The Kansas City Chiefs made their big offseason move at running back and it wasn’t the one most people saw coming. Mock drafts had the Chiefs taking Notre Dame‘s Jeremiyah Love with the ninth overall pick.
Instead Kansas City went a different route and signed Kenneth Walker III in free agency to a three-year deal worth $43 million with incentives that can push it to $45 million. Walker slides into a backfield that lost Isiah Pacheco to the Detroit Lions and joins an offense still built around Patrick Mahomes.
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In the 2025 regular season he carried the ball 221 times for 1,027 yards and five touchdowns. He’s topped 1,000 yards twice in four NFL seasons and ran for 905 yards in just 15 games back in 2023.
Former Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III, now with the Kansas City Chiefs, poses with the MVP trophy.Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
(Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)
That kind of production doesn’t go unnoticed and Kansas City clearly decided he was worth the investment over a draft pick.
Andy Reid spoke about Walker this week at the NFL’s Annual League Meeting and gave a pretty clear picture of how he plans to use him. As noted by Jesse Mewell, Reid pointed out that Walker worked heavily out of the shotgun two seasons ago before shifting more under center last year and his numbers held up in both setups.
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That kind of flexibility matters a lot to Reid and the Chiefs are confident Walker can produce regardless of what the scheme asks of him.
It’s been a while since Kansas City had a running back with this kind of ceiling. Not since Kareem Hunt’s first run with the team from 2017 to 2018 has Reid had a back who brings this level of upside. When Hunt and Mahomes shared that field the Chiefs offense was nearly impossible to gameplan against.
Defenses were forced to pick their poison and rarely found a clean answer. Walker has the potential to create that same kind of problem for opposing coordinators. Emari Demercado was also added to provide depth behind him so the room isn’t thin either.
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What Walker brings that Kansas City genuinely missed last season is the ability to flip a broken play into a positive gain and turn a routine carry into something more. That explosive quality in the backfield hasn’t really been a consistent feature since Jamaal Charles was doing it in the 2010s.
With Travis Kelce back and Mahomes returning from a torn ACL Walker gives this offense another weapon that defenses cannot afford to ignore. The fit makes sense on paper and the Chiefs are clearly banking on it making sense on the field too.
Related: Dan Orlovsky Breaks Down Whether Kyler Murray Fits in Kevin O’Connell’s Offense
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Mar 31, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.