Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs will be looking to extend their unbeaten record in the 2024 NFL season when they play the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday. Meanwhile, Andy Reid and Matt Nagy are focused on improving the offense.
The unit suffered serious injuries early in the year, first with wide receiver Hollywood Brown and later with running back Isiah Pacheco. The latter’s presence on injured reserve saw Carson Steele start against the Atlanta Falcons last time out, and the rookie did quite well. In fact, it made Reid hint the Chiefs discovered a new weapon for Mahomes.
But the coach still made some interesting changes at the position. On Tuesday, Reid made a long-awaited move by promoting RB Kareem Hunt to the 53-man roster, only a week after the player returned to Kansas City.
With Hunt now back on the active squad, many wonder whether Steele’s workload against the Chargers will be lower. Nagy, however, admitted both he and Reid are still unsure on how the Chiefs‘ RB situation will be handled on Sunday.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy look on prior to a preseason game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on August 13, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois.
“It’s probably to be determined right now,” Nagy said, via Arrowhead Pride. “I don’t know if we necessarily know. We’re getting into our second day of the week here, getting into some specific situational stuff. But I think Carson did a really good job last week with the attempts that he had and what he did. And now you just kind of get a feel with Kareem on how that’s going to go. I don’t know if we necessarily know that answer yet. We’ve got to get through practice and get a feel for it.”
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Reid knows Hunt very well from the player’s previous stint at Arrowhead, but it’s been six years since the running back last suited up for the Chiefs. However, it seems that the 29-year-old has already made such a great impression that Reid made an important request to Mahomes, and that’s to use Hunt.
“I thought he had a good week of practice last week,” Reid said. “He took the majority of the scout team reps, and it looks like he’s in pretty good shape. Now, the next step is just getting him in the game. He’ll rotate in and we’ll see how he does. I feel like his retention was pretty good and this week will help, too, just going through it. He’s got a pretty good feel on what we’re doing.”
It may be a bit soon to expect Hunt to get most of the snaps, especially considering Steele’s strong performance in Atlanta. Still, both Nagy and Reid left the door open for Hunt to become more involved in the offense.
