Kansas City Chiefs: Running back needs to be addressed in offseason
It hasn’t been pretty for the Kansas City Chiefs run game in 2019. For an organization that has prided itself on having some great running backs in recent years, they haven’t lived up to that this year.
While running the football might not be as important as it was say ten to 20 years ago, it’s still something teams need to be halfway decent at. The Kansas City Chiefs are not decent at it, indicated by them sitting 24th in the league in rushing yards per game per NFL.com.
Running the ball used to be something Kansas City excelled at, but that hasn’t been the case in 2019. Even with a plethora of running backs in the backfield, the Chiefs can’t get anything going there and that’s why running back HAS to be addressed this offseason.
Does that mean the Chiefs need to spend their first round pick on a running back? Certainly not.
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We’ve seen teams get great value out of running backs drafted later in the draft. Defense, particularly at stopping the run, is one of the top priorities, as is offensive line and tight end, but that doesn’t mean running back should be ignored due to the other needs.
Damien Williams is still under contract for another season, so keeping him around isn’t the worst idea, but he shouldn’t be the predominant starter moving forward. His fumble last week and inconsistent play this year have proven that he’s not a 16-game starter that can be relied on.
LeSean McCoy wasn’t even active last week and has had fumbling issues all season, one of them costing his team the game (and same could be said for Williams last week). Darrel Williams is young, but hasn’t shown us enough to make him the guy moving forward.
As much as I want Darwin Thompson to be the answer, he hasn’t been able to beat out any of the other aforementioned individuals. That doesn’t give me much hope moving forward with the rookie out of Utah State.
As for who the Kansas City Chiefs could look at in the later rounds of the 2020 NFL Draft, how about Zack Moss out of Utah? Or Lamical Perine of Florida? Or if we’re looking even further into the draft, what about local guy Larry Rountree III out of Missouri?
Next. Top 15 Leaders in Rushing Yards All-Time for Chiefs. dark
There are plenty of running backs that the Chiefs could have in the draft in 2020 and they can’t ignore the position. This year should be enough proof of that.