Kansas City Chiefs: All-Decade Team for 2010s

2010S ALL-DECADE TEAM – RUNNING BACK

STARTER: JAMAAL CHARLES

ALTERNATE: KAREEM HUNT

For the running back position, the starter was a no brainer; It’s obviously Jamaal Charles at RB1.

In 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014, Charles would gain over 1,000 yards on the ground while chipping in at least another 236 through the air. In 2012, he rushed for over 1,500 yards. The following season, he scored 12 rushing touchdowns and seven receiving touchdowns, leading the league with a total of 19 touchdowns scored. Twice–in 2010 and 2013–he’d accumulate more than 1,900 total yards of offense. And twice, in 2013 and 2014, he’d score touchdowns in the double digits.

During his prime, all of which came with the Chiefs during this decade, he was electric, capable of breaking a big play at a moment’s notice. Twice in 2012, he rushed for over 200 yards in a single game.

Near the end of the 2013 season, he rushed for only 20 yards and one touchdown against the Oakland Raiders, but caught eight passes for 195 yards and four touchdowns in a 56-31 victory. In Week 4 of the 2014 season, Charles led the Chiefs in a 41-14 rout of the New England Patriots as he scored three total touchdowns, including two in the air.

Here’s another stat when considering Charles as the team’s best running back of the decade: the Chiefs have had five 1,000-yard rushers between 2010 and 2019. Charles claims four of those.

The alternate running back was a little trickier, but we went with Kareem Hunt.

Unlike Charles, Kareem Hunt joined a Kansas City Chiefs organization on the upswing. Also unlike Charles, Hunt’s tenure was brief due to his getting unceremoniously released after it was revealed he’d lied to the front office about an off-the-field altercation.

Yet, in his short time with the Chiefs, Hunt, a third-round pick in 2017 out of Toledo, played well, leading the league in rushing yards as a rookie with 1,327 before collecting another 824 in 11 games before his release in 2018. In only 27 games with Kansas City, Hunt scored a total of 25 touchdowns–15 on the ground and 10 through the air. He also had seven games of at least 100 rushing yards.

The gulf is wide between Jamaal Charles and the rest of the Chiefs running backs this decade, but the next closest is, without question, Hunt. The What if? surrounding his time in Kansas City will always remain, and, as a result, will overshadow anything he did while wearing a Chiefs uniform.