Isiah Pacheco is one of the more intriguing names added to the Detroit Lions' roster this offseason, and he's possibly the veteran with the biggest need for a bounce back season in 2026.
The former Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs has seemingly lost a ton of the explosiveness that made him such a trademark of the AFC West juggernaut's offense. His angry running style, while fun to watch, began to taper off - he suffered a broken leg in 2024, and then an MCL sprain in 2025, leading to him becoming far less of a feature with Kansas City.
One area that he did excel in during 2025, but simply couldn't take advantage of, was his stuff rate. Per Nutshell Sports on Twitter/X, Pacheco posted the smallest percentage of stuffs in 2025, meaning, he was limited to 0 yards or fewer on runs the least amongst qualified backs. Of course, he didn't do much with that, finishing up his season with just 462 yards on 118 carries.
A look at stuff rate by running back in 2025. Stuff rate is the percentage of carries where a back is stopped for 0 yards or fewer.
— Nutshell Sports (@NutshellSportz) July 14, 2026
James Cook had a stuff rate of just 10.7% on 309 carries. pic.twitter.com/qNPPeAxVF1
Pacheco should be able to take advantage of that low stuff rate in 2026, though, especially if Detroit's new-look offensive line produces immediately.
Pacheco must keep up low stuff rate with Lions to find success
Watching back some of Pacheco's runs from 2025, it's clear that he's still an "angry" runner, but his explosiveness from earlier seasons with the Chiefs just wasn't there. He had just 10 explosive runs in 2025, per PFF. That probably contributed to the fact that, despite his 9.3 percent stuff rate, he just couldn't piece together a more productive season.
Kansas City's offensive line was also one of the weaker units in the league at run blocking, with a run block win rate of just 70 percent (25th in the league).
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For context, the Lions' run block win rate was 71 percent and that was good for 20th in the league, but we saw how much they struggled at times to get an open lane for either Jahmyr Gibbs or David Montgomery. Both backs were also stuffed at a much higher rate than Pacheco in 2025.
Assuming the Lions' offensive line has figured things out from last season - and it definitely feels like they have after signing Cade Mays, and as they're about to get year two production out of Tate Ratledge - Pacheco could be in a perfect position for a bounce back with the Lions.
With Gibbs likely to take a majority of the load for the Lions' ground game, it gives Pacheco a chance to hit the field with fresh legs. He could angry run to his heart's desire if he can keep up this level of production with a better front line.
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