Remember Isiah Pacheco? This question might seem silly, but it feels like people have forgotten about him. He went from beloved fan favorite and the long-awaited replacement for Kareem Hunt in his first two seasons to, unfortunately, being injured and replaced by… well, Kareem Hunt, in his third year.
After his return from injury near the end of last season, Pacheco never quite reclaimed his lead runner role, which concerned many people. Hunt took most of the reps, and he never eclipsed more than 55 yards in a single game. In fact, he only had a combined 37 yards the entire postseason. Not good.
Chiefs Kingdom seems to have forgotten about or moved on from Isiah Pacheco but that’s a mistake.
But does that mean his best years are behind him? NFL running backs have notoriously short shelf lives. Even Kareem Hunt, at the young age of 29, seemed old last year. But at the ripe age of 26, I think Pacheco still has some gas left in the tank. Assuming the lack of production was just due to the difficulty of coming back from a midseason injury, a full offseason could do him some good.
It has been noted that Pacheco and most of the running backs on the roster are all entering their contract years, so the Kansas City Chiefs should be looking to the future of the position in the draft. That is definitely a concern and it probably wouldn’t hurt the Chiefs to add some depth. Hunt is getting older, and no disrespect to Carson Steele, but he’s just not quite there yet (if he ever will be).
Maybe I have too much faith in Pacheco to return to form, but I don’t think the Chiefs should spend a high draft pick on a running back. They tried that once before with Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Needless to say, it didn’t really work out. Conventional wisdom says not to draft a running back in the first round, and even with it being the very last pick of the round, that wisdom held true.
Instead of drafting a running back high, the Chiefs should just make plans to re-sign Pacheco to an extension. I know, I know—that’s an ironic statement after just talking about “conventional wisdom,” which in this case says, “Do not pay running backs.” That trend is changing, though.
If Isiah Pacheco can put up a solid contract year—and I think he will—he may be in line for that coveted extension that sets him up to be the KC RB1 for years to come.
