One area the Kansas City Chiefs are almost guaranteed to address this offseason is running back. The production simply wasn’t good enough. Kansas City averaged just 4.2 yards per carry, and only one running back rush all season went for 20 yards or more. That’s not a small issue. That’s a lack of explosiveness in an offense that’s supposed to stress defenses horizontally and vertically. Right now, the Chiefs’ run game does neither consistently.
A needed shot of juice in the backfield
If Kansas City is looking for juice on Day Two, Notre Dame’s Jadarian Price makes a lot of sense.
Price is RB2 on my board, and that grade is driven by one thing: explosiveness. He averaged six yards per carry in 2025 and turned limited volume into real production. On 113 carries, 24 went for 10 yards or more and 11 went for 15-plus, despite splitting touches with Doak Walker winner Jeremiyah Love. Price doesn’t dance. He hits the hole, gets vertical, and has the speed to turn small creases into chunk plays. That’s exactly what the Chiefs’ backfield has been missing.
Jadarian Price WOULD NOT GO DOWN on the way to the end zone. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/vvrKQmfrXd
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) October 4, 2025
He’s listed at 5-foot-11, 210 pounds, and plays to it. Price shows good contact balance, forced 30 missed tackles, and averaged nearly four yards after contact. He’s not a grinder, but he’s not soft either. There’s real functional strength in his game, and his ability to cut without losing speed makes him tough to square up at the second level.
Where Price really moves the needle for Kansas City is on special teams. Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub flat-out admitted to The Athletic that the unit ranked in the 20s in his internal return metrics. “That’s just not good enough,” he said. He’s right. Price led the FBS with a 37.5-yard kickoff return average and became the first player in Notre Dame history to house multiple 100-yard kick returns in a single season. That’s immediate value on a roster where margins matter.
Now for the concerns, because they’re real.
Price has never been used much in the passing game. He caught six of seven targets this season with zero drops, but the volume isn’t there, and it raises questions. More troubling is pass protection. Price posted a brutal 25.3 PFF pass-blocking grade. His technique and anchor are inconsistent, and that will get exposed quickly at the next level if it doesn’t improve. You don’t stay on the field in Kansas City if you can’t protect Mahomes.
If the Chiefs take Jadarian Price in Round 2, they’re betting on explosiveness and upside. He upgrades the run game, fixes a special teams problem, and brings an element Kansas City simply didn’t have. Clean up the pass protection, and the price is right.