Isiah Pacheco has become so popular, so engaging and so surprising that he already has several nicknames.
Star tight end Travis Kelce shouts, in unusual excitement, “Paco!” Superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes refers to him as “Pop.” And when he began his NFL journey just months ago, Pacheco was happy to introduce himself at the league’s scouting combine with the nickname his family embraced: Lil Poppy.
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Yes, Pacheco’s first impression with the Chiefs has been memorable, as the rookie running back has captured the franchise’s collective imagination. He is one of the fastest players on the roster and one of the most powerful and dynamic skill-position players. He has convinced the Chiefs that he has star potential despite being selected in the draft’s final round.
Pacheco, 23, has distinguished himself as a fast learner, a good listener who has gained the respect and admiration of coach Andy Reid and veterans such as Kelce and Mahomes, players he was watching on television and even playing as just a few months ago on the popular Madden NFL video game.
“It’s cool to see guys I watched on TV,” Pacheco said last month. “Being a guy that’s looking up to veterans for advice, they’ve treated me as a little brother. They’re honest with me and that’s what I love. Being a younger guy, I’m just showing them I’m a player they can count on.”
Even before his NFL debut, Pacheco has accomplished a significant feat.
In his previous nine seasons leading the Chiefs, Reid, a future Hall of Fame coach known for his offensive innovations, has never had an offensive skill-position player who was selected in the seventh round earn a spot on the team’s initial 53-man roster. Pacheco became the first, and with relative ease. Listed at 5-foot-9 and 216 pounds, Pacheco appears to be the Chiefs’ strongest and fastest running back, as he finished the 40-yard dash at the combine in a blazing 4.37 seconds.
“He’s physically gifted,” Mahomes said of Pacheco last month. “He’s a smart player. He practices really hard. When you’re big and fast and smart, usually good things happen. It’ll be good to see him now have to show off his vision, making those cuts and getting vertical. He’s been mentally great at practice.”
Pulled up to the Combine with shades on 🌟 @isiah_pachecoRB pic.twitter.com/LQEZMBbXcf
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) May 1, 2022
Pacheco elevated his pre-debut hype at the Chiefs’ training camp, with Reid increasing his repetitions each subsequent week. Displaying his speed, elusiveness and toughness, Pacheco first won the primary kickoff returner role before the team’s preseason opener. Day after day, Pacheco was stellar. Pacheco’s most fascinating quality, Reid said, was his receiving ability out of the backfield, his hands surprisingly as reliable as those of Clyde Edwards-Helaire, the starting running back.
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Inside the team’s film sessions and meetings, Pacheco demonstrated a high retention rate. He came to understand Reid’s complex playbook better than expected for a rookie.
“His work ethic is top-tier,” running back Jerick McKinnon, a nine-year veteran, said. “He’s real explosive and he has nice size. I know the coaches think highly of him and so does everybody else on the team.”
Some members of the Chiefs’ personnel department, including general manager Brett Veach, have acknowledged that Pacheco is reminiscent of Kareem Hunt, the Chiefs’ former star running back who led the league in rushing yards in 2017 as a rookie. Pacheco’s agent, Neil Schwartz, has compared him to Hall of Famer Terrell Davis.
“He’s got a little juice,” Reid said of Pacheco last month. A few days later, Reid added: “The things you’re guaranteed of are that he’s going to run hard. Will he have to learn the different schemes and how they work against certain defenses and at times be patient? He’ll learn that. But he’s going to run hard. He’s a good catcher. The rest of all that, we can work with. He’s learning the feel of it.”
OKAY 10 👀 @isiah_pachecoRB pic.twitter.com/67xwG4XruT
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) August 15, 2022
Throughout his career, Pacheco has felt comfortable identifying himself as an underdog, an overachiever ready to prove his talents. Yet since joining the Chiefs, Pacheco’s demeanor — filled with humility, eagerness and assertiveness — is unlike most seventh-round picks.
In May, Pacheco knew exactly what number he wanted on his jersey: No. 10, the one last worn by the league’s fastest player, the one synonymous with dazzling, home run-type touchdowns.
“I definitely know who wore it,” Pacheco said then of star receiver Tyreek Hill. “I don’t feel any pressure. I wore this number before my freshman year in college (at Rutgers). It’s not the number, it’s the player, so I’m the guy that’s wearing it.”
In Vineland, N.J., in the southern part of the state, Pacheco wasn’t the fastest or strongest kid when he was introduced to football. At age 7, the youngest of Felicia Cannon’s five children was persuaded to play the sport by Travoise Cannon, his brother.
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The Vineland midget football league was where Pacheco began the early stages of his physical transformation, as he learned quickly that the best players must also be the best-conditioned players. He remembers running lap after lap after lap around the field.
“I used to be a little chubby,” he said, smiling.
