The Kansas City Chiefs are expecting to get Pro Bowl running back Jamaal Charles back healthy next season after he missed the final 11 games of the 2015 campaign with a torn ACL.
This doesn’t mean the team isn’t without contingency plans.
Even with Charles sitting out the vast majority of last season, Kansas City still put up the sixth-best rushing offense in the NFL at 128 yards per game.
Spencer Ware and Charcandrick West were the primary reasons for this. They combined for 1,256 total yards and 11 touchdowns in Charles’ stead last year.
Both have been rewarded with contract extensions (via NFL.com).
For Ware, a former sixth-round pick of the Seattle Seahawks back in 2013, that came in the form of a two-year, $3.6 million deal with an opportunity to earn $9.6 million should he reach some statistical goals.
Ware had tallied a total of 10 rushing yards in two seasons prior to his break-out performance last year.
West, who pretty much took over the primary ball-carrier duties with Charles out last season, put up 848 total yards and five touchdowns while averaging 4.7 yards per touch. The terms of his deal are not yet known.
While Charles has earned four Pro Bowl appearances in eight seasons with the team, but he’s also missed the vast majority of two of those seasons to injury.
It makes a ton of sense for Kansas City to limit Charles’ workload moving forward. In signing both Ware and West to extensions, the team is planning on doing just that.