Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III celebrated his Super Bowl LX MVP honors by reflecting on the team's brotherhood. By Brian Hayes
The Seahawks aren’t likely to use the franchise tag on Kenneth Walker.
Oh, and it rains in Seattle in the winter.
Those truths remained evident Tuesday. It was the first day of the NFL’s two-week window for teams to use franchise-tag designations to keep players with expiring contracts from entering free agency. And it appears the Seahawks will do what they almost always do with that.
Each team gets one franchise and one transition tag per year, according to the league’s collective bargaining agreement. But a team does not have to use it.
The Seahawks in 16 years with John Schneider as their general manager have used the franchise tag just once. That was in Schneider’s and then-coach Pete Carroll’s first months on the job in Seattle, in February 2010. They used the tag on kicker Olindo Mare.
In 2019 Schneider used the franchise-tag designation on defensive end Frank Clark — but only to buy the Seahawks time for an eventual sign-and-trade deal that sent Clark to the Kansas City Chiefs on a rich, new contract a month and a half later.
So the report Tuesday from ESPN’s Adam Schefter that the Seahawks are “unlikely” to use the franchise tag on Walker wasn’t exactly breaking news about the running back named the Super Bowl most valuable player nine days earlier.
It’s the way Schneider usually does Seattle’s business at this point in the offseason with his pending free agents.
Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider hugs Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) after beating the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif. Brian Hayes bhayes@thenewstribune.com
The franchise tag keeps a player who is weeks from free agency, with his contract expired, from actually entering the market. Schneider prefers to keep open the possibility of signing his players on expired contracts to deals that have better salary-cap charges for the coming season than what the franchise tag would cost his team, both in real cash and accounting charges against the cap.
The franchise-tag value for running backs for 2026 is expected to $14.5 million. That’s the average of the top five average annual value of contracts at the position. If it’s an exclusive franchise tag, no team can match; a non-exclusive franchise tag gives other clubs the right to match that tag number — but would cost that other, signing club a first-round draft choice due to the team that tagged then lost the player.
The running-back franchise-tag cost would be a guaranteed $14.5 million for Walker for next season. That’s whether or not he gets injured at the sport’s most injured position. The $14.5 million all would immediately go on Seattle’s salary cap for 2026.
That’s why the Seahawks don’t like to use it.
Instead, Schneider’s M.O. has been to:
1. Let the player go into free agency to shop, then ask that he bring back to the Seahawks his offer to allow Seattle to decide if the team wants to match.
Or, 2. Strike a multiyear contract in the 11th hour, in the days before free agency begins. The multiyear deal spreads signing-bonus and salary charges across the length of the deal, resulting in a lower cap charge for the current league year. The 2026 league year begins March 9.
Such a deal now for Walker would indeed be in the 11th hour.
More like the 11th and a half hour.
Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) is tackled during Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. Hector Amezcua
How Seahawks, Walker got here
The team has had all this past season including the summer in training camp before it to re-sign Walker. The Seahawks didn’t partly, perhaps largely, over concerns about injury. He was coming off a high-ankle sprain that put him on injured reserve to end the 2024 season. Other injuries cost him 10 games over his first three NFL seasons with Seattle. He had a foot issue through training camp in August.
Walker told The News Tribune at the Super Bowl in San Jose, California, four days before he rushed for 135 yards in the NFL title game Feb. 8 the Seahawks had not approached him or his agents about a new deal.
“Not that I know of,” Walker told the TNT at the San Jose Convention Center Feb. 4.
Those are the same words he said about the situation during training camp six months earlier. Walker fired his agents of his first three-plus NFL years and hired David Canter and Ness Mugradbi of the Florida-based Aura Sports Group the week of the NFC championship game last month.
A day after his performance earned him the Super Bowl MVP award in Seattle’s 29-13 win over New England in Super Bowl 60, Walker reiterated he wanted to re-sign with the Seahawks. They drafted him in the second round in 2022, out of Michigan State and Wake Forest.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he said Feb. 9 at his MVP press conference in San Francisco.
Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) runs the ball during Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. Hector Amezcua
“Sh**t, I’m Super Bowl MVP,” Walker said. “I’m happy.”
No wonder. His value has never been, and may be, higher in the NFL.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell hands Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) the Super Bowl MVP trophy during a press conference after winning Super Bowl LX at Moscone Center on Feb. 8, 2026 in San Fransisco. Brian Hayes bhayes@thenewstribune.com
Kenneth Walker’s value
Walker is 25 years old. He is coming off the first season of his four-year career in which he played every game. He rushed for 1,027 yards in all 17 games, his second 1,000-yard season. In November, coach Mike Macdonald said Walker was “showing he deserves more opportunities.”
Then over his last six games, including three in the postseason, Walker rushed for 561 yards with five touchdowns plus had another 210 yards on 18 receptions. He had 771 yards from scrimmage in the six biggest games of Seattle’s Super Bowl-championship season, the six biggest games of his life. With the entire league and 200 million people worldwide watching.
That’s likely to drive up Walker’s price above $8-9 million per season. That’s also likely to attract multiple, rich offers in free agency.
Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III, center right with OAKLEY across his forehead, listens to tight end AJ Barner speak from the stage during the team’s Super Bowl trophy celebration event at Lumen Field on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Seattle. Liesbeth Powers lpowers@thenewstribune.com
The closer the Seahawks and Walker get to the first day of free-agent negotiations March 9, the less of a chance he returns to Seattle. Walker is weeks from a generational-wealth contract in free agency, the one that all football players dream about when they first begin contemplating the possibility of playing in the NFL.
The rub for Walker: He plays the position with the shortest career span in the sport. GMs from other teams are reluctant to spend huge dollars on multiyear deals beyond relatively cheap rookie contracts on running back for fear of injury.
Many around the Seahawks believe Walker played all 20 games this past season because he was in a job share with Zach Charbonnet. That was initially to manage that foot pain Walker had into August.
What changed in the last month in the Seahawks’ thinking of their future at running back beyond the 2025 season: Charbonnet got hurt. His season-ending torn knee ligament in the NFC divisional playoff game win over San Francisco was why Walker had the lead-back role to himself in the conference title game and the Super Bowl, for the first time this season.
Charbonnet’s torn anterior cruciate ligament typically takes eight to 12 months before a return to play. That would be September into next season, the final one of Charbonnet’s contract. If the Seahawks don’t re-sign Walker, they will begin their defense of their Super Bowl title next September with two new, top running backs. In an offense based on the outside-zone run game that worked so well to end this past season with wins when the stakes were highest.
All that is why the Seahawks being unlikely to use the franchise tag on Walker doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t want to have him back.