{"id":982532,"date":"2026-08-25T05:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T05:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/982532\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T05:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T05:16:13","slug":"emari-demercado-knows-theres-plenty-of-competition-in-chiefs-backfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/982532\/","title":{"rendered":"Emari Demercado knows there&#8217;s plenty of competition in Chiefs backfield"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Emari Demercado knows there&#8217;s plenty of competition in the Chiefs backfield<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/c8ea29aa-4041-4b44-a925-ad5cfee06ed4_1686229092.file.png\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Nick Sloan\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"0\">The Kansas City Chiefs rebuilt their running back room following last year&#8217;s 6-11 season.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">Now, the team has to figure out everyone fits.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"2\">Kenneth Walker, who signed with the Chiefs after winning the Super Bowl MVP last year, figures to the be the starter.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">Former Arizona Cardinals running back Emari Demercado is trying to earn a regular role alongside rookie Emmett Johnson and second-year running back Brashard Smith.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\">Demercado said on Monday that he isn&#8217;t spending much time worrying about how the carries are divided.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"5\">\u201cWhen my number\u2019s called, I go out there and play,\u201d Demercado said. \u201cI try not to worry too much about things that I can\u2019t control.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"6\">Demercado had five carries and a catch in Saturday&#8217;s loss to Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"7\">\u201cWe always talk about pass protection, so that\u2019s been my thing,\u201d Demercado said. \u201cBut as far as the room, that\u2019s what you want. You want to compete. That just brings out the best in everybody in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emari Demercado knows there&#8217;s plenty of competition in the Chiefs backfield KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 The Kansas City&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":982533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[501,2369,3048,129086,3285,128449,2301,6223,346,112895,129092,68968,17388,17407,46228,129096,17401,129087,128703,129094,129088,127907,739,5196,15445,3741,15423,129089,129097,129090,28343,128198,7,129099,1283,805,118,110,129093,2438,2437,9294,129091,98403,10824,1911,6,4656,1551,49043,10400,24032,11520,21848,10898,129098,604,1647,53353,2109,2830,13470,11320,1940,2383,704,5865,2328,129095],"class_list":["post-982532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-andy-reid","tag-back","tag-backfield","tag-backfield-competition","tag-brashard-smith","tag-brashard-smith-chiefs-running-back","tag-carry","tag-catch","tag-chiefs","tag-chiefs-backfield","tag-chiefs-backup-running-back-competition","tag-chiefs-depth","tag-chiefs-football","tag-chiefs-offense","tag-chiefs-preseason","tag-chiefs-preseason-running-back-battle","tag-chiefs-roster","tag-chiefs-running-back-competition-2026","tag-chiefs-running-back-depth-chart","tag-chiefs-running-back-roster-battle","tag-chiefs-running-backs-behind-kenneth-walker","tag-chiefs-running-game-2026","tag-city","tag-competition","tag-demercado","tag-depth","tag-emari-demercado","tag-emari-demercado-chiefs-role","tag-emari-demercado-pass-protection","tag-emari-demercado-running-back-competition","tag-emmett-johnson","tag-emmett-johnson-chiefs-running-back","tag-football","tag-former-arizona-cardinals","tag-johnson","tag-kansas","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-backfield-2026","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascitychiefs","tag-kenneth-walker","tag-kenneth-walker-chiefs-backfield","tag-kmbc","tag-last-year","tag-loss","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-preseason","tag-offense","tag-pass-protection","tag-plenty","tag-position-battle","tag-preseason","tag-protection","tag-reid","tag-rookie-emmett-johnson","tag-room","tag-roster","tag-roster-battle","tag-running","tag-running-backs","tag-running-game","tag-rushing","tag-saturday","tag-smith","tag-tampa-bay","tag-thing","tag-walker","tag-who-will-back-up-kenneth-walker"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/982533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}