KC Chiefs RB room ranked 18th in NFL, ‘not much known’ about depth

Last season, the Kansas City Chiefs offense ranked 25th in rushing attempts and 19th in rushing yards. He also finished tied for eighth in yards per carry average, but also tied for third lowest rushing touchdown total. Overall, the trio of Isiah Pacheco, Jerick McKinnon and Clyde Edwards-Helaire was pretty respectable but lacked true high-end production.

As the offseason continues, McKinnon is no longer in the picture, but Edwards-Helaire has been re-signed to a new one-year deal. Pacheco, now entering his third season, remains the starter. Where does that leave Kansas City’s halfback spot? According to one outlet, below the center line.

In a recent ranking of the 32 running back groups entering 2024, Trevor Sikkema of Focus on professional football the back-to-back champions are in 18th place. Sikkema hails Pacheco as a quality option, but he also points out some uncertainty about the depth beyond Edwards-Helaire.

“Isiah Pacheco is the king of consistency, earning quick scores of 74.2 and 80.2 over the past two seasons,” Sikkema wrote. “He’s also averaged over 4.5 yards per carry in each of the last two seasons with 40 explosive carries, 20 in both years. Kansas City still has Clyde Edwards-Helaire behind him, but it’s unclear much after that.”

As a sophomore, Pacheco continued to lead the rotation. Seeing his snap count increase from 351 to 568, the former seventh-round pick averaged 4.6 yards per carry and rushed for 935 yards and seven touchdowns. He also caught 44 passes for 244 yards and two more scores. Pacheco has established himself as No. 1 in 2023, and this is expected to continue until 2024.

The Edwards-Helaire situation is murkier. On the one hand, the former first-round pick is a seasoned veteran of the offense and posted career-high marks for games played (15) and yards per target average (8.5) last year. last. That said, he also saw his yards per carry drop to as low as 3.2. Even at 25 years old, he’s just not a dynamic, rushing threat. This makes him a quality depth piece, but not an ideal second running back.

What makes things even more complicated is the lack of a standout RB3. In April, general manager Brett Veach previewed the competition.

“Keaontay Ingram is a guy we like too, we got him late last year and it’s tough when guys come in the middle of the season,” Veach said. “We added him to our practice squad late, but I think we were a fan of him when he was at USC. I think it’ll be one of those positions, just like left tackle, the starting position, just like the corner end positions, that running back position will be a battle Usually it comes down to special teams and pass protector as the number 3 here, so I think. that all of these guys have traits that we like and now it’s just a few of these guys having a solid training camp.

“It’s the mental side of things and the special teams side of things. I think though we have guys that all have ability and now it’s just about these guys going out there and move up a position from a talent standpoint, like you mentioned with (Emani) Bailey and (Carson) Steele that we brought in, and then last year, (Deneric) Prince and Keaontay Ingram, all those guys have. talent and ability to play in this league is about who can put together a strong training camp and win the job.

This development should find new life when camp begins in a month. In the meantime, the Chiefs know what they have in two of their top three defenders and then have a confusing mess of candidates for that tertiary position.

That’s intentional, though, because that’s exactly what Veach wants it to be, even if an outlet (rightly) hasn’t bought it yet.

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