Arrowhead Pride
Over the last three seasons, the Kansas City Chiefs have struggled to run the ball. Despite the Chiefs constantly facing light boxes from opposing defenses, the offense has struggled to punish them with the rushing attack.
There are multiple reasons why the run game has fallen off over the past few years.
The offensive line hasn’t been consistently healthy or a strength for the Chiefs. The interior offensive line has always been great, but the revolving tackles have hurt the run game.
The skill-position group, particularly at tight end, has not been impactful in run blocking. The Chiefs have lacked a blocking tight end who can play inline. Noah Gray and Travis Kelce have to be hidden in the run game, which limits the types of runs the Chiefs can call.
Scheme. The Chiefs like to use run-pass options as much as anyone in the NFL. While the threat of the pass does stretch the field horizontally, RPOs can also hurt your run game. The offensive line can’t block vertically since the quarterback can throw the ball. RPOs are also called from the shotgun, which limits certain run-blocking angles.
Despite these reasons, I would argue that the biggest reason the run game has fallen off is the lack of running back talent. Kansas City hasn’t seen adequate running back play over the last three seasons.
After the 2022 season, it seemed like Isiah Pacheco was the future at running back after a great rookie campaign. Unfortunately, Pacheco never quite returned to the level he played at as a rookie. His 2023 campaign was up and down, but he still had good moments throughout the season.
What seemed to set Pacheco back was the leg injury he suffered early in 2024. Pacheco was limited to seven games that season. He had only 310 rushing yards and one touchdown on 83 carries. Pacheco looked nowhere near as explosive as he did prior to his injury. Pacheco had always been an up-and-down player because of his lack of vision, but his ability to generate explosive runs made it worth handing him the ball.
After the injury, that ability never came back. Only one of Pacheco’s runs over the last two years lasted 20 or more yards. During the 2023 season, Pacheco generated six runs of over 20 yards.
With Pacheco not an effective option, the Chiefs have turned to Kareem Hunt as the lead back over the past two seasons. Hunt was good at certain things: he was one of the best short-yardage backs in the NFL. Hunt’s vision and strength allowed the Chiefs to make short yardage almost automatic, which lifted the floor on an offense that couldn’t generate explosive plays. However, Hunt wasn’t very effective outside of those scenarios. Over the last two seasons, Hunt finished with two 20+ yard runs.
Teams have dared the Chiefs to run the ball over the last three seasons with light boxes. In theory, with fewer bodies in the box, there should...
