2024-09-23 21:25:03
With their once high-flying offense being less explosive nowadays, the Kansas City Chiefs have responded by committing to running the football. Former seventh-round halfback Isiah Pacheco primarily benefitted from that split a season ago, and his first two games of the 2024-25 campaign were no different.
In Weeks 1 and 2, Pacheco logged a combined 34 carries and also had seven targets in the passing game. That made his absence a significant one to note when the third-year man was recently placed on injured reserve with a fractured fibula. Rather than trade for a high-volume option or panic, Kansas City instead opted to stick with its in-house options for Week 3 against the Atlanta Falcons.
The risk(s) paid off, as the duo of Carson Steele and Samaje Perine had success on Sunday night. Following the clutch win, head coach Andy Reid tipped his cap to the rookie for leading the way.
“Steele jumps in for Pacheco and between he, Perine and (Keaontay) Ingram, they put together a nice game,” Reid said. “Steele [had] 17 carries for 72 yards; not bad for your rookie debut.”
Steele, a Ball State and UCLA product, went undrafted partially due to him posting some poor numbers during the pre-draft process. After learning the fullback role during the spring and summer, though, he caught on with the Chiefs and ended up making the 53-man roster on the heels of a good preseason. The first-year back had just 27 yards on nine carries entering Week 3, so his 72-yard effort on Sunday was a nice improvement.
Perine, on the other hand, has been a solid backup-level player for a while now. Kansas City knows firsthand how potent his skill set is, and the veteran is a nice complement to Steele’s style. He made the most of his opportunities in Atlanta, toting the ball six times for 25 yards and also hauling in three passes for 15 yards. In all, the Chiefs ran the ball 33 times for 128 yards but had some end-of-game kneels drag their yard-per-carry average down.
Directly replacing someone like Pacheco – the football player, teammate and person – is nearly impossible. His production, however, can be mirrored in the aggregate if done the right way. So far, so good, and Mahomes isn’t one bit surprised that the Chiefs are off to a positive start.
“I’m not,” Mahomes said. “I think both of those guys have practiced hard [and] have a lot of trust there. Obviously, you lose some of the juice that Isiah has. I mean, there are not a lot of people that are that fired up after every run and can run like that. I thought the guys did a great job and then at the end of the day, I think the O-line took it upon themselves to accept the challenge. If you saw how the game went, those long drives, their defense was staying back. They were going to force us to run the football and throw it short, and we did that good enough to get the win.”
