Short-handed Kansas City Chiefs welcome back Kareem Hunt

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Six years after releasing Kareem Hunt in the middle of the season, the Kansas City Chiefs have signed the veteran running back to their practice squad.

The Chiefs were looking for help at running back after starter Isiah Pacheco broke a fibula in last week's game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Chiefs selected Hunt in the third round in 2017, the same draft in which they acquired quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Hunt had a big rookie season, rushing for a league-high 1,327 yards, catching 53 passes and scoring 11 touchdowns.

He was well on his way to another 1,000-yard season in 2018 when a video surfaced showing Hunt earlier that year shoving and kicking a woman at a Cleveland hotel where Hunt had an apartment.

The NFL then placed Hunt on the commissioner's exempt list, and the Chiefs released the running back, saying he had not been truthful with them when they asked him about the incident.

Hunt, 29, played the past five seasons for the Browns in his hometown of Cleveland. The most productive of those seasons came in 2020, when he rushed for 841 yards and caught 38 passes.

Hunt last season rushed for 411 yards and caught 15 passes.