In a different timeline, Kareem Hunt has been the Kansas City Chiefs RB1 for the better part of the last decade, posting multiple top 12 fantasy football finishes. In this timeline, his career was pretty much over before an Isiah Pacheco injury prompted the Chiefs to give their old friend a call. What can fantasy managers expect from Hunt in 2025?
Kareem Hunt Fantasy Outlook
After his unceremonious departure from Kansas City in 2018, Hunt’s career was never the same. He was an elite RB1 the first two years of his career, but then had to settle for being Nick Chubb’s backup.
Between his suspension and injuries, Hunt missed 16 of his first 48 games with the Browns. From 2019-2021, he was a solid RB2, averaging between 12.7 and 13.8 fantasy points per game. Useful, but nowhere near the level he was at and likely would have been at had he never left Kansas City.
In 2022 and 2023, Hunt’s performance declined considerably. He was getting older, and it was clear his skills were declining. Following a career-worst 3.0 yards per carry in 2023 and averaging an unhelpful 7.9 ppg, the Browns chose not to re-sign Hunt. Unable to find work to start the 2024 season, it looked like Hunt’s career was over.
As fate would have it, Isiah Pacheco broke his leg in Week 2, and the Chiefs found themselves with the weakest running back room in the NFL. It was so bad that Carson Steele was the lead back the first week Pacheco missed. So, they called up their former RB1, brought him in, and signed him.
It did not take long for Hunt to reclaim his lead status. He earned 14 carries in his first game with the team, and then every game from Week 5 to 12, his snap share was over 55%.
From Weeks 5-9, Hunt saw 20+ carries in every game. They made him their workhorse, and he rewarded fantasy managers who picked him up with 18.0 ppg from Weeks 5-10. Somehow, in the year 2024, Hunt was producing just as well as he was as a 22 to 23-year-old.
Kareem Hunt has a touchdown for Kansas City!
📺: #HOUvsKC on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on @NFLPlus and ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/5X4xMhJc4n— NFL (@NFL) January 18, 2025
Hunt performed so well that he maintained a role after Pacheco returned. However, Pacheco’s presence, while not enough to restore his fantasy value, tanked Hunt’s. From Weeks 13-17, Hunt topped 8.0 fantasy points just once. He was no longer startable.
Nevertheless, Hunt played well enough that the Chiefs saw fit to bring him back for the 2025 season. But was Hunt really that good last year?
Unfortunately, Hunt’s stretch as an RB1 was almost entirely a product of raw volume. With no one else, they were feeding him carries, as well as goal line work. Volume is king in fantasy football.
With Pacheco healthy, there’s no chance Hunt sees the level of work he did last year. At best, we can hope for the type of usage he got in the NFL playoffs, after the Chiefs decided Pacheco didn’t have it and limited his role.
The most likely scenario, though, is Pacheco returns to the lead back role with Hunt as the change-of-pace guy — the role Hunt played in Weeks 14 and 15 when the Chiefs tried to give Pacheco his feature job back.
In those games, Hunt played 27% and 37% of the snaps, handling six and 14 touches, scoring 3.9 and 5.9 fantasy points. That’s not going to cut it.
Sadly, Hunt didn’t play all that well. It just worked for fantasy because of the volume. He averaged 3.6 ypc. His target share was just 6.8%. His 4.1 yards per touch was outside the top 50, and his 16.1% evaded tackles per touch rate was 46th in the league.
The only silver lining is that the Chiefs have nothing invested in Pacheco. They cast him aside when he wasn’t performing last season. Yes, it was due to the injury. But Hunt performed well enough that the team opted to bring him back.
While they didn’t sign anyone major, they did bring in Elijah Mitchell, who was once the 49ers RB1 (but suffers from a similar issue of being a former sixth-rounder), as well as drafted Brashard Smith in the seventh round. Smith may be another seventh-rounder, but this isn’t a situation where anyone truly has the inside track. It will come down to which back performs the best.
Now, to be clear, with all things being equal, I do believe Pacheco to be the most talented of the bunch. If he can return to pre-injury form, this should be his backfield once again. It may not be at the level it was trending toward to start last season, but it won’t be Hunt 1a and Pacheco 1b.
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The fantasy community has mostly decided that will be the case, too, with Hunt’s ADP way down at RB57. Even though Mitchell is a more talented back at this point in both of their careers, Andy Reid trusts Hunt. I don’t envision standalone value for anyone other than Pacheco. However, if Pacheco gets hurt, I do believe Hunt would become the starter in a 60/40 timeshare with Mitchell.
I have Hunt ranked as my RB64, which is below consensus, but this far down the rankings, it’s not by any meaningful amount. Fantasy managers should view him as a handcuff and nothing more. He’s worth a shot as the last RB on your roster, but I prefer to take younger players with more volatility than a 30-year-old on his last legs, Hunt.
Dan Fornek’s Kareem Hunt Fantasy Projection
Kareem Hunt returned to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2024. Hunt wasn’t expected to have a massive role in 2025, but ended up playing a significant snap share thanks to a broken leg for incumbent starter Isiah Pacheco. Hunt played in 13 games with the Chiefs, handling 200 carries for 728 yards and seven touchdowns while adding 23 receptions (on 32 targets) for 176 yards.
Hunt ultimately finished as the RB39 (12.0 PPG) behind an offensive line that struggled in protection but was good at opening up rushing lanes. Still, it was clear that the version in the Chiefs’ backfield in 2024 was a far cry from the rookie who began his career dominating Kansas City’s backfield.
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Hunt returned to the Chiefs this offseason, but he will need to compete with Pacheco, Elijah Mitchell, Carson Steele, and rookie pass-catching back Brashard Smith in the backfield. The Chiefs have a variety of ways to attack opposing defenses, which is why it’s impossible to assume which player (if any) will have fantasy value.
As long as Hunt is in Kansas City, he will have a chance to have some fantasy value. However, that isn’t enough to make him a target in fantasy drafts in 2025.