Over the course of the regular season, the NFL shop sold plenty of jerseys for rookies and veterans and Kareem Hunt made his presence felt among the former.
Kareem Hunt started his NFL career with a bang, setting league records with his productivity from the start. It’s no surprise, then, to see him listed among the National Football League’s best-selling rookie jerseys, according to the official numbers released by the league’s official shop.
In fact, if there’s any real surprise when it comes to these figures, it’s that Hunt’s rank isn’t higher than it already is. Hunt put up 256 total yards from scrimmage in his NFL debut against the New England patriots in a season-opening win for the Kansas City Chiefs on national television. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated just days later.
Fast forward to the end of the season and Kareem Hunt reeled off a 35-yard run to cement his position as the league’s leading rusher for 2017. A rushing champion should sell plenty of jerseys, especially an exciting young rookie. So what gives? Are there really eight rookies who are ahead of him.
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It would make sense if those rookies were all quarterbacks, but the reality is that the NFL Shop is selling more T.J. Watt jerseys than Hunt. In fact, every rookie running back besides Dalvin Cook sold more, including Christian McCaffrey, Leonard Fournette and Alvin Kamara. The latter two had a great year, but McCaffrey’s position shows his first round pedigree provided him more attention up front than Hunt earned all season.
It also shows that the Chiefs have a long, long way to go in terms of popularity if they’re ever going to match the likes of the Pittsburgh Steelers. First on the list of jerseys this season is JuJu Smith-Schuster, a nice young wideout but hardly the sort of player you’d identify with “best-selling.” Together with Watt, however, you realize quickly that Steelers fans just wanted to buy new jerseys en masse. They could have any last name on the back.
The good news is that Hunt at least made the list and the incredible foundation he laid statistically this year will bode well for future marketing opportunities.