Couple of Kareem Hunt stories making the rounds lately. The first was that a signing with New Orleans was imminent. The second was that he was talking with the Colts. Both of those teams may have a major need at running back (or there might be some agent shenanigans going on).
The New Orleans story seems a little odd. They're committed to Jamaal Williams for $5 million for this season. Alvin Kamara's suspension is officially three games -- they'll have him back in Week 4. And they drafted Kendre Miller in the third round. I've seen reports linking their interest in Hunt to Eno Benjamin (Achilles) being out for the year, which is patently ridiculous. Benjamin is a fourth-year seventh-rounder who was on three teams a year ago, he was a roster longshot.
The Colts story makes a little more sense -- but still not much. Jonathan Taylor is hurt/disgruntled and Zack Moss has a broken arm, but they already signed Kenyan Drake, giving them a modest veteran option to go with their various youngsters, including fifth-rounder Evan Hull. Is this a roster that really wants to carry a pair of 28- to 29-year-old veteran running backs best known for their pass catching in Drake and Hunt? Seems odd.
The reality is that Hunt, who just turned 28 years old, may have seemed like one of the better No. 2 running backs in Cleveland for a couple of years -- but he's never approached the kind of performance he had at the start of his career in Kansas City. Back then, he was a difference maker. With Cleveland, the production has been ordinary.
In 2017-2018, Hunt with Kansas City was one of the league's very best running backs. Among all backs who played in at least half the games those two seasons, only five averaged more points per game (PPR) than Hunt did.
| RUNNING BACKS PER GAME, 2017-2018 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | G | Run/G | Rec/G | TD | Pts/G |
| Todd Gurley | 29 | 88.1 | 47.2 | 40 | 26.1 |
| Saquon Barkley | 16 | 81.7 | 45.1 | 15 | 24.1 |
| Alvin Kamara | 31 | 52.0 | 49.5 | 32 | 21.8 |
| Ezekiel Elliott | 25 | 96.7 | 33.4 | 18 | 21.3 |
| Melvin Gordon | 28 | 71.1 | 34.5 | 26 | 20.1 |
| Kareem Hunt | 27 | 79.7 | 30.9 | 25 | 19.5 |
| Christian McCaffrey | 32 | 47.9 | 47.4 | 20 | 19.2 |
| Leonard Fournette | 21 | 70.4 | 23.2 | 16 | 16.7 |
| David Johnson | 17 | 56.6 | 30.2 | 10 | 15.3 |
| Mark Ingram | 28 | 63.2 | 20.9 | 19 | 15.0 |
| Joe Mixon | 28 | 64.1 | 20.8 | 13 | 13.7 |
| James White | 30 | 19.9 | 39.3 | 15 | 13.7 |
| Chris Carson | 18 | 75.5 | 12.3 | 10 | 13.4 |
| Devonta Freeman | 16 | 58.3 | 21.3 | 8 | 13.4 |
| LeSean McCoy | 30 | 55.1 | 22.9 | 11 | 13.0 |
| Lamar Miller | 30 | 62.0 | 16.3 | 12 | 12.2 |
| Nick Chubb | 16 | 62.3 | 9.3 | 10 | 12.2 |
| Chris Thompson | 20 | 23.6 | 38.9 | 7 | 12.2 |
| Tarik Cohen | 32 | 25.4 | 33.7 | 12 | 12.0 |
| Jordan Howard | 32 | 64.3 | 8.4 | 18 | 11.9 |
| Tevin Coleman | 31 | 46.1 | 18.5 | 17 | 11.7 |
| Marshawn Lynch | 21 | 60.3 | 11.2 | 10 | 11.6 |
| Dion Lewis | 32 | 44.2 | 19.2 | 12 | 11.4 |
| Alex Collins | 25 | 55.4 | 11.7 | 14 | 11.2 |
| Jerick McKinnon | 16 | 35.6 | 26.3 | 5 | 11.1 |
| Carlos Hyde | 30 | 50.3 | 12.8 | 13 | 11.1 |
| James Conner | 27 | 41.4 | 18.4 | 13 | 10.9 |
| Kenyan Drake | 32 | 36.8 | 22.4 | 13 | 10.9 |
| Duke Johnson | 32 | 17.2 | 35.1 | 10 | 10.9 |
| T.J. Yeldon | 24 | 27.8 | 29.6 | 7 | 10.9 |
| Marlon Mack | 26 | 48.7 | 12.6 | 14 | 10.8 |
| Derrick Henry | 32 | 56.3 | 7.3 | 18 | 10.5 |
| Aaron Jones | 24 | 49.0 | 9.5 | 13 | 10.5 |
| Adrian Peterson | 26 | 60.4 | 10.7 | 10 | 10.3 |
| Nyheim Hines | 16 | 19.6 | 26.6 | 4 | 10.1 |
Over the last four years in Cleveland, Hunt on a roster with Nick Chubb was a nice No. 2, but there's nothing to get really excited about. He averaged about half as many points per game, and showed up outside the top 20 in PPR leagues on a per-game basis. We can say he'd have been better as a starter, and that's true. But he's four years removed from putting up elite numbers and just turned 28. Maybe there's a reason no one has shown a ton of interest in adding him to their backfield.
