Babineaux, DT: 24

Dwight Freeney, DE: 22

Philip Wheeler, LB: 21

Brooks Reed, DE: 18

Ra’Shede Hageman, DT: 15

Ben Garland, C: 13 (!!!)

Courtney Upshaw, DT: 12

Robinson Therezie, S: 6

Cliff Matthews, DE: 6

LaRoy Reynolds, LB: 5

Kemal Ishmael, S: 4

It is great to see such young guys at the top of the snap count totals. Atlanta has a young defense that definitely has a lot to learn, but the amount of playing time Deion Jones, De’Vondre Campbell, Keanu Neal, and Jalen Collins got on Sunday proves that Atlanta has something it hasn’t in a while: legitimate NFL talent.

All of that is great, but let’s be real: the only name we REALLY wanted to know about was Ben Garland, who had 13 snaps on Sunday. If I had an MVP vote, it would go to Garland.

Special Teams

We’re just going to cover the top five contributors from special teams, because that list is a very long one if you go top to bottom.

C.J. Goodwin, CB: 20 (83%)

Paul Worrilow, LB: 20

Eric Weems, WR: 16

Justin Hardy, WR: 15

Josh Perkins, TE: 15

Keith Armstrong does a fantastic job with this group but what it very impressive is the number of guys who contribute on special teams. This team really is willing to do what it takes to make the team better, even if it’s a few snaps on special teams. The best part is, they all do a pretty good job.