As the Kansas City Chiefs hope to bounce back after a miserable 2025 season, one area they're needing to see improvement from is at running back. The Chiefs have not had much of a run game to speak of during Patrick Mahomes' pro career and Brett Veach finally decided to give him and the offense some help there.
The addition of Kenneth Walker has fans feeling optimistic about the future of the Chiefs' rushing attack. Walker is the reigning Super Bowl MVP and should hopefully give this offense the spark it's been desperately missing.
That being said, Mina Kimes had to give all of us a painful reminder about just how bad the run game in Kansas City has been. While discussing the Walker addition on The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny, Kimes didn't shy away from criticizing the recent failures of this Chiefs run game.
"... people are sleeping on how bad this run game was and how kind of artificially inflated it's been by a few things. They finished seventh in rushing success rate last year. But when you take out quarterback runs and then short yardage runs — I just literally took out only 2nd and Short, 3rd and Short, 4th and Short — they dropped to 29th. Mahomes and the fact that they faced the most light boxes in football has almost covered up for how bad this run game has been over the last two years."
Mina Kimes puts Chiefs' run game woes on blast
Kimes isn't wrong with what she's saying here. The run game has been comically bad in Kansas City and that has to change if this team wants to get back to being a contender.
The good news is that Veach finally decided to do something about it rather than running it back with what clearly wasn't working. Walker is a big addition but Emari Demercado and Emmett Johnson will hopefully be impactful additions to this offense as well.
With Mahomes returning from a major injury, it's important for the pieces around him to be as stacked as possible. Having a reliable run game to lean on will be massive for Mahomes as he gets his football legs back under him. It'll also open up the offense because opposing defenses will be left guessing what Andy Reid, Eric Bieniemy, and the rest of the unit is cooking up.
It's been painful watching this Chiefs rushing attack underperform in recent years but hopefully, it won't be an issue anymore.
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