Fantasy Football Player Notes

Last year was another season dinged by injury for Pacheco. He missed a combined ten games with a rib injury and a broken fibula. The previous season, he was sidelined for three games with a sprained shoulder. Once he returned from injury last year in Week 13, he looked like a shell of himself. We should easily toss those numbers out for Pacheco as he was clearly not fully healthy, and he failed to play more than 46% of the snaps in any game for the rest of the season (including the playoffs). We got an abbreviated look at their plan for him last year when he opened the season with an 80% snap share and 17 touches (78 total yards). The Chiefs could return to this model with Pacheco being their bell cow, but I doubt that is what happens. The team resigned Kareem Hunt and brought in Elijah Mitchell and Brashard Smith. Each player offers a different skill set and could play a role for the team in 2025. Pacheco could be the lead of a committee approach for the backfield this season. It's tough to consider him as anything more than an RB3 or flex play, but RB2 upside is still here.

Smith was another talented victim of this deep running back class. He dropped all the way to the seventh round of the NFL Draft, which was surprising. The Chiefs added him to their already overstocked backfield. The Chiefs are no strangers to allowing a seventh-round running back a legit shot at starting (hi, Isiah Pacheco), so we can't say that Smith has zero shot. I was enamored with Smith's receiving ability as a converted wide receiver, his lightning quickness, and his possible upside as a rusher for a player who is still getting acclimated to the position. Last year, Smith ranked 34th in breakaway percentage, second in receiving grade, and 22nd in yards per route run (per PFF). Smith's skill set is different from every other back in this depth chart. He could easily carve out a stand-alone role as Kansas City's new Jerick McKinnon.