As the Kansas City Chiefs return from their bye week, the running back rotation figures to look similar to Week 5's win over the New Orleans Saints. Some combination of Kareem Hunt, Samaje Perine and Carson Steele should work to replace the production of Isiah Pacheco as he recovers from a broken fibula. The eventual return of Clyde Edwards-Helaire could complicate things, although it'd be a good problem to have.
Of the aforementioned names, Hunt is the leader of the group. The proof is in the box score, as the 29-year-old has 41 carries in his two games on the active roster this season. That includes a staggering 27 in Week 5, which is a total he's exceeded just twice in his career.
For someone with over 1,000 rushing attempts in the NFL, that might be a minor cause for concern. When adding in the context of Hunt's lack of durability over the last year-plus, it becomes an even bigger risk. Despite that, Kansas City seems just fine giving Hunt the keys to the proverbial car.
Speaking to the media this week, head coach Andy Reid gave Hunt a vote of confidence as the Chiefs' go-to running back.
“I kind of joked with him, Soren (Petro), that he’d spend the bye week in the cold tub after all those carries," Reid said. "I mentioned before that he came back in pretty good shape other than not having played football, and that’s held true to this point. He’s been able to do a good job in practice when he was on the scout team. Then, he worked through that [and] he was able to get in the game. We started him off relatively slow and then increased it and he was able to handle both of those things. I think – and we’ll just see how the game goes – but I feel comfortable with him carrying the ball. We had Steele backing him up there, he had a few carries that were productive, so we’re in pretty good shape there.”
Going back to Hunt's 41 carries in two games, it's a testament to the Chiefs' recent commitment to running the football on offense. In Pacheco's career, he's never met or surpassed that total in a two-game stretch of regular-season play. He has once in the playoffs, however, amassing 42 totes between January's AFC Championship Game against the Baltimore Ravens and February's Super Bowl LVIII triumph over the San Francisco 49ers. In those games combined, Pacheco had 127 yards and a touchdown. Hunt's return to Kansas City is seeing him fare even better.
Don't get it twisted: Hunt won't always carry the rock that many times. A vast majority of games won't call for it, and Reid will let Patrick Mahomes air it out before anything else. But in a world where defenses are attempting to take away the vertical passing game and the Chiefs' top two wide receivers are injured, going to the run isn't the worst idea. Not only does it help control the clock, but it's hard to ignore the league's second-highest rushing success rate.
Even after Edwards-Helaire is back, expect to see plenty of Hunt on offense. That should remain the case until Pacheco is 100% healthy.
