The running back room was far emptier than anyone wanted it to be on Sunday. Fortunately, the few remaining players left on the roster more than handled the call to step up. That includes undrafted rookie Carson Steele, who became a reliable force out of the backfield for the Chiefs in a 22-17 win over the Atlanta Falcons in Week 3.
Under the bright lights of primetime, Steele carried the rock as the team's temporary lead back in the wake of Isiah Pacheco's fractured fibula and provided the Chiefs with a steady mover in the ground game that provided 9 first downs on the ground in an Andy Reid offense.
Steele and Samaje Perine were expected to carry the primary responsibilities on the night—however much that might be—with Keaontay Ingram around to help. Instead, the job belonged to Steele, who finished with a surprising 17 carries on the night compared with 6 for Perine. Together, they had 97 rushing yards for a solid 4.2 yards/carry average.
Coming into the game, the Chiefs had placed Pacheco on IR with at least two more games still to go before they could activate Clyde Edwards-Helaire from the NFI list. With the loss of both, the Chiefs reached a deal with free agent Kareem Hunt to return to the team, but there wasn't enough runway to activate him from the practice squad for Week 3. Thus the Chiefs hoped Steele and Perine would be enough.
"It’s always a bad thing when a player gets banged up," said Steele after the game to the broadcasting crew of Sunday Night Football. "But, you know, it's kind of that next-man mentality going out through the week. And, you know, we kind of decided if we needed somebody to get, you know, 17 to 20 carries, we're going to have a guy and go roll with it. So that was kind of the motto going into the week."
The Chiefs had given Steele some opportunities in the team's first two games in limited measure and the rookie had played like one. He'd put up positive yardage while also fumbling the ball against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 2 and the Chiefs were fortunate it didn't cost them in the end. Yet it was the way head coach Andy Reid handled that mistake that helped Steele gain confidence for better days ahead.
"Being an undrafted guy coming in, it was kind of a hard thing, but just like you were saying, the confidence, you know, they trusted in me. I had a little bit of a slip-up the last game, but they didn't let me get to my head. They really let me kind of grind down and push through it."
Steele admitted that things have been surreal at times as he's grown into his role as a former undrafted rookie out of UCLA. However, football is football and that's what he does best.
"It's a surreal moment. You watch these guys on TV. I don't want to make them feel old, but I've been watching them for a pretty long time now. But at the end of the day, you come out here, put the shoulder pads on, pants, same way. So I kind of had to take that mentality and go with it from there."
