Some NFL players have to wait to find their ultimate roles. For those types of players, “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish” becomes the guiding philosophy. It has certainly been the case this season for Kansas City Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon. Selected in the third round of the 2014 draft by the Minnesota Vikings out of Georgia Southern, McKinnon had bit roles in Minnesota’s offense over four seasons.
In 2018, McKinnon signed a four-year, $30 million contract with the San Francisco 49ers, but he suffered a torn ACL in a team workout on September 1, and missed the entire season. Setbacks in his recovery also cost McKinnon the 2019 season, and he was a forgotten man for a while. He did come back for the 2020 season, thriving in Kyle Shanahan’s offense to a degree with 319 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 81 carries, adding 253 receiving yards and a touchdown on 33 carries.
McKinnon moved to the Kansas City Chiefs on a one-year deal in 2021, playing through injuries and putting up some big numbers in the playoffs. He had 142 yards from scrimmage in the wild-card round against the Pittsburgh Steelers, after which Patrick Mahomes called him a “playmaker.”
“Obviously he’s dealt with injury in his career, and he dealt with a little bit of injury this season, but he’s kept his mindset right, he’s kept working hard,” McKinnon’s quarterback said. “And I knew with some other guys kind of being down and dinged up that he would step in and fill in nicely.”
But it wasn’t until the 2022 season that McKinnon was able to show his full palette of skills in an ideal offense. With Tyreek Hill gone to the Miami Dolphins in a blockbuster offseason trade, the Chiefs have done a lot of things differently on their way to a 14-3 record and the AFC’s one-seed. This season, per Sports Info Solutions, Mahomes has more dropbacks with two tight ends (199) and three tight ends (57) than any other quarterback, which is quite different than in previous seasons.
But in recent weeks, the real X-Factor in Kansas City’s offense has been the addition of McKinnon as a primary red-zone receiver. When he caught this two-yard shovel pass touchdown from Mahomes with 12:52 left in the first quarter of Kansas City’s Saturday win over the Las Vegas Raiders…
Six straight games with a receiving TD for Jerick McKinnon 🔥pic.twitter.com/nYtSvltD0t
— PFF Fantasy Football (@PFF_Fantasy) January 7, 2023
…McKinnon extended a historic streak in which he has caught at least one touchdown pass in six straight games — no running back since at least 1970 had ever done that before, and his nine touchdown receptions this season is tied for the most since 1970, along with Marshall Faulk (2001), Chuck Foreman (1975), and Leroy Hoard (1991). Only Washington’s Charley Taylor, who had 12 touchdown catches in 1966, had more among running backs in pro football history, and like McKinnon, Taylor split his time between runner and receiver.
So, how has McKinnon become such a crucial part of an offense in which he was mostly an innocent bystander until recently? And does McKinnon ever reflect on how far he’s come?
“All the time,” he said last Sunday, after he caught five passes for 52 yards in Kansas City’s 27-24 win over the Denver Broncos. “In San Francisco I had the two knee surgeries; I missed two years in a row. That was definitely tough for me, just being in that situation. The unexpected and not knowing and then getting a call from the Kansas City Chiefs, me and EB [offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy] had a good relationship that carried on throughout the years. [Head] coach [Andy] Reid, I watched him from afar over the years as well ever since I was little. Just being able to be in an offense and a scheme like this was intriguing when I first came here. So, I was definitely thankful for the opportunity. Just the preparation and everything is paying off.”
It certainly is paying off, and now, McKinnon is set to perhaps go on another fairly epic postseason run. Here’s how the Chiefs have made him a crucial part of the plan.