Over the weekend, the Kansas City Chiefs went into their Week 16 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers with eight players unable to play after testing positive for COVID-19. Meanwhile, other Chiefs players — like wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Josh Gordon, cornerback Charvarius Ward, linebacker Willie Gay Jr. and defensive tackle Chris Jones — were returning from the Reserve/COVID list.
Snap counts for all those just-returned players — except Gay — appeared to be lower than we would usually see. Was that because those players needed time to recover from their COVID exposure, or was it because Kansas City had jumped out to a 23-0 halftime lead — which the team eventually extended to 36-3 in the fourth quarter?