| RUNNING BACKS PER GAME, 2019-2022 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | G | Run/G | Rec/G | TD | Pts/G |
| Christian McCaffrey | 43 | 74.3 | 52.0 | 40 | 24.3 |
| Derrick Henry | 55 | 109.9 | 15.9 | 58 | 20.4 |
| Austin Ekeler | 59 | 49.4 | 46.9 | 52 | 20.2 |
| Alvin Kamara | 57 | 61.8 | 38.9 | 40 | 18.8 |
| Dalvin Cook | 58 | 86.6 | 24.1 | 46 | 18.5 |
| Jonathan Taylor | 43 | 89.3 | 18.7 | 36 | 18.0 |
| Aaron Jones | 62 | 66.3 | 26.0 | 47 | 17.0 |
| Joe Mixon | 52 | 68.9 | 22.7 | 37 | 16.4 |
| Josh Jacobs | 60 | 79.0 | 19.2 | 40 | 16.3 |
| Nick Chubb | 59 | 90.6 | 14.3 | 42 | 16.3 |
| Saquon Barkley | 44 | 66.9 | 25.0 | 22 | 15.7 |
| Ezekiel Elliott | 63 | 66.9 | 18.0 | 46 | 15.5 |
| Najee Harris | 34 | 65.7 | 20.5 | 20 | 15.4 |
| James Conner | 51 | 53.3 | 22.4 | 39 | 15.1 |
| Leonard Fournette | 58 | 51.7 | 29.9 | 25 | 15.1 |
| D'Andre Swift | 40 | 42.0 | 30.0 | 25 | 14.8 |
| David Montgomery | 60 | 60.2 | 20.7 | 30 | 13.5 |
| Antonio Gibson | 45 | 52.8 | 19.9 | 26 | 13.3 |
| James Robinson | 39 | 58.0 | 15.8 | 23 | 13.2 |
| Miles Sanders | 57 | 65.1 | 16.5 | 23 | 12.7 |
| Melvin Gordon | 53 | 53.5 | 16.8 | 31 | 12.5 |
| Clyde Edwards-Helaire | 33 | 49.2 | 17.5 | 17 | 11.9 |
| Kenyan Drake | 53 | 47.3 | 16.3 | 26 | 11.6 |
| Kareem Hunt | 49 | 38.2 | 19.9 | 23 | 11.4 |
| Devin Singletary | 61 | 51.7 | 15.9 | 20 | 10.9 |
| Devonta Freeman | 35 | 40.1 | 18.8 | 13 | 10.9 |
| Jamaal Williams | 58 | 45.4 | 12.4 | 29 | 10.7 |
| Raheem Mostert | 41 | 53.8 | 13.1 | 18 | 10.6 |
| Damien Harris | 38 | 55.1 | 7.4 | 20 | 10.4 |
Data from the search tools at pro-football-reference.com was used in assembling these tables.
Eventually Hunt will sign somewhere, but I'm not sure we need to care that much. It won't be as a starter, and he won't necessarily be putting up big numbers anywhere this season. I'd be a lot more interested to see what the rookie Miller, or a healthy Zack Moss, can do. I hope those teams agree.
--Andy Richardson