Raiders week two snap counts vs Chiefs: Benson Mayowa snaps went down, production did not

It was hard to see what the Raiders were trying to do against the Chiefs Sunday. And looking at the snap counts didn’t do anything to solve the mystery. Pat Mahomes dropped back to pass 46 times in the game. Compared to 32 rush attempts.

Despite this disparity, the Raiders fielded their top pass rusher, Benson Mayowa, for just 18 total snaps (24%). That’s a drop in snaps for the Raiders current sack leader (3.5) from the season opener.

Mayowa saw 25 snaps (39%) against the Broncos in the opener and had 2.0 sacks on Joe Flacco. And even with his handful of snaps, Mayowa still managed to get in on both sacks on Mahomes, including a strip sack he shared with P.J. Hall.

The veteran edge rusher is clearly making the most of his time on the field. His 3.5 sacks not only leads the team but is second in the NFL after two weeks despite seeing only a third of the team’s total defensive snaps. He also leads the team in QB hits (3), and forced fumbles (2) and is second with 2.0 tackles for loss.

As surprising as the production of Mayowa is the lack of emergence of Arden Key. He saw his snaps go down as well, from 30 (47%) in the opener to 24 (32%) against the Chiefs. And unlike Mayowa, Key isn’t proving he is worth those snaps. He has no sacks and just one QB hit and one tackle assist in two games.

Seeing more snaps than either Mayowa or Key was rookie Maxx Crosby whose snaps went up this week from 23 snaps (36%) in the opener to 29 snaps (38%) against the Chiefs. Crosby has no pass rush stats, but he has 7 combined tackles (3 solo).

One or more than one of either Key, Crosby, or Mayowa were on the field for all but two of Pat Mahomes’ ten longest completions in the game.

And of course the Raiders continue to give rookie 4th overall pick Clelin Ferrell the lion’s share of the snaps. He has 1.0 sack and 2 QB hits.