How Re-Signed Kansas City Chiefs Back Jerick McKinnon Helped Replace Tyreek Hill

The Kansas City Chiefs confirmed what general manager Brett Veach had hinted at during his post-draft press conference: they’re re-signing running back Jerick McKinnon.

And that’s a wise move.

McKinnon was excellent for the Chiefs in 2022. In fact, last year’s pressing offseason question was how the Chiefs would replace Tyreek Hill, the superstar wide receiver they traded to the Miami Dolphins.

Sure, the acquisitions of JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney — along with the continued brilliance of Travis Kelce — helped, but consider this: Hill tied for the team lead in touchdowns in 2021 with nine.

McKinnon, even though he’s a running back, matched that receiving total of nine.

Then for good measure, he added one more on the ground.

As the Chiefs became an offense less reliant on the deep passing game without the speedy Hill and more dependent on short passes in the flat in 2022, McKinnon became a valuable safety valve.

Who can forget a play Patrick Mahomes called his favorite of the year?

On a third and short in a Week 14 victory against the Denver Broncos, Mahomes threw a no-look pass to McKinnon for a 56-yard touchdown.

“It was one where I legit did not think I was throwing the ball at all,” Mahomes said. “I was just trying to get the ball out of my hands as quickly as possible.”

Hill’s most memorable play during his time with the Chiefs was, of course, the WASP play from Super Bowl LIV.

That play came on 3rd and 15 against the San Francisco 49ers, but McKinnon beat the 49ers on an even longer down and distance as part of the back-breaking play in the 44-23 win in October of 2022.

On that screen play, the 49ers tried to keep everything in front, and Nick Bosa went inside, but McKinnon went outside, and each member of the left side of the Chiefs offensive line found a 49ers defender to take out.

The screen went 34 yards, and McKinnon ran behind a convoy to the 49ers’ four-yard-line.

“It opened like the Red Sea,” McKinnon said.

McKinnon also had his own memorable Super Bowl moment, wisely sliding when he could have scored a touchdown in Super Bowl LVII. That heads-up play allowed the Chiefs to use up more clock at the end of the fourth quarter of their win against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Making the acquisition of McKinnon, who signed back-to-back one-year deals before the 2021 and 2022 seasons, even more shrewd was that it was probably cost-effective.

Although terms of McKinnon’s contract haven’t been disclosed, the tepid running back market has favored the buyers. Even Ezekiel Elliott, who is two-time rushing NFL champion and only 27 years old, can’t find a team willing to sign him.

Retaining McKinnon gives the Chiefs a nice running back trio with McKinnon, last year’s rookie sensation Isiah Pacheco and Clyde Edwards-Helaire, though the Chiefs’ declining of Edwards-Helaire’s fifth-year option makes it likely this will be his last year with the team.

Before both Edwards-Helaire’s and McKinnon’s futures were officially finalized, Veach discuss the running back room on Monday while noting Edwards-Helaire’s work ethic.

“It’s a good room,” Veach said. “Obviously (Pacheco) had a breakout season last year and then potentially adding a guy like Jerick, and as I mentioned, Clyde was one of the first guys that I saw in the building today. So we believe in that room.”