Kansas City Chiefs rookie RB Isiah Pacheco has been one of the more intriguing storylines of the team’s offseason.
The seventh-round draft pick out of Rutgers has earned an increasing number of repetitions with the first-team offense as training camp has continued. Those repetitions carried into preseason Week 1 against the Chicago Bears, where he was able to showcase his talents.
Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy sees the running back room through a different lens because of his experience as a player and position coach. When asked about what he’s seen from the rookie Pacheco, Bieniemy wasn’t afraid to point out both his strengths and flaws.
“He’s a very confident young man,” Bieniemy said. “Now you’re talking about a kid that plays hard. (Isiah) Pacheco plays hard. The thing I need Pacheco to do — and first of all, he’s doing a great job. He has a tremendous work ethic. As a young back, this is probably one of the toughest things that they need to learn, is allowing the game to come to him, learning how to be a patient runner. (He needs to) understand exactly what’s going on up front so now he can have a better feel on how to spread his shoulders up, press it and then read it out from there. But as far as work ethic, (he) works hard.”
Confidence and toughness are key when it comes to running the ball, but knowing the scheme and how to follow the blocks will take Pacheco a long way in this league. Bieniemy also says that the work Pacheco does in the passing game is a strength, but there is one area he can still fine-tune.
“As far as a tough runner who will try and find four and a half yards? Checks that box,” Bieniemy said. “On top of that, he does a great job in the pass game where he’s catching it and he’s still learning to perfect his craft in pass pro. And it ain’t so much with his attitude and blocking, it’s just making sure he knows exactly who to pick up and that takes a little while for a young guy.”
If the only flaws that Bieniemy can find in Pacheco’s game are understanding the blocking scheme and knowing who to pick up in pass protection, that’s a pretty good sign. The rookie has only had 3.5 months to learn all of the schematic minutiae and the playbook. Some of that simply comes with time as players get more and more experience doing it. And if Pacheco’s work ethic is good as Bieniemy says it is, he should improve in those areas in no time.
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