Oakland Raiders: Stacking up the running backs against the AFC West

Kansas City Chiefs

Key Contributors: Kareem Hunt, Charcandrick West, Spencer Ware

Behind Hunt’s 1,327 yards and eight rushing touchdowns, Kansas City fielded the league’s ninth-best rushing attack. Given that, and given how potent their running game was in 2017, it’s hard to see them as anything but the class of the AFC West at the moment.

The Chiefs had a pretty healthy average of 4.7 yards per carry and notched 12 rushing scores on the year. The impact and effectiveness of their rushing game allowed Alex Smith to have a career year, as he threw for more than 4,000 yards and 26 touchdowns against just five interceptions.

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Smith’s average of 269 passing yards per game and his QB rating of 104.7 were the best of a career now entering its fourteenth year, and his interception rate of 1.0 was the lowest. Smith had an incredible year throwing the football, but it was most definitely helped by the emergence of a strong rushing attack.

The Chiefs run game though, is more than just Hunt. They’re deep at the position with talented and explosive backs like West and Ware.

Ware was coming off a 2016 year in which he rushed for more than 900 yards and was projected to be the starter. A preseason injury gave Hunt the chance to get into the starting lineup – a spot he never gave back.

But, West, presumably healthy and ready to roll, gives the Chiefs more weapons in the backfield to work with.

Given his production last season, you’d figure Hunt to be the team’s workhorse back again this year. But, Ware and West will likely still get touches, perhaps taking some of the burden off Hunt, and give the Chiefs a deep and explosive running backs group.

Assuming they all remain healthy, the Chiefs, with that three-headed beast in the backfield, should once again boast the best rushing attack in the AFC West.

And opposing defenses should be ready for them, given the fact that Andy Reid will be leaning a little more on that run game, to alleviate some of the pressure on first year starter Patrick Mahomes.