{"id":855803,"date":"2026-04-05T21:45:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T21:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/855803\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T21:45:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T21:45:25","slug":"nfl-exec-didnt-mind-seahawks-letting-kenneth-walker-leave-for-chiefs-for-two-reasons-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/855803\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL exec didn&#8217;t mind Seahawks letting Kenneth Walker leave for Chiefs for two reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nfl\/seattle-seahawks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a> were faced with a litany of very difficult decisions this offseason when it came to free agency. Though they had a plan, they still lost a lot of key players.<\/p>\n<p>Coby Bryant went to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nfl\/chicago-bears\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Bears<\/a>, Tariq Woolen to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nfl\/philadelphia-eagles\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>, Boye Mafe to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nfl\/cincinnati-bengals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>, and most notably, Kenneth Walker III to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nfl\/kansas-city-chiefs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While losing Walker, their Super Bowl 60 MVP, stings, one NFL executive, according to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7167213\/2026\/04\/03\/nfl-free-agency-2026-nfc-execs-best-worst\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mike Sando of The Athletic<\/a>, actually didn&#8217;t mind the decision for two main reasons.<\/p>\n<p>NFL exec didn&#8217;t mind Seahawks letting Kenneth Walker leave<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t mind them letting the back go for that price,&#8221; one NFL executive said. &#8220;They will draft one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The two reasons why this NFL executive didn&#8217;t mind this decision from Seattle are clear: Walker&#8217;s price tag and how the Seahawks can address the position now that he&#8217;s gone.<\/p>\n<p>Walker cost the Chiefs over $40 million over just three seasons, with the deal reaching upwards of $45 million, or $15 million per-year.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s a lot of money for a running back, especially for the Seahawks, who have massive deals with Jaxon Smith-Njigba and soon Devon Witherspoon on the horizon.<\/p>\n<p>More:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nfl\/seattle-seahawks\/news\/seahawks-ideal-fit-draft-arkansas-rb-ran-433-40-yard-dash\/a9218b7ca21b8214594ae08f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mike Washington Jr. is Seahawks ideal R2 draft pick<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The other reason why Walker&#8217;s leaving isn&#8217;t a move that this NFL executive minded is that the Seahawks can land a running back in the NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>While they can&#8217;t get Jermiyah Love, one of Jadarian Price, Mike Washington Jr., or a few other running backs would be a decent Day 2 or 3 option for Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>There isn&#8217;t a clear replacement for Walker, but between the price tag for the Super Bowl MVP and the possibility for a rookie in the 2026 NFL Draft, the Seahawks decision to let Walker leave in free agency is one that this NFL executive didn&#8217;t mind.<\/p>\n<p>More Seahawks news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Seattle Seahawks were faced with a litany of very difficult decisions this offseason when it came to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,6,238,237,261,2635],"class_list":{"0":"post-855803","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\/855803","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=855803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}