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Adam Teicher, ESPN Staff WriterOct 12, 2024, 06:00 AM ET
- Covered Chiefs for 20 seasons for Kansas City Star
- Joined ESPN in 2013
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — While the Kansas City Chiefs were going through training camp this summer, Kareem Hunt went through a workout routine on his own hundreds of miles away.
Hunt met his former track coach, Matt Luck, four times a week at Willoughby South High School outside of Cleveland. They would set up cones representing defenders at various spots on the football field and run plays, Luck as the quarterback and handing off or throwing to Hunt, the running back.
He would make reads on the cones, as he would with defenders in a real game, and then cuts based on their positions, with an NFL limit of 40 seconds in between plays.
Hunt’s goal was not merely to get a job with an NFL team like the Chiefs, but to be ready to have an immediate impact once he did.
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“He did things that he would do in a game so that when he did get into camp and he makes that movement, his body is used to it,” Luck said.
Based on Hunt’s first two games with the Chiefs, who signed him after losing starting running back Isiah Pacheco to a broken leg, those workouts were a success. Hunt was the Chiefs’ leading rusher with 69 yards in their Week 4 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, then had his first 100-yard game since 2020 and scored a touchdown in Monday night’s victory over the New Orleans Saints.
It was more than the Chiefs could’ve expected from Hunt, who hadn’t played in a game or practiced with teammates in eight months before arriving in Kansas City. Hunt acknowledged it was more than he expected from himself.
“I guess it’s always a part of you, [after] not playing for a while and then coming back and playing, [wondering] ‘Just how are you going to play?'” Hunt said. “So I just went out there and I continued to just be myself. I know what I’m good at doing and some of my weaknesses.”
Hunt started his NFL career in Kansas City, drafted by the Chiefs with the 86th pick in the third round of the 2017 draft. He led the NFL in rushing as a rookie in 2017 and was having another big season in 2018 but was released in November of that year after a video surfaced showing Hunt shoving and kicking a woman outside of his Cleveland residence. No charges were filed against Hunt, but he was placed on the commissioner exempt list and suspended by the NFL for the first eight games of the 2019 season.
In 2019, his hometown Cleveland Browns signed him and he played five seasons with them. He became a free agent after the 2023 season, so the Chiefs were more hopeful than certain about how Hunt would fit in when they signed him to the practice squad in September.
Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt had his first 100-yard game since 2020 and scored a touchdown in Monday night’s victory over the Saints. Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images
Hunt has not only been effective as a runner but has caught three passes and done a solid job in pass protection.
“To come into an offense — I know it’s an offense he’d been in, but an offense he hadn’t played in years — and to be able to run the football hard, get well-earned yards and catch the ball out of the backfield, it was good to see,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said.
“He’s always been a guy that runs tough. He’s hard to tackle and you can see that. He’s going to make sure he finishes every single run and falls forward. He’ll get more and more comfortable as the year goes on and have a role in our offense.”
Although his goal while working out this summer was to get a job with any NFL team, Luck said Hunt had a particular favorite in mind. But the Chiefs, at the time, appeared set with Pacheco, Clyde Edwards-Helaire and rookie Carson Steele.
They even added another veteran, Samaje Perine, at the conclusion of training camp. But Pacheco’s injury left a void the Chiefs believed they couldn’t fill with the players on the roster alone.
“That was a door that he always kept open if the situation was right,” Luck said. “He recognized why they let him go and he was upset about it, but he realized that was all on him.
“It was always a fond place for him. Over the summer we even talked about, ‘Hey, if this happened, would you go back?’ And he said, ‘Yes.'”
“Words can’t describe how happy I was,” when the Chiefs called, Hunt said. His joy came through after he scored the touchdown against the Saints on a 5-yard run.
He formed a heart with his hands, showing it to the fans.
“That was a great feeling to get back in the end zone,” Hunt said. “I missed it very much. That’s why I threw up a heart, to show my love to Kansas City.”
