The Kansas City Chiefs came up short in their attempt to make history as the first team to three-peat as Super Bowl champions. Yet, the Chiefs’ 2024 roster is already significantly different than the one that will be taking the field when the 2025 regular season kicks off.
Though, with rosters currently at 90 players, a lot more changes are coming before the Chiefs finalize their 53-man roster. One of them could potentially involve parting ways with one of the team’s major stat leaders from last year’s Super Bowl runner-ups.
Recently, Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox came up with “the best player who could still be cut” from each individual NFL team. When it came to the Chiefs, Knox named running back Kareem Hunt, who led the team with 728 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns last season.
“After 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. However, Kansas City also signed Elijah Mitchell before drafting former SMU running back Brashard Smith—who has intrigued the front office. Assuming Isiah Pacheco is back to pre-injury form, Hunt could be the odd man out. Releasing him would save Kansas City $632,353 in cap space.”
BR’s Kristopher Knox on Kareem Hunt as a potential Kansas City Chiefs cap casualty
It’s clear that Hunt isn’t in the Chiefs’ long-term plans, which is why they made sure to bring in some legitimate competition such as Elijah Mitchell who burst out onto the scene with a 963-yard season as a rookie in 2021.
However, it only made sense to bring him back after emerging as the most consistent rushing threat in Kansas City while Isiah Pacheco worked to recover from a fractured fibula suffered in Week 2. With Pacheco expected to return to full health, Hunt’s workload will shrink significantly in 2025, barring injury of course.
Yet, even more injuries to Pacheco may not place Hunt back in the spotlight after signing Mitchell and bringing in rookie seventh-round pick Brashard Smith too.
