Without Creed Humphrey in the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive line, Patrick Mahomes’ job becomes very difficult. There’s not much to fault the elite center on, save for one recurring issue: low snaps.

Humphrey acknowledged that he needs to stay locked in on the most basic part of his job: delivering the ball cleanly to Mahomes.

“Yeah, you know, it’s just focusing on it, focusing in those situations, you know, late game, last game, things like that,” Humphrey said about his issue in a press conference on October 16 via KC Sports Network. “So it’s something that needs to stop now.”

Errant snaps have affected Humphrey throughout his career. In the Super Bowl LVIII, a low snap towards the end of the fourth quarter seemingly had Patrick Mahomes rush into a throw, denying the Chiefs a win in regulation. They eventually won in overtime.

This year, the issue has presented itself yet again. Against the Denver Broncos, Humphrey botched a shotgun snap to Mahomes, who managed to throw the ball away before being sacked. Another bad snap also occurred in the Raiders game.

When the issue was addressed in the beginning, offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy did not sound an alarm. For now, they will perhaps just manage this situation as and when it occurs.

“It’s unfortunate that it happened,” Bieniemy said in September. “It’s not that he’s doing it intentionally. I think over the years, it happens once every blue moon. It’s not anything that concerns us. Ideally, you don’t want it to happen, but when it does happen, Pat basically scooped it. He made the most of the play, and we just keep it moving.”

The frustrating part? Humphrey has been terrific at keeping defenders away from Mahomes. He has allowed just one pressure on 139 pass-blocking snaps, a 0.7% pressure rate that ranks lowest among offensive linemen with at least 100 such snaps, per ESPN Next Gen Stats.

Humphrey has been a fixture in Kansas City’s lineup since day one. The 2021 second-round pick has started all 89 regular-season games he has played, a run that puts him among the most dependable pieces of the Chiefs’ offense. That makes the recent snapping trouble an unusual blemish on a record this good.

Creed Humphrey has tried to fix his snaps before, but the issue is back in focus

This is a problem Humphrey has run into before. In 2024, he modified his snapping technique after some of his deliveries caused concern. Instead of trying to spiral it backward, he did what’s known as a “dead-ball snap,” grabbing the top of the football and flicking his arm back to get it to the quarterback.

Humphrey signed a four-year extension with the Chiefs in August 2024, following the Super Bowl victory earlier that year. That says a lot about the trust the team has in him.

“He’s had a couple of center snap issues there that … it’s funny, because those popped up early on in his career, and then they kind of went away,” General Manager Brett Veach said in 2024, while also addressing whether the Chiefs planned to use him as a guard or center in the future. “And then they kind of creep back up. But he’s a consummate professional, and there’s no one harder on himself than Creed.”

Head coach Andy Reid had also dismissed the problem.

“Listen, Creed is a diligent, diligent player,” the coach stated after the Super Bowl LVIII. “He’s a great player. He’ll take care of that. I’m not worried about that. He’s a relentless worker, and we’ll get all that taken care of.”

Kansas City hosts the Los Angeles Chargers at Arrowhead Stadium next. The undefeated Chiefs enter at 4-0 after their bye week, while the Chargers arrive at 0-5. Against the Chargers, Humphrey has a chance to show that this nagging problem is getting under control.