His family was thrilled when Lil Poppy became the starting quarterback as a freshman at Vineland South High, a player so talented that he also featured his ascending athleticism as a rotational running back and safety. Even as a freshman, teammates loved his intensity, talent and enthusiasm so much that they named him a captain, an honor he held all four years.
Pacheco, though, will always remember the start and end of 2016. On Jan. 10 of that year, Travoise, 29, was stabbed to death at his Bridgeton apartment complex. Pacheco played his junior season in honor of him, scoring 23 total touchdowns. He led Vineland South to the state playoffs and received his first major scholarship offer from Rutgers. The sport became a vehicle for him to grieve yet again when Celeste Cannon, his sister, was murdered inside her Millville home on Sept. 20, 2017. Three days later, Pacheco attended his sister’s funeral in the morning, then led Vineland South to a victory over Egg Harbor Township, rushing for 222 yards and scoring two touchdowns.
“People don’t really go through that,” Pacheco said. “For me to make it where I’m at and look back on it, it was a lot of hard work done. I just leaned on my parents (Julio Pacheco and Felicia Cannon) for them to guide me to make my sister and my brother proud looking down on me, for me to just go out there and play hard for them and my family.”
Isiah Pacheco Day in Vineland 🐔 @RFootball @Chiefs pic.twitter.com/GSvMq0Tlnr
— Vineland Football 🏈 (@VinelandFB) June 18, 2022
At Rutgers, Pacheco created a mural, a collection of tattoos on his right arm — an outline of the state of New Jersey and the logos for Vineland South and Rutgers, among other tattoos — to reflect upon his upbringing and hardships, images for motivation and inspiration. The message tattooed on his arm became his motto: Go hard or go home.
In one snap in 2018 against Michigan, during his freshman season, Pacheco showcased his skills. He sprinted past four defenders then carried one for the final five yards before entering the end zone on an impressive 80-yard touchdown run, the longest run by a freshman in Rutgers history. Pacheco celebrated the highlight by finding his mother in the stands and blowing kisses to her.
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A pivotal moment in Pacheco’s career occurred after the 2019 season, when Rutgers hired coach Greg Schiano to return the program to prominence. Schiano then hired Augie Hoffmann as the running backs assistant. Schiano and Hoffmann knew Pacheco was electric with the ball, so their objective, Hoffmann said, was to improve Pacheco’s performance when he didn’t have the ball.
“He genuinely loves football,” Hoffmann said last month. “He loves everything that goes into it, the training, the hard work. He loves practice. That was the biggest thing coaching him, just watching him grow in his maturity.”
A former guard who spent two seasons on the New Orleans Saints’ practice squad, Hoffmann helped polish Pacheco’s pass-blocking techniques, as he better understood where blitzers were coming from to better protect the quarterback. One of his best snaps last year was against Michigan, when, in the midst of recording 121 all-purpose yards, he effectively blocked Aidan Hutchinson, preventing the star defensive end — and this year’s No. 2 pick — from sacking quarterback Noah Vedral.
As the weeks progressed, Hoffmann noticed that Pacheco was taking more extensive notes in meetings. Even when the Scarlet Knights didn’t have practice or a scheduled meeting, Pacheco often came to the training facility to chat with Hoffmann about his performance in the previous game or the team’s plan for the next opponent. Similar to his time in high school, Pacheco was voted by his teammates as a captain his senior year.
Meanwhile, inside the weight room, Pacheco was becoming Rutgers’ pound-for-pound strongest player, Hoffmann said
“We would have to pull the reins back on him in pregame (because) he’s got so much wound-up energy,” Hoffmann said, laughing. “He would be running routes a million miles an hour. He’s just such a smooth athlete that runs like a maniac. He really runs like a Tasmanian devil.
“You combine that with him being open to learning, it made for a successful year for him.”
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Last season, Pacheco led Rutgers with 647 rushing yards, including five touchdowns. One of his best highlights, a play that intrigued the Chiefs’ scouts, was a 20-yard touchdown run against Delaware that illustrated Pacheco’s excellence in three different facets of the game: receiving, speed and physicality. Prior to the snap, Pacheco motioned out of the backfield, then caught the ball behind the line of scrimmage. He sprinted past two defenders, then finished the play by running through another defender to reach the end zone.
Chiefs Kingdom: Meet Pop ⚡️ @Chiefs | @isiah_pachecoRB pic.twitter.com/uDwF7081tV
— Rutgers Football (@RFootball) May 1, 2022
Repeating Hoffmann’s requirements for him, Pacheco told NFL scouts and coaches before the draft that he was the ideal three-down back, an aggressive rusher capable of keeping his quarterback upright.
Cassidy Kaminski, the Chiefs’ northeast regional scout, became more enthralled when he evaluated Pacheco in February at the East-West Shrine Bowl.
