Kansas City is likely to have a crowded running back room this season, but the head coach still believes in his starter.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ starting running back Isiah Pacheco missed nine games of the 2024 season with a fractured fibula, allowing the team to bring Kareem Hunt back for the first time since his 2018 release.

Pacheco ended up gaining just 310 yards (and a touchdown) on 83 attempts over six regular-season games — a career-low 3.7 yards per attempt.

Hunt has been re-signed for 2025. The team has also brought in former San Francisco 49ers running back Elijah Johnson — and is widely considered to be prioritizing acquiring another one from the NFL Draft’s deep class of running backs.

But head coach Andy Reid is still standing behind Pacheco.

“I think he’ll be even better this year,” Reid told reporters on Monday morning at the league’s meetings in Palm Beach, Florida, per The Kansas City Star. “He was forcing that thing coming back.”

Reid wasn’t suggesting that Pacheco wasn’t ready to return. Instead, he was saying that after re-watching last season’s games, he can now see that Pacheco wasn’t playing up to his usual standard.

“He was physically OK to go,” insisted Reid. “But when you’re looking at [the film], it’s minute stuff — just maybe that ability to cut as quick as he did before. Now it’s still quick, but you’re talking inches here. Was it what he could do before? Well, it wasn’t.”

Reid isn’t surprised his third-year running back worked so hard to get back to the field.

“Most guys probably wouldn’t have come back [from his injury],” he noted, “but if you know him for about a minute, you’ll know that he wasn’t going to be held back.”

Still, Reid believes the film revealed Pacheco was improving after his return — and with a full offseason of preparation, should be good to go for the coming season.

“He was getting better every week,” observed Reid, “and I think you’ll just see him back to what he was before.”