Former Rutgers star Isiah Pacheco has gone from seventh round pick to a true indispensable player for the Kansas City Chiefs this season. On Sunday, Pacheco led the Chiefs with 130 all-purpose yards and was second on the team with 85 yards from scrimmage. After winning the AFC Championship over the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20, Pacheco will play in Super Bowl LVII in what has been a standout rookie campaign.
Neither team was able to run the ball much in the AFC title game, but Pacheco led the Chiefs with 26 yards rushing on 10 carries. However, he also had five catches for 59 yards on six targets. Pacheco was third on the team in receiving yards. In addition, he returned two kicks for 45 yards.
As he has made his bones all season, made a play out of nothing with his sheer will late in the game. Pacheco rattled off a 16 yard reception after a short pass that turned into big yards after the catch late in the fourth quarter. His ability to be the aggressor with the ball in his hands and to embrace contact has been a defining playing style for Pacheco in his rookie season.
In the divisional round against the Jacksonville Jaguars last weekend, Pacheco ran for 39 yards on a 2nd and 10 down to the Jaguars 4 yard line. The Chiefs went on to score a touchdown soon after and extend Patrick Mahomes was temporarily out of the game due to an injury. Pacheco finished the game with 95 yards on 12 carries for 7.9 yards per rush. He added one catch on one target for 6 yards to total 101 all-purpose yards in his NFL playoff debut.
In his rookie season, Pacheco ran for 830 yards on 170 carries and 5 touchdowns. That’s an average of 4.9 yards per carry. He added 13 catches for 130 receiving yards, averaging 10.0 yards per reception. In addition, he had 29 kickoff returns for a total of 597 yards and 20.6 yards per return average. Pacheco finished the regular season with 1,557 all-purpose yards in 17 games. After being selected in the seventh round of the NFL Draft, Pacheco continues to prove the Chiefs right and all the teams that passed on him dead wrong.
Super Bowl LVII will be played on Sunday, February 12 in Glendale, Arizona. After coming close to not even being drafted last April, Pacheco will star on the sports biggest stage in two weeks.
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thevinman
January 31, 2023 at 3:59 am
Pacheco played a big role in the KC victory. He is tough but needs to learn to go out of bounds sometimes. At the end of that last pass he caught in the youtube video above he took a big hit right next the to the out of bounds line.