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Seattle Seahawks stud Kenneth Walker III absolutely needs to get more touches

Seattle's star running back was insanely explosive against the Rams. Why isn't Klint Kubiak dialing up No. 9 more often?
Dec 18, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) reacts after a first down against the Los Angeles Rams in the first half at Lumen Field.
Dec 18, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) reacts after a first down against the Los Angeles Rams in the first half at Lumen Field. | Kevin Ng-Imagn Images

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Football is an exceedingly complex game with more factors going into wins and losses than one can even count. However, you can do worse than living by the simple principle of getting your best players on the field and putting them in position to succeed.

On that note, the Seattle Seahawks offense may want to change course at the running back position. That's where they have a special playmaker in Kenneth Walker III, who kept Seattle alive long enough on Thursday night to give them a chance at their furious comeback against the Rams.

Walker's 55-yard touchdown run and 46-yard catch and showcased an explosive ability that only one other player on the roster has on this side of the ball. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is going to get his touches, but unfortunately Walker just isn't getting enough opportunities to take full advantage of what he can do with the ball in his hands.

Here's what Eric Edholm at NFL.com had to say about Walker's contributions, despite getting a relatively small portion of the offensive pie.

Kenneth Walker III
Dec 18, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Los Angeles Rams in the second half at Lumen Field. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

NFL.com on Kenneth Walker III

"He received a ton of help from Kenneth Walker III, who ran for 100 yards and a 55-yard TD that gave the Seahawks a lead early in the third quarter they were frankly lucky to have. He also had three catches for 64 more yards and chased down the Rams’ Josh Wallace to stop him at Seattle's 1-yard line after an interception... Why Walker only received 14 touches is anyone’s guess, but he gave the Seahawks everything he could Thursday night, with every yard counting in the massive win."

Instead of feeding Walker as much as they can, the Seahawks have adopted an arbitrary backfield sharing arrangement all season.

At first it was something like a 50/50 split between Walker and Zach Charbonnnet. The justification for this was that the Seahawks wanted to manage a minor foot injury for Walker in order to get him through the entire season healthy.

Eventually, Walker played so well that it no longer made sense to do anything but give him a proper workload for a true RB1. However, that didn't last long - and we're now back to splitting reps for Walker and Charbonnet like they're Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomey, rather than the one-man-show that this depth chart really is.

We're now basically to the end of the season - so protecting Walker's foot no longer qualifies as a reason for managing his workload. While it's remarkably explosive, Seattle's offense is too inconsistent not to be maximizing Walker's potential at all times.

Hopefully offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak abandons the current arrangement and embraces K9 as much as possible in the last two games and into the playoffs.

Kenneth Walker III
Steven Bisig-Imagn Images | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

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Tim Weaver
TIM WEAVER

Tim Weaver has been writing about the NFL since the 2013 season for multiple teams and outlets, including USA Today and The Sporting News. He currently covers the Seattle Seahawks and Carolina Panthers for On SI.