“A phenomenal person,” Kaminski said of Pacheco. “Normally your interviews are 20-30 minutes at an all-star game. We sat for an hour and a half and just talked (about) life, everything. He can articulate himself and he just brings a good energy and smile to wherever he’s at every time. You see passion in the way he communicates. You see passion in the way he runs the football. It’s just who he is.”
The best outcome for the draft, Pacheco felt, was that a team would select him in either the third or fourth round, but the stress within Pacheco increased as the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds ended without a team selecting him. Inside the Double Eagle Saloon in Vineland, Pacheco was surrounded by family members, friends, fans and his high school coach, Dan Russo, a larger group more ready to party than some players selected in the first round.
Ahead of their second seventh-round pick at No. 251, the Chiefs called Pacheco. Veach informed Pacheco the team was selecting him, then told him to enjoy seeing his name on TV. Pacheco moved his smartphone away from his right ear and unleashed his emotions with an exhilarating yell, which led to an uproarious celebration, a sound so enormous it stunned Reid.
“Wow,” said Reid, who followed with a joke and a smile: “You alive Isiah?”
"You alive Isiah?!"
Watch the moment our newest running back got the call 📲😂 pic.twitter.com/lDuOnm0ZsE
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) May 2, 2022
After hugging his parents with tears on his cheeks, Pacheco expressed his gratitude to the Chiefs. He began envisioning his future, his dreams for his NFL career.
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“I’m definitely excited to block for Patrick Mahomes,” he said. “I’ve never won a championship in all my years playing. Being able to compete early with a good offensive line is big for me.”
Pacheco also spoke with confidence, vowing that he would be a contributor on special teams and a running back known for his dependability as much as versatility.
“(I’m) willing,” he said, “to take another grown man’s job.”
His first time inside an NFL stadium, Soldier Field, was his first time wearing an NFL uniform.
“That was pretty dope for me,” Pacheco said. “It felt great.”
Last month, in the Chiefs’ preseason opener, many of the coaches and players were eager to see how Pacheco would perform. His first good play occurred on the Chiefs’ opening drive. Running a swing route for Mahomes, Pacheco made the short reception in the flat and quickly broke a tackle, bouncing off cornerback Lamar Jackson to gain 5 yards.
“I thought that was a heck of a catch,” Reid said.
As the kickoff returner, Pacheco’s burst allowed him to gain 34 yards on one return, the longest of the game, even though he started from the back of the end zone. Pacheco did so well that Reid didn’t play him on offense in the second half, a rarity for a seventh-round pick. Before the game, Pacheco heard from his coaches and veteran teammates that the speed of the action likely would be faster than what he experienced in college.
“Technically, it really (wasn’t),” he said a few days later. “I don’t know why. I just felt I was more confident in the scheme. Knowing who I had on which play and being able to execute at a fast pace was something I worked on.”
The following week, Pacheco ended the Chiefs’ camp with spectacular repetitions. He used nifty route-running moves in a one-on-one drill to create separation against Nick Bolton, the Chiefs’ best linebacker, before making a contested catch. Even when rookie linebacker Jack Cochrane pulled his jersey, Pacheco was still able to make a leaping reception. He also didn’t allow a linebacker or safety to get too close to Mahomes in the one-on-one pass protection drill.
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A couple of Chiefs fans were so excited to see Pacheco in person for the team’s second exhibition against the Washington Commanders that they arrived at Arrowhead Stadium donning their old No. 10 Tyreek Hill jerseys — with white tape covering “Hill” so they could write in “PACHECO” with a black Sharpie.
this is AWESOME 😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/o05REfl6wZ
— steph curry stan account (@_dawnw81) August 20, 2022
At times against the Commanders, Pacheco ran so fast and so hard with the ball that he didn’t let the offensive linemen develop their blocks or he missed certain running lanes. Next to Mahomes in the shotgun, Pacheco turned a short route into a 12-yard gain, a role he could thrive in during the regular season.
Five days later, in the preseason finale against the Green Bay Packers, Pacheco played 25 snaps, the most among the Chiefs’ running backs. This time, running behind backup offensive linemen for most of the game, Pacheco used speed and patience to lead the team with 52 rushing yards on 10 attempts.
After the league’s cutdown deadline last week, Veach restated the franchise’s faith in Pacheco. Veach and Reid are optimistic that Pacheco will provide a significant boost for the Chiefs with an indelible highlight, perhaps as soon as later this month. Much of Veach’s belief is from seeing how rapid Pacheco’s development has been, how the rookie has been determined and disciplined — with and without the ball — with everything that’s required for a potential star.
“The blitz pickups, the protection checks and then just being consistent with (his) hands out of the backfield is something that, I think, from Day 1 Isiah has shown,” Veach said. “We’re excited (about) where he is now.
“We think he has a great future ahead of him.”
(Photo of Isiah Pacheco: Jamie Sabau / USA Today)
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