Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp Preview: Isiah Pacheco is poised to put it all together in 2024
The running backs take the spotlight next in our Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp preview. The Chiefs are returning their top two running backs from last season in Isiah Pacheco and Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Behind them are a bunch of young guys with upside, but very little experience. Jerick McKinnon, a key contributor over the past […]
The running backs take the spotlight next in our Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp preview.
The Chiefs are returning their top two running backs from last season in Isiah Pacheco and Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Behind them are a bunch of young guys with upside, but very little experience. Jerick McKinnon, a key contributor over the past three years, remains a free agent as it appears that the Chiefs are moving on from him.
Kansas City was a middle-of-the-pack rushing team in 2023, which is fine for an offense that's quarterbacked by Patrick Mahomes. Pacheco just missed hitting 1,000 rushing yards and would have likely gotten there had he not missed three games. Unlike last offseason, Pacheco is entering camp healthy and has slimmed down a bit as he poises to put it all together in 2024.
Let's take a more detailed look at the Chiefs' running back room as we head toward camp.
Chiefs running back overview ahead of training camp
The expected starter:
Isiah Pacheco
What the depth behind Pacheco could look like:
Edwards-Helaire has the most experience of all the RBs on the roster. Despite not living up to his first-round draft status, the Chiefs are comfortable with him as a runner and a receiver. Behind him will be a wide-open competition for the third RB spot between Deneric Prince, Keaontay Ingram, Emani Bailey, Carson Steele and Louis Rees-Zammit.
The Chiefs gave Prince a lot of snaps with the first and second teams early in camp last year with Pacheco sidelined. He wasn't quite ready to be on the 53-man roster, but that was a valuable experience and now he has a year of being on the practice squad under his belt. Ingram brings some quickness and provides some value as a receiver out of the backfield.
Who is on the trading block:
Pacheco and Edwards-Helaire are the only RBs on the Chiefs' roster who have any trade value. There's basically no chance that they would part ways with Pacheco, so Edwards-Helaire would be the guy if there were to be a trade.
If a couple of the young RBs step up and have strong camps, trading Edwards-Helaire isn't out of the question. Although he's a first-round bust, he's established enough of a body of work over four years to warrant a trade market for a mid-to-low round draft pick.
Biggest training camp sleeper: Louis Rees-Zammit
Physically, Rees-Zammit has all the gifts to be successful in the NFL. He possesses lightning-fast speed and as a former rugby player, he knows how to play physically. Rees-Zammit's biggest hurdle making the team will be learning the game of football.
Trying to learn a new sport at the professional level is a tall task, but he has some of the best football minds in the world to coach him. If he can make an impact on special teams and the Chiefs' coaching staff can find creative ways to use him on offense, he could sneak onto the roster.
