CLEVELAND, Ohio — Kareem Hunt would’ve loved to re-sign with his hometown Browns in the offseason, but got something even better: a chance to return to the Chiefs and win the Super Bowl ring he missed out on in 2020.

Hunt, who played for the Browns from 2019 to 2023 after the Chiefs cut him, re-signed with Kansas City in September after running back Isiah Pacheco suffered a broken fibula, and leads the team with 608 yards on 167 carries, and 5 rushing TDs.

“I’m definitely excited to see my family (and) see some of my close guys on the team and definitely battle,” he told reporters in Kansas City Wednesday. “I definitely had a good time. I spent the last five years there (in Cleveland) so it’s kind of different to be on the other side.”

Hunt, whom the Browns let walk in free agency before last season, re-signed with the team after Nick Chubb went down with his major knee injury in Week 2, and led the team with nine rushing touchdowns. He also finished second with 411 rushing yards and a 3.0 average. Much to Hunt’s dismay, the Browns had no plans to re-sign him in the offseason, and he was waiting for his opportunity when the Chiefs called.

It marked an emotional return for Hunt, who was cut by the Chiefs in 2019 when video surfaced that he had an altercation with a woman in the hallway of his downtown Cleveland apartment building.

Hunt was distraught when the Chiefs, who had drafted him in the third round of the 2017 draft out of Toledo, went to the Super Bowl without him after the 2019 season. He was stopped for speeding in Cleveland a week before the Super Bowl, and got emotional during the 46-minute stop encounter with the police, according to the dashcam video.

He admitted “it hurts my soul’’ that he wasn’t facing the 49ers in the Super Bowl that Sunday, a game the Chiefs won 31-20.

“Man, I’ve been through a lot,’’ Hunt told the officer. “Officer, I’ve been through a lot.”

He added that he’d been “through the trenches, man/ I’m just trying to be in my hometown and chill.’’

Hunt, who served a six-game suspension by the NFL to start that season, eventually went on to embrace playing for his hometown team, and wanted nothing more than to win a Super Bowl with the Browns.

Now, he has a chance to win one this season with his old friends Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, his fellow Cleveland-native.

How much do he and Kelce talk about Cleveland?

“All the time. We will always both go back there (to Cleveland). It’s always going to be home for us, but we’re just excited to go out there and get to play out there.”

In the Chiefs’ 37-21 victory in Cleveland on Nov. 4, 2018, both hometown boys scored two TDs, which he counts as his best memory with Kelce.

“Probably going back there (to Cleveland) I think (in) 2018 when we went to Cleveland and played them last time there,” he said. “I think he (Travis Kelce) had two touchdowns (and) I had (two) and (91) yards so that’s probably a good memory for both of us.”

Pacheco is back now from his injury, but Hunt will still get playing time in Cleveland.

“It’s been going good, man. I love the energy (that) he (Isiah Pacheco) brings; he’s doing heck of a job and it’s doing a great job of keeping us both fresh.”

Chubb, Hunt’s close friend, knows how much all of this means to him.

“Oh, excited for him, for sure,” Chubb said Wednesday. “Obviously he got drafted there, it means a lot to him. He was on pace to having crazy numbers when he first got there, his first year and second year, and obviously he ended up here for whatever reason, but I had a chance to get to meet him, play with him, which I’m blessed, he’s more than a teammate, he’s a brother to me. So to see him get to go back, he always expressed how much Kansas City meant to him, so to see him go back there and have success, I know that’s what he’s always dreamed of. So I’m proud of him, happy for him. Happy to see him on Sunday.”

Chubb wasn’t sure why the Browns didn’t re-sign Hunt. Instead, they signed D’Onta Foreman to be their short-yardage back, but he’s been a healthy scratch the past five games.

“That’s above my pay grade, but I love Kareem, I love the running backs we have here,” he said.

He acknowledged it was hard for Hunt not to get re-signed here.

“Oh, I’m sure it was,” he said. “Kareem’s from Cleveland. He loves the Cleveland Browns. He’s a Brown. So yeah, I’m sure it was hard for him, but he’s back where he started.”

Safety Grant Delpit is eager to face his former teammate and friend. When asked about how hard he runs, Delpit said, “and I hit pretty hard and I’ve been telling him I’m going to catch him. I told him that when he (signed there), so been looking forward to it. His dreads just swing hard. It looks like he’s running hard, he’s not really running hard. He’s just swinging his dreads (joking). No, Kareem’s a great player. I’m happy to see his success he’s having, and hopefully we get to meet a couple of times.”

Joel Bitonio and David Njoku still idle, Myles Garrett returns

Bitono (back) and Njoku (hamstring) were still idle on Thursday, but Bitonio sounded like he’ll give it a go. Njoku, on the other hand, will likely sit.

“We’ll see how it goes (Friday),” Bitonio said. “I don’t want to look too far in the future. Backs are weird like that where you wake up one morning and it’s like, ‘Oh shoot, I can’t move.’ And then as you work through the day, it starts going a lot better. So tomorrow we’ll see how it goes and see if we can move around a little bit at practice and kind of go from there.”

Garrett also returned Thursday from the personal reason that kept him out on Wednesday. But the Chiefs were without starting left tackle D.J. Humphries (hamstring) for the second straight day.