![\"Kenneth](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2261111841_36bb56-e1772208580486.jpg\")
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Kenneth Walker III #9 of the Seattle Seahawks <\/p>\n
The Seattle Seahawks<\/a>, after reaching the pinnacle of the sport, are now facing the consequences of being a Super Bowl champion. So far, the team has lost its offensive coordinator, Klint Kubiak, and multiple impact defensive players have moved on to other teams, including Boye Mafe<\/a>, Riq Woolen<\/a>, and Coby Bryant<\/a>. The Seahawks even lost their Super Bowl MVP running back, Kenneth Walker III<\/a>.<\/p>\n Players leave for several reasons, including money and playing time, and in the case of Walker, it appears to be both.<\/p>\n Walker signed a three-year, $43 million deal with the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>, and beyond the money, he was wooed by the idea of being the Chiefs\u2019 lead running back, something that was not always true for him in Seattle.<\/p>\n Irked By Decreased Workload<\/p>\n Coming into last season, Kenneth Walker III and how much playing time he would get were topics of discussion. Zach Charbonnet<\/a> was starting to emerge in 2024, and after a productive rookie season, Walker struggled to remain healthy for a full season.<\/p>\n In 2025, Walker proved he could remain healthy for a full season, playing in all 17 games and the Seahawks three postseason games. Walker had 221 carries for 1027 yards and five touchdowns, his first 1,000-yard season since his rookie year in 2022. However, Walker was still a part of a two-headed backfield in Seattle.<\/p>\n Charbonnet had a career year himself, with 184 carries for 730 yards and 12 touchdowns. The two were a dynamic duo, but Walker privately wanted more for himself.<\/p>\n Gregg Bell of The Tacoma News Tribune<\/a>, in his March 9 article, wrote about how the Seahawks utilized the two-man backfield to help preserve Walker\u2019s health.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Seahawks planned all this past season to audition Zach Charbonnet for a possible takeover the lead-back role in 2026. Charbonnet shined in a job share that was partly to preserve Walker to get through all 17 games of the regular season,\u201d Bell reported. \u201cHe did, playing a full season for the first time in his four years with the team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, Walker wanted to prove he could be the main back in an offense, which he wasn\u2019t given the chance to do in Seattle for much of the season.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the job share privately irked Walker. He had 47% of the Seahawks\u2019 offense snaps this past season, to Charbonnet\u2019s 49%. Charbonnet was Seattle\u2019s third-down and red-zone running back,\u201d Bell wrote. \u201cHe scored 12 rushing touchdowns. That was the most for the Seahawks since Marshawn Lynch in their last Super Bowl season of 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, Walker is looking to see if the grass is greener in Kansas City.<\/p>\n Feeling Appreciated\u00a0<\/p>\n When Kenneth Walker III signed with the Chiefs on a deal that makes him the fifth-highest-paid running back, according to Over The Cap<\/a>, it signaled how much the Chiefs value Walker.\u00a0<\/p>\n Feeling valued and appreciated was an important aspect of the deal, along with the massive payday. During his introductory press conference with the Chiefs, Walker discussed feeling valued. Peter Sweeney of The Kansas City Star<\/a> wrote about Walker feeling appreciated by the Chiefs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means a lot,\u201d Walker said. \u201cYou feel appreciated and wanted \u2014 that\u2019s what everybody wants. So I\u2019m just happy to get in here and get to know the guys and work.\u201d<\/p>\n Walker finished his career in Seattle as strong as possible, leading the Seahawks to their second Super Bowl in franchise history with 65 carries for 313 yards and four touchdowns in three games on his way to being Super Bowl MVP. He will look to continue to prove in Kansas City that he has what it takes to be the main guy at running back.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tChad Gelfand<\/a> Chad Gelfand is a journalist covering the NFL with focus on the Baltimore Ravens, Seattle Seahawks, and Carolina Panthers for Heavy.com. Gelfand has over six years of writing experience.
\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Seahawks\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Kenneth Walker III #9 of the Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks, after reaching the pinnacle of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,6,238,237,261,2635],"class_list":{"0":"post-814307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-seahawks","11":"tag-seattle","12":"tag-seattle-seahawks","13":"tag-seattleseahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814307","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=814307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nGelfand previously covered the Philadelphia Eagles for Last Word On Sports. He also has experience writing in the worlds of entertainment and wrestling.
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\nGelfand was an Entertainment writer for the List.com, and a contributor for Fansided’s wrestling website Daily DDT and The Wrestling Estate. Gelfand has also appeared multiple times as a guest on POST Wrestling’s “Bushby and Thompson’s Wrestling Adventure” podcast. More about Chad Gelfand<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n