Chiefs’ New-Look Running Backs Ready to Roll Into Offseason Program

Isiah Pacheco, Kareem Hunt and newcomer Elijah Mitchell share a lot in common. Their most common thread appears to be returning from injuries with a unique desire to do whatever is necessary to vault the Chiefs back to the Super Bowl.

All three running backs enter 2025 with something to prove. Pacheco looks fully recovered from a fractured fibula that landed him on injured reserve and cost him 10 games.

The year prior, assorted ailments sidelined him for three games, likely preventing the Chiefs from extending his contract. Instead, Pacheco will enter the final year of his rookie deal motivated to prove his worth and availability to the organization or another NFL team should he become a free agent after the season.

A seventh-round selection in the 2022 draft, Pacheco was Patrick Mahomes’ best friend in the Chiefs’ backfield. As a rookie, he racked up 960 scrimmage yards and five touchdowns, including a 4.9-yard average per carry (170 attempts, 830 yards, five TDs).

In 2023, Pacheco helped the Chiefs to a second straight Super Bowl title by posting 1,179 scrimmage yards and nine touchdowns. Even better in the 2023 playoffs, he led the NFL with 313 postseason rushing yards.

Like Pacheco, Kareem Hunt is only under contract through 2025 after re-signing a one-year deal with the Chiefs earlier this month. Both Pacheco and Hunt are excited simply to get to training camp in St. Joseph, Mo. Hunt hasn’t been in an NFL training camp since 2022 with the Browns.

Hunt, 29, went unsigned each of the last two seasons after five years in Cleveland. His patience paid off, though, when Kansas City re-signed him two weeks into the season after Pacheco fractured his fibula.

Hunt provided Mahomes an important complement out of the Chiefs’ backfield, racking up 904 scrimmage yards and seven touchdowns in 13 games, including 728 yards on 200 carries. In the postseason, with Pacheco back from injury, Hunt averaged 4.2 yards per carry and scored two more touchdowns.

Mitchell, who joined his 49ers teammate Jaylon Moore in signing with the Chiefs as an unrestricted free agent, is the intriguing unknown. Mitchell said last week he’s back to 100 percent after missing the entire 2024 campaign with a hamstring injury.

“It was very challenging,” Mitchell told reporters last week. “Like, just having the love for football and not being able to step on the field and compete against the best, it really weighed on me a lot. But man, I'm hungrier than ever and I'm ready to roll.”

Mitchell’s best season was his rookie year, 2021. Niners starter Raheem Mostert left the Week 1 game after just two carries with cartilage damage in his knee, a season-ending injury. Mitchell, a sixth-round draft choice out of Louisiana, assumed the bulk of San Francisco’s reps. He finished with 963 yards and five touchdowns on 207 carries.

Injuries combined with the arrival of Christian McCaffrey via trade midway through 2022 limited Mitchell’s carries during the youngster's second and third NFL seasons, although he did average 6.2 yards per tote in 2022.

How Carson Steele fits into the picture, and the balance of practice reps over the course of OTAs, minicamps and training camp, is worth following.

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