The Kansas City Chiefs needed some speed and juice to add to their running back room with Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt both physical, grinding backs who can pound a defense into submission.
But they didn’t have someone who offered home-run speed and a chance to break away for a 30+ yard gain—enter Elijah Mitchell.
Having shown what he was all about in his rookie season with the San Francisco 49ers (963 yards, five touchdowns), Mitchell then struggled to make an impact, especially with Christian McCaffrey coming into the picture.
But Mitchell missed the entire 2024 season thanks to a significant hamstring injury, and now he takes his talents to Kansas City in a bid to revive his career.
However, what made him choose the AFC champs?
“Just their offense, really both sides of the ball,” Mitchell said. “It’s just a organization just hearing about it, they know how to win, and that was my biggest thing. Even coming from San Francisco and being able to come to another winning team is just amazing. The things they do in offense, it’s everything I did when I was in San Fran so I’m excited for it.”
Mitchell looms as potentially the missing piece in the Chiefs’ run game, but that hamstring injury that kept him out of all of 2024 could be a concern.
However, Elijah has alleviated those fears.
“I’m back at 100%, and I’ll be ready to go when we start back up in May,” he said.
So that is reassuring for Chiefs Kingdom as Mitchell will look to re-announce himself to the NFL world and bring some much-needed juice to a Kansas City offense that is in need of it.
Obviously, he needs a good training camp under his belt and even a couple of preseason games to get into the groove, but if Mitchell can get back to near what he was with the 49ers, the Chiefs’ run game will be getting a speedy option out of the backfield.
