Scout’s Eye: Kareem Hunt, Todd Gurley show special talents
With two weeks remaining in the NFL, former NFL scout Matt Williamson tells us what we need to keep our eyes on moving forward.
The playoff races are really heating up in the NFL. On Saturday night in Kansas City, the AFC West situation became much clearer, which is exactly what happened in the NFC West as well in very convincing fashion.
Meanwhile, the Titans lost in SanFrancisco, but still control their playoff destiny. There was a lot more to take away from this weekend’s action, but it was several highly talented running backs that stood out.
Kareem Hunt has certainly had an interesting rookie season. After SpencerWare went down, Hunt was thrust into the starting job for Kansas City and wow did he respond well. Hunt took the NFL by storm to start the season, but the fact was that what he was doing was unsustainable. He was clearly playing great, but Hunt was ripping off very long runs and receptions at a rate that his skill set implied wouldn’t continue. And the big plays did dry up, as did his production for the most part overall.
Hunt was getting touches, but not production. But if you watched the tape during Hunt’s dry spell, you still saw a very impressive runner. He was making an awful lot on his own with very poor blocking, especially from the interior of Kansas City’s offensive line. Hunt was still very impressive to the trained eye, but there was nowhere to go and NFL defenses were also catching up with all the motion, misdirection and window dressing of Kansas City’s offense. Alex Smith’s play also returned towards its norm. But over these past two weeks, Hunt’s tape is matching his stat lines.
We are seeing the player Hunt truly is. After his 155 rushing yards (much of it after contact) as well as 51 as a receiver, Hunt is averaging over 5.8 yards per touch over the past two games and is carrying the load for Kansas City’s offense. He was also Kansas City’s most targeted receiver in this huge win over the Chargers. Hunt (and Chargers’ turnovers) are a gigantic reason that the Chiefs are now firmly in the drivers seat in the AFC West. What we saw on Saturday night is exactly what Hunt is…and Chiefs fans should be ecstatic with their third round rookie. Hunt is right back in the hunt for Offensive Rookie of the Year with Alvin Kamara.