Chiefs’ Ground Game in Trouble as Isiah Pacheco Faces Post-Injury Struggles

Since Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco returned from a broken fibula injury that he sustained in Week 2 of the NFL season versus the Cincinnati Bengals, Chiefs Kingdom held out hope that he would complete a deadly one-two punch with Kareem Hunt whom the team signed in wake of Pacheco’s injury. That’s not what the Chiefs have gotten so far.

Pacheco has struggled to find any sort of rhythm since returning from injury. Since his comeback in Week 12 of the NFL season, Pacheco has had 49 rushes for 175 yards, which is only good for a measly 3.5 yards per carry.

Furthermore, Pacheco followed up his last six weeks of the regular season with an underwhelming performance against the Houston Texans in the Divisional Round with 5 carries for 18 yards in a game where Kareem Hunt looked like the much better running back.

Granted, it was always going to take a little bit of time for Pacheco to get his feet back under him coming off such a major injury. That’s sure to zap the explosiveness for someone who plays the running back position, but Pacheco has been back for a while now and the explosive runs still aren’t coming—even at the most important time of the year. Additionally, it isn’t just the explosiveness that is the issue. Pacheco’s vision has been questionable at best and he is missing holes while running into the backs of his blockers and falling for little to no gain.

It doesn’t help that Pacheco was dealing with a rib injury so soon after returning from the broken leg, but hopefully, the rest helped clear that up. Until then, the Chiefs now have an Isiah Pacheco Problem, as he is not producing at a high enough level, which not only is bad news for him but also hurts the Chiefs offense.

AFC Divisional Playoffs: Houston Texans v Kansas City Chiefs | Jamie Squire/GettyImages

It has become evident at this point that Hunt is a better fit for what Kansas City is trying to do and offers more consistent and steady play at the position for the Chiefs. While his efficiency stats don’t look that much better than Pacheco’s, we do know that Hunt gets a lot of short-yardage carries and goal-line carries that naturally bring his yards-per-carry numbers down. You can’t say the same for Pacheco.

Of course, there has been plenty of debate about who the better running back is for Kansas City since Hunt rejoined the team in September, but that’s not the point. Hunt also suffers from Pacheco not performing.

While most of us agree at this point that Hunt deserves more carries and should be treated as the lead back for the postseason, Hunt started to slow down shortly before Pacheco came off IR and he was noticeably tired and wore down as games went on.

If Pacheco isn’t giving you enough quality snaps at running back, then it once again puts more of the load on Hunt which is probably unfair at his age and at this point in his career. The ideal situation would be for Pacheco to be the team’s “lightning” back to Kareem Hunt’s “thunder” and provide those explosive runs that are lacking at this point for Hunt despite his knack for always finding positive yardage.

But if Pacheco isn’t giving you those longer runs, isn’t the guy for short yardage, and isn’t the choice for goal-line situations, then what does he do? Not to mention Hunt is a better receiver out of the backfield as well.

While it isn’t necessarily a question as of right now who is RB1 for the Kansas City Chiefs for the playoff run, it is still vital that Pacheco get going at some point in order for Kansas City to maximize output on offense, and the Chiefs will likely need to get the ground game going for what looks like another cold contest at Arrowhead for the AFC crown.