49ers’ Elijah Mitchell Gives Chiefs Much Needed Depth At RB
The newest and potentially most promising addition in the Kansas City Chiefs’ offseason moves, former 49ers RB Elijah Mitchell thinks he can bring a lot to the table for his first season in KC.
The 26 year old, originally a 6th round choice out of Louisiana in the 2021 draft by the Niners, didn’t play the entire 2024 season on a Niners team that ended up getting hammered by persistent injuries to key offensive players, but he was 3rd on the team’s depth chart anyway. Now, he gets some real playing time in a new home, which could be the first full season for a guy who only started 1 game and played in 5 in 2023. But again, that’s what happens when Christian McCaffery has your job.
Yes, it may sound risky for Kansas City to take a deal like this on paper. But it might just be what they need as their other two RBs in Kareem Hunt and Isaiah Pacheco actually have disadvantages compared to Mitchell. Pacheco, as most fans know, missed at least 5 games in the 2024 season, which undoubtedly hampered the Chiefs in the long run. And as for Kareem Hunt, unless an extension is on the horizon, he could be on the way out much like another veteran RB in Samaje Perine, who Mitchell is essentially replacing on the running backs roster.
Kansas City’s run game in 2024 was absolutely horrid- they were last in runs of 10 yards or more from their running backs with 17, the second-lowest number for any NFL team in the past 25 years. Kansas City was also ranked 26th in rush yards per game, picking up just 101 yards on the ground in most of their games. Considering they were ranked 17th in 2023, that’s a significant drop. As for their overall offensive rankings, the Chiefs were 15th in the passing game as Patrick Mahomes had another mediocre season alongside TE Travis Kelce.
It’s worth mentioning that Mitchell is a different type of back from either of the Chiefs’ other top two, Hunt and Pacheco. Mitchell is faster, having run the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds and is also lighter than the likes of Perine with that specific 40 time. As a rookie, Mitchell rushed for 963 yards and five touchdowns when he was a rookie. In 2022 and 2023, he rushed for considerably less (279 and 281 yards for 2 touchdowns each) and he of course, sat out the entire 2024 season with a nagging hamstring injury.
Even if Mitchell had played in 2024, it would’ve been 3rd or even 4th on the depth chart behind McCaffery, Patrick Taylor, and Isaac Guerendo, a rookie in 2024 that filled in nicely for when Taylor and McCaffery both got felled by injuries of their own. So clearly, he’d only manage like 1 or 2 games and it wouldn’t be a start either way because he’d be the team’s emergency RB given all the aforementioned injuries.
Now, more on Kareem Hunt- he did lead the Chiefs in rushing last season with 728 yards despite not joining the Chiefs until the fourth game. But in his first season since returning to Kansas City, he averaged just 3.6 yards per carry, the second-lowest total of his career. It is worth noting that Hunt also didn’t participate in training camp last season, which may be a decent reason why he struggled this season. As for Mitchell, he begins his first season in KC under a 1 year, $2.5 million contract.
On the other side of the ball, Kansas City has also reacquired safety Mike Edwards from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who he started his career with from 2019-2022. Edwards is a two time Super Bowl champion with the Chiefs, despite just the single season with KC and has totaled 51 total tackles with 32 solo tackles and 19 asissted tackles with the Chiefs in 17 games, with 5 of those being the starting safety on their depth chart.
