Jerick McKinnon played an underrated role for the Chiefs over the last two seasons as their primary pass-catcher out of the backfield. He’s no longer on the roster, and that’s going to make a big difference for Pacheco in 2024. In games without McKinnon last year, Pacheco averaged 21.1 PPR fantasy points/game. That would’ve been good for the overall RB3 on the year.
And it wasn’t just a handful of fluke performances or heavy TD dependence; his utilization without McKinnon was also fantastic. Pacheco was used a workhorse, averaging 21.6 opportunities/game for 97.7 total yards/game along with 1.2 TDs/game.
As a reminder, here’s what the depth chart looks like behind Pacheco right now:
RB2: Clyde Edwards-Helaire
RB3: Deneric Prince
RB4: Keaontay Ingram
Do any of those names scare you? It’s safe to say Pacheco is the guy. He was already pretty efficient, too; among 23 RBs with 200+ carries in 2023, he ranked 7th in yards over expectation/att and 9th in yards after contact/att.
And among those same RBs, he ranked 6th in targets/route run. If McKinnon is gone, we should expect more routes - and more targets. Especially in the red zone, where among all RBs, Pacheco ranked Top-10 in both red zone rushing attempts and red zone targets. McKinnon himself had 7 red zone targets to Pacheco’s 8. That’s a clear opportunity add for Pacheco to assume.
On an offense that is set to improve in 2024, Pacheco is a smash pick at his RB11 price tag.