• Kareem Hunt led the Kansas City Chiefs‘backfield: Hunt ran the ball more than twenty times and six times in 2017 with the Kansas City Chiefsonce in 2018 and once in his five-year career with the Cleveland Browns in 2020 before doing so on Monday Night Football against the Saints.

• JuJu Smith-Schuster leads the Chiefs’ wide receivers: Smith-Schuster had four 130-yard games in 2017 and 2018 and had his fifth on Monday Night Football.

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New Orleans Saints @ Kansas City Chiefs

Kareem Hunt leads the Chiefs backfield: Hunt had double-digit carries in the first half in his first start with Kansas City.

Isiah Pacheco landed on injured reserve in Week 2, leading to the Chiefs signing Hunt to their practice squad for Week 3. Carson Steele started in Weeks 3 and 4, but Hunt saw significant time in Week 4, allowing him to take over in this match.

Hunt did not see as much playing time in the first half of this match as Pacheco did early in the season, but the split in the backfield was reminiscent of the Chiefs’ 2023 rotation. Hunt had Pacheco’s lead role in 2023, while Steele had Clyde Edwards-Helaire‘s role as an early backup. Samaje Perine continued his passing role. In the second half the backfield was more reminiscent of the start of the season, with Hunt dominating the early moments.

This split leaves Perine out of early work, so he could be dropped in most fantasy leagues. Jerick McKinnon He had some value in that role last season as he played near the goal line and scored touchdowns. McKinnon accounted for 53.8% of the offensive snaps when the Chiefs were within five yards of a goal in games McKinnon played last season, while Perine accounted for 17.6%.

Steele can also be dropped into leagues with lighter benches. Clyde Edwards-Helaire returned to practice this past week and the Chiefs have a bye this coming week, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he’s back for Week 7. He’ll likely take snaps of Steele initially, but he could also take snaps of Hunt to make . It should be relatively safe to start Hunt in Week 7 as Edwards-Helaire will be eased, but Edwards-Helaire could be a problem for Hunt in the long run.

Chiefs adapt without it Rashee Rice: Rice has been confirmed to be out for the season due to a knee injury.

Rice was injured early last week, causing the Chiefs to hold on Xavier Waard, Justin Watson And JuJu Smith-Schuster as their top three wide receivers. They had a week to adjust that strategy, and they didn’t change many things. The frequency with which they used different personnel groups did not change significantly, and if anything, they rotated their backup wide receivers less often.

Justin Watson has the third-lowest target percentage among NFL wide receivers who have run at least 700 routes over the past three seasons. Most of Xavier WaardThe player’s targets come on deep throws and throws behind the line of scrimmage, which won’t necessarily lead to many targets overall.

This leaves Travis Kelce And JuJu Smith-Schuster as the two Kansas City receivers who will see a lot of targets in the future, and that’s what happened in this game. Both had over 70 receiving yards, while no one else had more than 35. There’s still a chance the Chiefs will add a wide receiver, but as things stand right now, Smith-Schuster should be the biggest target for wide receiver waivers this week after his seven-catch performance and 130 meters.

Juwan Johnson emerges as New Orleans’ best tight end: Johnson was eased off early this season due to injury.

Johnson suffered a broken foot in mid-June and returned to training in late August. In each of the first three games, he played 50% of the offensive snaps or fewer, with Foster Moreau serves as the lead-fixed end. Last week was Johnson’s first time playing more than Moreau, and this week he was on the field for an even higher percentage of snaps and routes.

He caught five passes for 31 yards. Moreau was the one to score a touchdown, but Johnson is clearly the tight end between the two given his route volume and target share. Johnson’s target percentage overall hasn’t been as high as last season. He needs a higher target percentage to qualify in fantasy leagues, but getting playing time again was the first step to becoming a fantasy starter.

Various comments

• Derek Carr left the game late in the fourth quarter with a reported oblique injury.

• Kendre Molenaar returned to practice this week, but he was not activated to the 53-man roster for this game.

• Taysom Hill was inactive for this game due to a rib injury.

• Tight end Jody Fortson spent 2019 and 2020 on the Chiefs’ practice squad, spent 2021 and 2022 as the Chiefs’ third tight end and spent 2023 on injured reserve. He signed with the Miami Dolphinsbut he was cut in August and didn’t make his way onto the Chiefs’ practice squad until September 26. He was signed to the active roster on Friday and saw significant playing time in this game.

• While Fortson was active, the Chiefs ran multiple plays with four tight ends on the field and joined the Pittsburgh Steelers And Seattle Seahawks as the only teams this season to use four tight ends.

Table notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. These plays have been removed from the other three statistics.