If you were watching the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Jacksonville Jaguars, you would have seen something unusual. No, I’m not talking about an opposing quarterback tripping over twice before scrambling to score a game-winning touchdown, but rather something that was even more unexpected.
The Chiefs did something on offense for the first time this season on Monday night, while two players wound the clock back and showcased the kind of plays we used to see them make on the regular. Surprisingly, these feats came from arguably Kansas City’s least exciting position group this season—the running backs.
The Chiefs’ running game has been stuck in the mud this year, and it has felt like all the juice has been sucked out of Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt. While they have both been effective with the ball in their hands—Pacheco is second in the NFL in rushing success rate (64.1%) and Hunt is 11th (55.8%)—neither has been prolific, and they certainly have not been explosive.
Somewhat concerningly, Patrick Mahomes is still Kansas City’s leading rusher five weeks into the season, and he’s been the team’s leading rusher in three of the five games—including against the Jaguars.
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Kareem Hunt is averaging 32.8 yards per game, while Isiah Pacheco’s average is 32.8, which ranks 37th and 38th among the league’s running backs. They are both below league average in yards per attempt, too.
There had been efficiency in the run game, mainly by picking up first downs in short-yardage situations, but there hadn’t been any explosiveness. That was until Monday night. The Chiefs had not one, not two, but three runs of 10-plus yards between their two running backs against Jacksonville—the first time that has happened this season.
I never thought I’d see the day.
Pacheco was responsible for two of those plays. The first was a 16-yard carry in the opening quarter—which was his longest run of the season—and the second a 12-yard carry in the third.
Pacheco only had one run all of last season that was longer than 16 yards—a 34-yard rush against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 13—and Monday night was the first time he’s had a game with two double-digit runs since Week 2 last season against the Cincinnati Bengals, more than 380 days ago.
Hunt’s big run was even more surprising. The 30-year-old busted off a huge 33-yarder in the second quarter, his longest rushing play in more than five years.
Explosive plays have been rarer than hens’ teeth of late for both Hunt and Pacheco. Hunt has an explosive play rate of 2.33%, which is 40th out of the 46 running backs with at least 25 rushes this year.
Pacheco’s number is slightly higher—5.13%—but it still only ranks 32nd. It is, however, an improvement on last year when his explosive rush percentage was an eye-wateringly low 1.20%—88th out of 92 running backs.
For both players, it was a flashback to the past, a glimpse of the kind of plays they used to be able to make on a regular basis. Pacheco had 13 runs of 15-plus yards in 2023. He’s had just two since, including the run against Jacksonville. In Hunt’s rookie season, he had a run of 15 yards or more in 13 of his 17 games. Of the 16 games Hunt played for the Chiefs last season, he had a 15-yarder or higher in just three games.
Of course, a critical injury for Pacheco last year and the wear and tear of time served in the NFL for Hunt have trimmed their respective outputs back. It’s understandable, albeit still frustrating.
So, were the three explosive runs and the feats we saw for the first time in more than a year against Jacksonville just a football anomaly, or do the Chiefs have a chance of replicating something similar and catching lightning in a bottle more than once? Time will tell.