A three-game stretch is typically not a large enough sample size to draw any legitimate conclusions, but in the case of Kenneth Walker, the Kansas City Chiefs are undoubtedly happy with their offseason purchase. After signing the running back to a three-year deal worth up to $45 million last March, the Chiefs have ridden an offensive resurgence to a 3-0 record and a chance at early AFC West supremacy if they can best the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.
If you ask Walker's former employers, the Seattle Seahawks, what they think in such a short span of time, they're likely drawing some conclusions of their own.
NFL reporter Jay Glazer has word that the Seahawks are looking at potentially signing free-agent running back Joe Mixon. That's an intriguing idea, since Mixon didn't even play a single snap in 2025 due to a foot injury that sidelined him for the year. Before that, however, Mixon was coming off consecutive 1,000-yard seasons with 20 combined rushing touchdowns for the Houston Texans.
Seahawks' backfield injuries have complicated life after Kenneth Walker
Whether or not Mixon works out for the Seahawks isn't all that important for our purposes, however. What is notable for Kansas City Chiefs fans is seeing how quickly things can fall apart for a franchise at one position, especially when its former star is turning into a superstar for his new team.
Remember, the Seahawks decided against re-signing Walker shortly after he won Super Bowl MVP in February because they had a number of significant financial decisions to make, and retaining a running back beyond his rookie deal wasn't one of them. Walker always had a nice running mate in Seattle in Zach Charbonnet, but Seattle also knew that he was going to need time to return from a torn ACL suffered in the postseason.
Charbonnet is still working his way back—the Seahawks activated his 21-day window to return to practice from injured reserve on October 1—but Seattle's contingency plan is also sitting on IR. The team used its first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft on Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price, but he just joined Charbonnet on the shelf. In addition, backup George Holani is nursing a rib injury, although he's expected to play all the same.
At this point, the Seahawks will roll with Holani, Emmanuel Wilson, and Velus Jones (who has a penchant for coughing up the football). That equals a pretty toothless ground game until proven otherwise, a reality that Chiefs Kingdom knows well after watching the anemic rushing results of each of the last two seasons in K.C.
Kenneth Walker has transformed the Chiefs' ground game
These days that's not the case. Walker is leading the NFL in rushing yards at 360, an average of 120 per game, to go with 11 catches for 82 yards. He has four total touchdowns for a Chiefs offense that is second in the NFL in total yardage, seventh in points scored, and fourth in scoring percentage (drives that end in an offensive score). It helps to have Patrick Mahomes back in MVP form and Travis Kelce looking years younger, but Walker is undoubtedly the catalyst for the elevated performance through three games.
Walker is currently averaging twice as many rushing yards per game as he did in his final season in Seattle (60 yards per game), but what's interesting is how much more effective he is with even greater usage. The Seahawks gave Walker 15 touches per game last season, and he averaged 5.2 yards with each opportunity. The Chiefs have given him 66 percent more touches (25 per game) and yet Walker is averaging 5.8 yards. Greater quantity has somehow given way to greater quality.
Of course, this brings up the original issue of the sample size. Three games makes for a flimsy argument, and defenses are going to continue to key in on Walker as a primary offensive threat when facing the Chiefs. That opens things up for Mahomes in the aerial attack, so the Chiefs likely won't mind, but Walker's totals might take a dip from those astronomical averages.
Still, what's important here is just how good Walker has looked so far at Arrowhead and how much Seattle is missing that sort of explosive presence in the backfield. The Seahawks knew that watching Walker leave would hurt while hoping their contingency plan would absorb the loss. But sometimes in the NFL, the dominoes fall in ways that a team can never expect, which is why the Seahawks are shopping for a running back who hasn't played in nearly two years.
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