Is Isiah Pacheco The Starting Running Back For The Chiefs When He Returns?

Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco (fibula) fractured his leg in Week 2 of this season. He was put on injured reserve and underwent successful surgery to repair the issue, and has since been in rehab. It's a tough loss for the Chiefs, fantasy managers, and the RB himself.

He was coming off a fantastic season that had him finish as the RB15 overall in full-PPR scoring despite playing just 15 games and not having a huge snap share for most of the season. He played 80% of the snaps in his one fully healthy game this year, which was more than all of last year save for Week 17.

So will he be the starting running back when he returns for the Chiefs?

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Will Isiah Pacheco Start For The Chiefs When He Returns?

Yes, without a doubt. It's always important to try to do what you can to dig deeper into the context behind players and not rely on just fantasy points alone. Remember former Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette? He was the RB12 in PPR in 2022, scoring 227.1 PPR fantasy points. The next season he had four total points. 

Roles matter, and sometimes players who wouldn't ordinarily even be starting (or on a roster) are put into great roles for fantasy purposes. Kansas City has an excellent run-blocking offensive line, and his backup, Kareem Hunt is profiting hugely from it. It's not his job when Pacheco comes back.

🚨JUST IN: #Chiefs star running back Isiah Pacheco is back running on the treadmill a couple weeks after suffering a broken fibula.

👀👀👀

COMEBACK TIME ⏰⏰⏰
pic.twitter.com/S2qbI4fi9l

— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) October 21, 2024

He'll be out a least a few more weeks. There's no definite timeline yet, but roughly 6-8 weeks after surgery has been reported.

#Chiefs RB Isiah Pacheco underwent successful surgery today from Dr. Robert Anderson, the noted foot and ankle expert in Charlotte, sources say. No complications, no ligament issues. His timeline to return remains at least 6 weeks up to 8 weeks. https://t.co/mZCci46Cb8

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 18, 2024

This would put him in line to be back around Week 10, though there haven't been any reports of anything imminent. Fantasy managers should be prepared to wait longer.

Isiah Pacheco Fantasy Football Outlook

When healthy, he's must-start RB with an easy RB1 ceiling and RB2 floor when healthy, and should not be left out of lineups. He should slowly ramp up his role upon his return, so he may not have a peak workload right away, but once he's fully healthy and worked back into the offense, he'll be a stud like he was last year.

ISIAH PACHECO É MUITO BOM! Touchdown de 48 jardas! 🔥#NFLnaESPN pic.twitter.com/Gnh94Ow4FJ

— Endzone Brasil (@Endzone_Brasil) October 2, 2023

Hunt is simply not making many of the crazy plays that No. 10 has made. Pacheco is faster, better at breaking tackles, more elusive, and better as a pass-catcher, and he will likely return to his workhorse role at some point, relegating Hunt to a backup role with minimal touches.

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