The Kansas City Chiefs signed Kareem Hunt to their practice squad, reuniting with the running back they drafted in 2017 in an effort to shore up a backfield suddenly in need of help following the injury to Isaiah Pacheco.
Many fantasy football managers who saw this signing rushed to put a waiver wire claim in on Hunt, assuming he would become the lead back in KC in no time.
I hate to burst those bubbles, but Hunt isn't a fantasy football RB1 or RB2 anymore and most likely won't be a flex option again either. If you need proof, just look at last year.
Hunt averaged a career-low 3.0 yards per carry last season with the Browns, the lowest of his career. Even with star Nick Chubb injured, Hunt was the backup in Cleveland to Jerome Ford, who averaged 4.0 yards per carry on 69 more rushing attempts.
This follows a downward trend for Hunt, who went from averaging 4.9 rushing yards per attempt as a rookie with the Chiefs to 3.8 in 2022 with the Browns and the aforementioned 3.0 last season. For further context, Chubb averaged 5.0 yards per rush in 2022 and put up 1,525 rushing yards.
Clearly, it wasn't an offensive line issue in Cleveland.
Hunt knows the Chiefs playbook, or at least understands Andy Reid's offensive philosophy and terminology, which is a good leg up as he acclimates himself in KC. But I already wrote about how it will likely be a running-back-by-committee approach in KC with Carson Steele getting short-yard runs and Samaje Perine manning the backfield on passing plays. Hunt signing doesn't mean he will take a full-time role. Likely it means, at best, he's part of that rotation.
It will take Hunt a few weeks to get into game shape and, with the Chiefs having their bye in Week 6, he might not even be called up to the 53-man roster until Week 7. By then Pacheco should be about four weeks away from returning.
If you have an open roster spot and want to tie it up with Hunt, that's up to you. But I wouldn't waste any auction budget on claiming him and I wouldn't expect much this season from a player who is clearly on his last legs in the NFL.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Don't Expect Much From Kareem Hunt in Fantasy Football .
