In Week 3, the Kansas City Chiefs will face off against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday Night Football. Entering the contest, there will be a lot of talk about the Chiefs’ running backs and which player will step up in Isiah Pacheco’s absence. Let’s break down Kansas City’s backfield.
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Isiah Pacheco Fantasy Outlook
The star back will be sidelined through October with a fibula injury, adding to the complications for an offense that made a point of it to add skill-player depth this summer.
Pacheco’s lead role in a high-powered offense means he should remain rostered if possible. Finding his replacement requires a little creativity.
Carson Steele, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Samaje Perine, and Kareem Hunt Fantasy Outlook
Kansas City brought in old friend Kareem Hunt for a visit on Tuesday, further muddying the waters.
Steele (undrafted rookie out of UCLA) pretty clearly has the attention of this coaching staff, as he has gotten valuable work through the first two weeks, but expecting him to handle stepping into Pacheco’s voluminous role is overly optimistic.
Perine spent much of this summer with the Broncos, but it stands to reason that, with time, he’ll carve out a niche in this offense due to his reliability on third down. Edwards-Helaire is on injured reserve and will miss at least two more games, though his NFL experience at least makes him worthy of a stash now if he was cut loose.
Of course, you know what you’re getting with CEH if you go down that road. Of the 64 qualified RBs since 2022, he ranks 62nd in percentage of carries that have gained 10+ yards (6.4%, ahead of only AJ Dillon and Ezekiel Elliott).
And then there is Hunt, a 29-year-old coming off of a season in which he averaged just 3.0 yards per carry for the Browns. Should he sign with Kansas City, his familiarity with the system makes him a speculative add. However, I’d guess that, in the short term, he’d be more of a drain on the options already in place than a true threat to have fantasy value himself.
The moral of the story — we have several moving pieces that are close to a valuable role, but not of whom project favorably should they earn it. There’s been a lot of carnage at the Flex positions throughout the league up to this point, which makes all of these RBs worthy of your attention, even if the projectable ceilings aren’t anywhere close to the value that Pacheco was as the RB1 in K.C.’s offense.