From the looks of it, the Kansas City Chiefs might have their hands on Peyton Hillis 2.0.
The battle-tank runner is two years removed from causing a sensation in Cleveland before fizzling out with the Browns a season ago. After 1,177 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground in 2010, Hillis saw last year swept away by injuries, contract squabbles, locker room tension and one very nasty sore throat.
Cleveland didn't want him back, but coach Romeo Crennel and the Chiefs view him as a solid pairing with Jamaal Charles, another back who'd rather have 2012 look more like 2010 than 2011. Hillis -- a gentleman with the media -- spoke glowingly of his new home this week.
"As far as the team goes this is by far the most talented team that I have been on," Hillis told Fox Sports Radio Daybreak, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. "We just have to put a few things together and start clicking on a lot of cylinders. If we do that I think we can win some ball games."
For you completists, Hillis played with the Denver Broncos from 2008 to 2009 (both 8-8) and those two Browns teams (both train wrecks). Not a huge stretch.
Hillis never lashed out at the Browns -- their parting was like a slow, quiet breakup you hear about through a friend of a friend when school starts up again -- but it's clear he's happy to be elsewhere: "(It was) a little combination of everything. I had the injury bug and kept on re-tweaking my hamstring, which was frustrating and then we were losing and got sick there," he said. "It was a combination of a lot of things. I'm just glad to be here in Kansas City now and start a new campaign somewhere else."
During Hillis' preseason with the Chiefs, we saw flashes of the wild behemoth act that made him such a pleasure to watch two years ago. He doesn't fit as the centerpiece of an offense -- which was part of the problem in Cleveland's talent-poor scheme -- but he's a dangerous addition to a team with some interesting weapons in Kansas City.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.
