The Chiefs are all-in with the running backs on hand

With starting running back Isiah Pacheco now on the Kansas City Chiefs ' Reserve/Injured (IR) list — and backup Clyde Edwards-Helaire still on the Reserve/NFI (non-football injury) roster — the team is in a peculiar situation: among its available running backs, the player with the most time on Kansas City's roster is practice squad running back Kareem Hunt, who was just signed off the street.

Hunt hasn't played for the Chiefs in almost half a decade.

Running backs coach Todd Pinkston thinks the first order of business will be getting Hunt reacclimated to the team and the playbook.

"We've just got to get him up to speed on what things that we do — and a lot of stuff that he's doing now is coming back to him," Pinkston told reporters on Thursday. "So once we get him up to speed, we'll go from there."

Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy agreed.

"There's a lot that goes to it," he said on Thursday. "But for his situation, [it's] just kind of re-learning the offense and getting back into the sync of the physical parts with the reps."

Still, the coaches have liked what they've seen so far.

"For the most part, he's been impressive," revealed Nagy. "And I think for us, that's a good thing — because to me, I had him in 2017 when he was... you know, the person, the player, all that. You see it there, but you also understand the process and what he's getting into. So yesterday was Day 1. We'll see where Day 2 takes us."

But for the moment, Kansas City's primary backfield option would appear to be undrafted rookie Carson Steele, who has had nine carries for 27 yards. That 3.0 yards per carry may not seem very exciting — but Steele's success rate of 55.6% is right on par with Pacheco's 55.9% figure for this season. His biggest problem so far has been the fumble he gave up in Sunday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals .

"The things that he's doing? He's very impressive," said Pinkston. "He just knows we've got to protect the ball and move on from it. He can't get down on himself about it. It's a learning curve for him — hopefully not to make the mistakes anymore."

Nagy thinks the rookie will be able to step up.

"I would say there's a lot of confidence with him," noted the coordinator. "The best way to put it is he's probably as ready as he could possibly be — for being a young rookie player in this position for this team."

Another option is eighth-year veteran Samaje Perine, who was signed to the team at the final roster cutdown three weeks ago. It's expected that he will primarily be used as a third-down back. Through two games, he's been in for 14% of the offensive snaps — almost exclusively on third and fourth down.

Pinkston calls Perine a "smart vet" who has "been around the game for a long time."

"He'll be ready to go," he predicted.

Pinkston also noted that Perine is an excellent receiver out of the backfield. On three targets so far, he has two catches for 13 yards — one of them a first down.

"Every running back [we have] right now, they can catch the ball well out of the backfield," said the coach. "So that's a good, positive thing... it helps a lot."

Yes... it's not an ideal situation. But it's the reality Kansas City faces — and the team has little choice but to go all-in on the talent they have — including Keaontay Ingram, who was activated from the practice squad this week.

As Nagy explained, it's not as if these players are complete strangers to the team.

"Football-wise — the X's and O's part — I think the guys that we have in here now have really been able to get a chance to be in this offense [and] get some valuable reps — whether it be at training camp or preseason," he said.

Just the same, Nagy admitted that the team must be smart about bringing them along.

"The biggest thing is just making sure that we put them in optimum situations," he cautioned, "and probably don't try to do too much one way or the other with any of them."

For his part, offensive line coach Andy Heck said that he doesn't anticipate too many things changing when someone else is toting the rock.

"One of the things that we try to do," he observed, "[is that] we do a lot of different kinds of run schemes — [like] inside zone [and] mid-zone gap schemes. So we usually carry a mixture of all those things — and we ask our backs to learn them all."

In Heck's mind, this allows the offense to be agile. It can adjust to whatever the opposing defense will allow — regardless of the offensive game plan.

"I say, 'Hey, whatever it is they've got going today,'" he said. "[It's like], 'Hey, I thought gap schemes were going to be good — but really, what we need to be doing is stretching the ball.' Or vice versa."

So far, Heck says things have been working as expected.

"I was pleased with our efficiency in terms of helping us move the chains on first and second down," he noted of Sunday's game.

Now the team just has to figure out how to do that without Pacheco on the field.