Kansas City Chiefs star running back Isiah Pacheco posted a video of himself briskly walking on a treadmill on Monday.
Pacheco’s speedy recovery progress is all the more impressive given he fractured his fibula just over a month ago.
Pacheco sustained a serious injury in the Week 2 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Head coach Andy Reid gave a rather grim timeline on Pacheco’s return in mid-September.
“I can’t give you a time when he’ll return,” Reid said days after Pacheco’s surgery. “We’ll just see if it’s this season or next season.”
However, Pacheco’s video indicates the running back is making significant progress for a late cameo in 2024. Since the Chiefs drafted Pacheco in 2022, the seventh-rounder emerged as a star for Kansas City.
In Pacheco’s absence, running back Kareem Hunt has mostly carried the responsibilities of gaining yards on the ground.
Hunt’s production for the Chiefs signifies the dynasty now has a dangerous duo in the Kansas City backfield.
Pacheco was slated to miss as many as eight weeks, but once he returns, the Chiefs could look even scarier than they already do.
Kansas City is the only remaining undefeated team in the league. The Minnesota Vikings were 5-0 until the Detroit Lions broke their wins streak.
Both the Vikings and Lions sit at 5-1. The Chiefs have a strong chance of continuing their win streak against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 8.
The Raiders have struggled to start the season, especially at quarterback. Las Vegas also just lost its best receiver, Davante Adams, who they traded to the New York Jets.
The Chiefs have managed to stay unscathed without the talent of Pacheco, Rashee Rice, and Marquise “Hollywood” Brown.
Kansas City will also have to compete without JuJu Smith-Schuster who sustained an injury in Sunday’s matchup against the San Francisco 49ers.
“I think it’s just showing the versatility of our team. It’s not just about me, it’s not just about the stats and the light show and stuff like that. It’s about playing team football,” Mahomes said. “I believe that if we continue to work, we’ll get better offensively [in terms of] throwing the ball down the field. Until then, it’s nice to know that we have a great running game, we have a great defense and we’re able to execute whenever the time comes to win football games.”