Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III (9) dives in for a touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers during the second quarter on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. (Tribune News Service)
Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III (9) dives in for a touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers during the second quarter on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. (Tribune News Service)
Welcome to Kenneth Walker III week in Seattle, even if for many it won’t necessarily be a cause for celebration.
Walker’s pending return to Lumen Field next Sunday with the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs instead figures to elicit a week of increasingly heated debate about the decisions that led to his departure last March.
Walker, recall, signed a three-year contract with the Chiefs worth up to $43.05 million as a free agent a month after winning Super Bowl MVP honors, rushing for 135 yards on 27 carries as the Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 29-13.
While some questioned that move at the time, even more began to do so as Walker got off to a hot start with the Chiefs and combined with the return to health of quarterback Patrick Mahomes to again make Kansas City a legit Super Bowl contender.
Those who think Seattle blew it letting Walker walk got even more ammo over the past week as the Seahawks lost twice in five days, due mostly to an inconsistent and turnover-prone offense that has struggled to replicate the running success of a year ago, while Walker continued what has been an historically hot start.
Walker rushed for 128 yards on 19 carries with two touchdowns to lead the Chiefs to a 22-6 win over the Chargers on Sunday to improve Kansas City’s record to 5-0. Walker leads the NFL with 665 yards rushing and a whopping average of 6.3 yards per carry.
Walker’s total is 22 more yards than Seattle has as a team despite having played one fewer game (the Chiefs have already had their bye).
Walker on Sunday also became only the second player since 1970 to rush for more than 650 yards with six or more rushing touchdowns in his team’s first five games, according to Pro Football Focus.
The other? Terrell Davis of Denver in 1998, the year he rushed for 2,008 yards and captured NFL MVP honors.
Walker is on pace to not only top Davis’ total but also to break the all-time NFL single-season rushing mark of 2,105 by Eric Dickerson in 1984. Walker is averaging 133 yards per game, on pace for 2,261.
Dickerson set the record in a 16-game season. But Walker’s pace would allow him to surpass Dickerson’s total in 16 games as Walker is averaging 133 yards per game compared to the 131.6 Dickerson averaged in 1984.
Only two players have averaged more yards per game in an NFL season than Walker’s current pace — O.J. Simpson with Buffalo in 1973 when he averaged 143.1 yards in becoming the first player in NFL history to top the 2,000-yard mark at 2,003, and Jim Brown of Cleveland in 1963 at 133.1 per game when he rushed for a then-record 1,863 yards, the iconic number Simpson broke a decade later.
Now Walker brings all those glittering numbers — which includes 15 straight games in which his team has won — to Seattle to face a defense that has not allowed a 100-yard rusher in its last 35 games.
The last running back to rush for 100 or more yards against Seattle was Buffalo’s James Cook, who gained 111 on Oct. 27, 2024 — two years minus two days from when Walker returns to Lumen Field on Sunday.
It’ll be Walker’s first time back in Lumen since the parade to celebrate the Super Bowl on Feb. 11.
Walker signed with the Chiefs after his rookie contract ran out following four seasons with the Seahawks. Seattle declined to place a franchise tag on him that would have meant a contract for the 2026 season at a guaranteed $14.5 million with the ability to continue to negotiate a longer-term deal.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider had seemed to foreshadow Walker’s departure when he spoke to reporters at the NFL combine in February — a few days before the franchise-tag deadline — and said that “we’d love to have Ken back (but) it’s about our 70 (players, 53 on the active roster plus 17 on the practice squad for the 2026 season), our collective and what that’s gonna look like.
Meaning, the team couldn’t pay everybody who needed or wanted a new contract and some hard calls would be made.
And instead of paying Walker, the Seahawks instead signed receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and cornerback Devon Witherspoon to new deals keeping them with the organization through 2031, making each the highest-paid players at their position in league history. Seattle also extended defensive lineman Leonard Williams and outside linebacker Derick Hall, and re-signed receiver Rashid Shaheed, after also extending left tackle Charles Cross shortly before the 2025 season ended.
Walker, meanwhile, signed a three-year contract with the Chiefs in March with a $14.35 million average that at the time was the fourth-highest in the NFL for a running back.
It’s since fallen to ninth as five other running backs inked new deals, led by Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs at $22.5 million, the highest for a back in NFL history. Walker’s guaranteed money of $28.7 million is also now ninth among running backs.
Along with prioritizing positional needs, the Seahawks are also thought to have been concerned whether the 25-year-old Walker could continue to hold up physically as well as he had in 2025, when he played all 17 regular-season and postseason games.
He missed six games in 2024 due to injuries and the team managed him carefully through that offseason to get him healthy and then used him in a time share with Zach Charbonnet — Walker played 498 snaps in 2025, Charbonnet 490, each at 46% — to keep him healthy through the season.
Walker, meanwhile, is thought to have desired a chance to be the main ball carrier somewhere as he now is with the Chiefs; he’d played 75% of snaps this season heading into Sunday.
While early returns on the decision don’t favor Seattle, some on the Seahawks side might caution that it’s worth checking back in a few years.
Schneider also said the week after Walker signed with the Chiefs that the Seahawks were confident they could replace his production, if not with one player, at least by committee.
“That’s a position that you can find guys,” Schneider said during an appearance on Seattle Sports 710 in late March. “And obviously, (Walker was) outstanding, and everybody’s really excited for him. I mean, that’s a great, great contract for a running back. But George (Holani) did a great job (at the end of the 2025 season). We’re really excited about Emanuel Wilson, who we got from Green Bay, a heavy runner with really nice feet.”
The Seahawks a month later drafted Jadarian Price out of Notre Dame in the first round, adding him to a group that they also anticipated would eventually include Charbonnet as he recovers from an ACL injury.
Seattle, though, has yet to really see if that plan might work as Price has played just three games due to a chest injury — and won’t play against the Chiefs as that’s the last game he is required to spend on injured reserve — while Charbonnet has yet to play.
But adding to the bevy of fevered storylines this week is that Charbonnet may finally get back on the field Sunday against the Chiefs for the first time since tearing his ACL on Jan. 17.
What’s certain is that Walker will make his return to Seattle, bringing with him almost as many what-ifs and what-might-have-beens as yards.
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Jesse Tinsley
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Jim Meehan