Over the past month, there have only been two players in the NFL who have more total yards from scrimmage than Kansas City Chiefs second-year running back Charcandrick West.

The two players would be Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Antonio Brown (622) and Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson (578).

Coming into the season, several of the names on that list were supposed to be bona fide superstars.

Their names on the top of that list aren't a surprise, but the same can't be said for West, though a few more performances like we've seen over the past few games and that will quickly change.

For many outside of the Chiefs locker room, West seemingly came out of nowhere after the season-ending injury to the franchise's all-time leading rusher, Jamaal Charles, back in Week 5 against the Chicago Bears.

In the last three games against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions and Denver Broncos, West has 276 yards rushing and an additional 136 yards receiving with 4 total touchdowns.

He has stepped into the shoes of his superstar mentor and given the Chiefs a spark offensively.

West once again looked the part of a star on Sunday against the Broncos, helping pace a Chiefs offense with 161 total yards and 2 touchdowns.

"I've always felt like the sky's the limit for this team," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said on Sunday of their three-game winning streak. "So you lose Jamaal, you know you're not going to replace Jamaal with another Jamaal. He's going to go down, again, as one of the great players of this league, but other guys step up.

"Charcandrick West. Who was he before Jamaal Charles got injured?

"Now he's a factor, a definite factor."

West was a driving factor in the Chiefs decision to go with predominately heavy looks early in the game against the Broncos, going with multiple tight end personnel groups and having fullback Anthony Sherman see the most offensive snaps of his season since Week 1 against the Houston Texans.

The plan was for West and company to physically challenge the Broncos defense from the beginning.

"We felt that we could do some things there," Reid said of the heavy looks. "I thought [the Broncos] did a good job in the second half with some of the adjustments. We kind of had to retool some things, but we were able to finish strong with the run game."

On their first offensive drive, the Chiefs ran the ball up the middle four consecutive times with West, culminating with a 4-yard touchdown run to give the Chiefs an early 7-0 lead.

As the defense set the tone early with Marcus Peters' interception of Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning on his first passing attempt, the Chiefs offense set a tone early that it was going to be physical and go right through the heart of the Broncos defensive front.

"We started out showing we could really get physical with these guys and we could impose our will on them," fullback Anthony Sherman said after the game. "It worked and it felt really good."

Reid was pleased with the way his team physically handled a prideful Broncos defense.

"They came out with a lot of fire," Reid said of his team on Sunday. "I thought [we] kind of took the fight to them, which was important against that crew.

"That crew has the tendency to play through the whistle and do their thing, but I thought our guys handled that well."

West, in particular, who stands at just 5 feet 10 and 205 pounds and is known for being shifty and elusive, the physicality was something he was ready for on Sunday against a historically chirpy Broncos defense.

"That's playing football," West said of the downhill running attack. "It felt great. The guys up front did a great job.

"We fought for each other and came out with a victory."

The play that sealed the deal for the Chiefs on Sunday came from West, but it showed another side of his game that he hadn't yet had an opportunity to show people outside of the guys he practices with every day.

West took an Alex Smith pass 80 yards down the field for the game-sealing touchdown early in the fourth quarter, giving Broncos Pro Bowl safety T.J. Ward, who was the only one between West and the end zone, a pretty good move in the open field that had Ward stand flat-footed as West raced past him towards the end zone.  

"Coach Reid called a great play," West explained of that play. "The offensive line did a great job of blocking, picking up their guys and I just did the rest."

West showed some impressive breakaway speed on that touchdown.  

"He can scoot," Reid said. "He has to take like twice as many steps, but he can scoot – he's got those little short legs.

"He can go, we knew that, he hadn't had that opportunity to do that, but you got to see it there."

It started with physicality and ended with speed—West showed a little bit of everything against the Broncos on Sunday.