Things did not go the way the Kansas City Chiefs would have hoped in their third preseason game. We could spend an entire post just dissecting what went wrong in KC’s 26-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, but the bottom line is that in the game that was supposed to be their dress rehearsal for the regular season they were sloppy and ineffective.
To make matters worse, it looks like they may have lost starting running back Spencer Ware for the season to a PCL knee injury. If you read my thoughts on the Chiefs on a regular basis, you know that I firmly believe that the only way an Alex Smith-quarterbacked offense can take the Chiefs to a Super Bowl is if they have a dominant running game to compliment him. With Ware now out of the picture for the foreseeable future, it begs the question, “Do the Chiefs need to add another running back?”
Before you stop reading and flood the comments section with comments about how great Kareem Hunt is and how well you think he’ll do, let me be clear that I am 100% on board with Hunt as the featured back for the Chiefs in 2017 and beyond. From the moment I started studying Hunt’s tape I was convinced that he would be a star in Andy Reid’s offense. Before Ware’s injury I still would have preferred a 60/40 split of the running back duties in favor of Hunt. So my stance that the Chiefs may need to add another running back has nothing to do with Hunt. The Chiefs have their starting running back. For me the question is if they have enough behind him.
If you believe like I do that the Chiefs need a top ten rushing attack in order to take the pressure (figuratively and literally) off Alex Smith then are you confident that a rookie (no matter how promising he looks) can carry that load all by himself? If not, then do you believe that C.J. Spiller and Charcandrick West can be relied upon to be key contributors in a top ten rushing attack? I’m just not sold on it. Not only am I not convinced that we can count of Spiller and West to be key contributors, but they are both more of a smaller third down back type, and what the Chiefs now lack with Ware out is more of power/short yardage runner.
Spiller has looked really good so far. He appears to have some of his old burst left in the tank. However, we’re still talking about a guy that has battled injuries his entire career, was on three different teams last season and has only averaged 40 carries a season dating back to 2014. Maybe the Chiefs won the lottery this season and Spiller will stay healthy and return to his 2012 form. I want Spiller on the roster and think he may provide an occasional spark, but I just can’t feel too safe about counting on him to be a key player all season long.
West looked like a promising young back in 2015 when he was the primary running back after Jamaal Charles was lost to injury. West has big play upside. Just look at his preseason rushing numbers. His 118 yards rushing and 7.9 yards per carry led the Chiefs through three games. So why don’t I feel confident in West being a key contributor in 2017? Simple, he’s too reliant on the occasional big play in order to be effective.
Despite West’s good overall numbers, he had five carries for six yards against the 49ers and three carries for negative one yard against the Seahawks. That’s West in a nutshell. Given enough carries he’ll make a big play to make the overall numbers look good, but as a part time player he just isn’t consistent enough. That was evident last year when he averaged just 3.3 yards per carry as Ware’s primary backup who only received a handful of carries most games.
So what other options could the Chiefs have if their current backs aren’t quite enough? Let’s look at a couple of possibilities.