With Kenneth Walker III, Patrick Mahomes Won’t Have to Play As Much Hero Ball

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Since 2022, Kenneth Walker III has posted seasons with 29, 24, 13 and 33 explosive runs. If you remove that 13, which came in a uniquely dysfunctional first-year Mike Macdonald offense (then coordinator Ryan Grubb was let go for Klint Kubiak and a favored Shanahan-style running game), the remaining numbers are a fairly strong testament to the notion that Walker’s ability to create extra yardage is not scheme dependent.

Walker, who signed with the Chiefs on Monday, was fourth in the league last year in broken tackles and ninth in 2023. Despite Walker’s relatively low number of yards after first contact (which can be highly dependent on a few average-altering chunk runs) his metrics and play style reflect a running back who can succeed in myriad conditions.

All of this was occurring while Seattle’s offensive line was posting dismal run-block win rates. During Walker’s tenure, the Seahawks were 24th, 30th and 28th before cracking the top 10 for the first time after revitalizing the unit via the draft and developing the position under a new offensive coordinator.

If this was not reason enough to justify the Chiefs spending “up to”—quoting the oft-used dubious insider phrase reflecting the unobtainable max value of a contract—$45 million to sign Walker as the dawn broke on NFL free agency, consider Kansas City’s individual successes outside of Patrick Mahomes in the run game during that same window.

If you combine all of Kansas City’s running backs, the number of explosive runs in each of the past four seasons were 20, 14, 21 and 20. Over the past six seasons, only Clyde Edwards-Helaire as a rookie in 2020 cracked the top 20 in broken tackles. And, Kansas City’s run-block win rate success during that time was almost consistently in the top 10.

The Chiefs’ statement was clear: After years of searching and patchworking, the impatience over a lack of a difference-making running back reached its boiling point. This is especially true after a season in which Mahomes was often Kansas City’s best running option and spent the early portion of the season hurling the most valuable shoulder in the NFL into oncoming defenders while desperately trying to move the football without Rashee Rice. Bringing back Eric Bieniemy, a former running back, as offensive coordinator, couldn’t have hurt as the signing was being debated.

This also likely means that, at pick No. 9 in the upcoming draft, Kansas City either believed itself to be out of the Jeremiyah Love sweepstakes—which would’ve brought the former Missouri prep school star back toward home—or that certain other occurrences (like trading their top cornerback to the Rams) meant reprioritized the team’s two first-round picks.

Either way, Walker was a smart signing because he has demonstrated the ability to punish opponents in an amenable run offense or in really no offense at all. Kansas City’s offense, which relies almost solely on the playmaking ability and preferences of Mahomes, fits into that latter category (reminiscent of the fact that, until Peyton Manning played in a Gary Kubiak offense, his most successful backs were ones who could generate offense less as part of the scheme and more as an on-demand playmaker when defenses presented the ideal look). My guess is the Chiefs appreciated what Walker had done before the arrivals of Kubiak and Sam Darnold more than after, when conditions were ripe to pave the way for a Super Bowl MVP season.

A staggering 38 of Patrick Mahomes’s 64 rushing attempts last year came over the first six weeks of the season, and Mahomes is now coming off the first significant injury of his career—an ACL tear in December that may or may not cause him to miss games in 2026. This would’ve made failing to bolster the backfield akin to managerial malpractice.

The Chiefs are never going to stop Mahomes from tapping into his essence. He is a creator in the backfield and, even if he has borrowed from the Tom Brady school of quarterback longevity and has invested strategically in a mid-range passing game that has him getting the ball out of his hands faster than almost any other quarterback in the sport, only a true self-contained running game was going to prevent Mahomes from committing to a lifetime of hero ball.

Walker is closer to that archetype than any other back in free agency. This class was littered with backs who fit more of the Jerick McKinnon archetype, which existed more to be a consistent outlet valve for Mahomes if he couldn’t find a better read or to swing a critical block against a free rusher.

Last year, Kansas City saw Mahomes at his most desperate and reckless. And so, pivoting from the norm was their only option.

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