For NFL teams looking for a very rare bargain on the waiver wire, former Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt presents a serious quandary.
Kareem Hunt led the NFL in rushing last season with 1,327 yards. He added another 455 receiving yards through the air. In 2018, Hunt was on pace to once again cross over 1,700 yards from scrimmage while showing an increased love for the end zone with a pace for 20 total scores.
Hunt’s base salary for the calendar year? $575,250.
For just a minute, set aside the TMZ video, the alleged second offseason altercation (the one from June), or the resulting criticism of Hunt, the Chiefs or the NFL. On paper, this is a dream scenario for a team atop the waiver wire. Only six rookies have ever led the NFL in rushing yards, and one of them is sitting there, readily available, on his rookie contract through the year 2020. For the cost of a slotted third-round rookie deal, you can add a Pro Bowl performer to your backfield.
This is one side of the scale. On the other side, any team that claims Hunt is also adding a troubled player with a history of assault who lied to his teammates and coaches. Hunt is now the lightning rod, and rightly so, for behavioral issues in the NFL (and specifically around domestic violence, whether it applies legally here or not). Fans are pissed. The league’s reputation once again has taken a hit. Roger Goodell and/or his underlings have somehow mismanaged another crisis.
For all of the answers Hunt would provide on the field, he only raises as many questions off the field. Here is the quandary for every general manager not named Brett Veach.
The Chiefs have already made it clear that Kareem Hunt will never play for them again. But if you remove the personal nature of this, the sting of adding Hunt isn’t so bad. A few reasons:
- Kareem Hunt sounded contrite in an interview and should have clearly learned his lesson. Any further offseason drama would showcase an idiocy of epic proportions.
- If you’re not with the Chiefs, then there’s no personalization of any injury here. The Chiefs likely feel betrayed. Their own player lied to them and admitted as much when caught. A new team can give Hunt a fresh slate with relationships that start with some benefit of the doubt. No one is reeling from a whirlwind, trying to make sense of what to feel or think about a frustrating situation.
- The investment is nothing. Any team besides the Chiefs would only have a waiver claim invested in Hunt. Stash him until he’s done serving whatever punishment the NFL wants to give him and then go from there. No draft assets were lost. The money, as we already said, is minimal.
- Winning cures everything. Tyreek Hill has done everything he can to redeem his image, and his personal transformation and maturity speak volumes. But let’s also be honest and say that it doesn’t hurt that he’s a Pro Bowl performer. If Hunt can stay clean moving forward, his natural on-field ability will help convince a fan base to give him that second chance.
For a team willing to weather the immediate storm, the reclamation project of Kareem Hunt could pay serious dividends. But the owner, team executives and coaching staff would all have to be on the same page, willing to answer serious questions and to take the public relations hit in the interim. They would have to have a real plan for rehabilitation and accountability in place for Hunt. They would also have to do their own homework before even pulling the trigger.
A recent ESPN poll of some NFL executives expects every NFL team to let Hunt fall through waivers unclaimed. The current swirl of outrage is simply too great. Hunt did a horrible thing. Hunt tried to cover it up. The NFL is not even done with the investigation. The whole thing is a complete mess where every new layer surfaces and shows another dirty side to it all.
Will Kareem Hunt play again the NFL? Most likely. Who will he play for? A team that has considered all aspects of a serious quandary and is willing to wade into it regardless.