It's been an eventful week for the Kansas City Chiefs, in free agency, and one of the more buzzworthy moves this team has made came when Brett Veach brought in the reigning Super Bowl MVP, running back Kenneth Walker III.
At a position the Chiefs have long-needed to find a difference maker, Walker comes in and provides precisely that. The explosiveness and big play ability is something Kansas City has been missing in their back field for a while now.
And yet, there are some out there who disagree with that notion. CBS Sports' Pete Prisco went on the air following the Chiefs' big move and, among a few sentiments, called Walker "just a guy."
"There's no question it's an upgrade, but you can also find backs. They found [Isiah] Pacheco in the seventh round! You can find backs. You can draft them ... I'm not paying a running back that kind of money... particularly a guy who, for most of last year, was just a guy. And for most of his career, has had injury problems and was just a guy."
All due respect to Mr. Prisco, who is absolutely one of the best in the business, no question ... I respectfully and wholeheartedly disagree with this idea.
New Kansas City Chiefs RB Kenneth Walker is anything but 'just a guy' and the numbers back it up
First and foremost, let's address the fact that Walker finished last season 20th in carries, overall. He was not a bell cow, by any means. The Seattle Seahawks were committed to the run, but used Zach Charbonnet quite often as well.
Charbonnet finished with a towering 184 carries of his own.
With that context in mind, let's remind everybody that Walker finished 3rd in all of football in runs over 20 yards with 10 such scampers. Kareem Hunt had one. Pacheco, meanwhile, finished with a season-long of 16 yards.
Derrick Henry led the league with 17, and I imagine if Walker was given another 40 carries, or so, he'd have finished just beneath the King.
Next order of business is the fact that Walker lost zero fumbles last season. For a running back to have a total of over 250 touches, receptions included, and not lose a single fumble, is another sign that he's not just some guy.
Walker only fumbled once, last year, mind you, and the Seahawks recovered.
Finally, how about we talk some efficeincy?
Would you venture to guess it was "just a guy" who averaged more yards per carry than Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, Ashton Jeanty, Travis Etienne, Breece Hall and Josh Jacobs, just to name a few?
Because that's exactly what Walker did.
To Prisco's point about injury problems, Walker played in all 17 games in 2025. He missed six games in 2024, which is a fair point. But in each of his first two seasons, Walker played in 15 games. Bruises and bumps are going to happen. 15 games is perfectly serviceable.
Once more, I respect the heck out of Prisco and his tenure covering the league. But, in my humble opinion, he got this one dead wrong, and Chiefs fans know it.