{"id":56481,"date":"2025-05-20T22:33:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T22:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=56481"},"modified":"2025-05-20T22:33:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T22:33:56","slug":"chiefs-veteran-called-cut-candidate-after-logging-8-starts-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=56481","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs Veteran Called Cut Candidate After Logging 8 Starts in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2166472169-1-e1747757393158.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2166472169-1-e1747757393158.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2166472169-1-e1747757393158.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2166472169-1-e1747757393158.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Chiefs Veteran Called Cut Candidate After Logging 8 Starts in 2024\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p>Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs will have difficult cut decisions to make in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt put together a throwback season in 2024, starting 8 games with Isiah Pacheco sidelined.<\/p>\n<p>At age 29, Hunt wasn\u2019t all that efficient at just 3.6 yards per carry, but the Chiefs\u2019 heavy workload approach got the job done more often than not. And Hunt finished with 728 rushing yards over 13 appearances, his highest single-season total since 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Although the veteran has his shortcomings heading into his 30s, his 2024 performance was enough for Kansas City to re-sign him this spring. But will the Chiefs choose to keep Hunt on the 53-man roster in favor of younger RBs after training camp?<\/p>\n<p>On May 16, Bleacher Report\u2019s Kristopher Knox argued that they may not, identifying Hunt as the Chiefs\u2019 \u201cbest player\u201d who could be cut.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter he led the team in rushing last season, the Kansas City Chiefs opted to bring back Kareem Hunt on a one-year, $1.5 million deal,\u201d Knox wrote. \u201cHowever, Kansas City also signed Elijah Mitchell before drafting former SMU running back Brashard Smith \u2014 who has intrigued the front office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAssuming Isiah Pacheco is back to pre-injury form, Hunt could be the odd man out,\u201d the NFL analyst went on. \u201cReleasing him would save Kansas City $632,353 in cap space.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Development of Younger Chiefs RBs Could Lead to Kareem Hunt Cut<\/h2>\n<p>Hunt sort of is what he is at this point in his career. He\u2019s a tough runner who can get the gritty yards, and he knows this KC system.<\/p>\n<p>Having said that, he\u2019s up there in RB age, and whether or not he makes the Week 1 roster could depend on the development of the youth behind him.<\/p>\n<p>Knox mentioned Smith and Mitchell, who could certainly fill out a three-man running back room alongside Pacheco. But another key player in this discussion is FB\/RB hybrid Carson Steele.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to forget that the Chiefs\u2019 coaching staff fell in love with Steele last summer.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, Steele wasn\u2019t ready for RB1 duties when Pacheco went down, which led to the Hunt reunion. After another year of development, however, it\u2019s very possible Kansas City sees more value in keeping a 22-year-old Steele rather than a 30-year-old Hunt.<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell is another question mark to watch this summer. The former San Francisco 49ers breakout rookie missed the entire 2024 season with injury, and he hasn\u2019t really done all that much since his inaugural campaign in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell just turned 27 years old on May 2, and he could be competing with Hunt and Steele for that final one or two RB roster spots.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Kareem Hunt Has Become a Locker Room Favorite Inside the Chiefs Organization<\/h2>\n<p>One thing Hunt has going for him over Mitchell or Steele is the support of his teammates.<\/p>\n<p>Superstar tight end Travis Kelce supposedly pushed for the Chiefs to re-sign Hunt this offseason, and Patrick Mahomes shared that Hunt was at his wedding after his initial release from the organization.<\/p>\n<p>Locker room support and leadership are no small things in a brotherly sport like football.<\/p>\n<p>If it\u2019s a close call between Hunt and Mitchell, for example, it wouldn\u2019t be shocking if head coach Andy Reid chose Hunt purely based on familiarity. Not just with teammates, but with the coaching staff and the playbook as well.<\/p>\n<p>Hunt has made it clear that one of his top remaining goals is to win a Super Bowl before his NFL career is over. He\u2019d like to do that with the Chiefs, but that opportunity could be robbed from him if he\u2019s cut.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Obermuller covers the NFL for Heavy.com, where he began writing in 2021. His areas of focus specialize on the Kansas City Chiefs, New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers, with expert knowledge on each based on years of coverage. An NYC area native and Quinnipiac graduate, his previous bylines include Heavy on Jets, FanDuel&#8217;s The Duel, King Fantasy Sports and Pro Football Mania. More about Michael Obermuller<\/p>\n<h2>More Heavy on Chiefs News<\/h2>\n<p>Loading more stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A veteran staff favorite of the Kansas City Chiefs was identified as a more under-the-radar cut candidate ahead of the 2025 NFL season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":56482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chiefs Veteran Called Cut Candidate After Logging 8 Starts in 2024 - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=56481\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chiefs Veteran Called Cut Candidate After Logging 8 Starts in 2024 - 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