On February 8, running back Kenneth Walker turned 29 offensive touches into 161 scrimmage yards as the Seattle Seahawks soundly defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX.
Although Walker later held the Super Bowl MVP trophy on Levi’s Field in Santa Clara, California, that night was the final game of his four-year Seahawks career. Walker hit the open free agency market and quickly signed a three-year contract with the Kansas City Chiefs worth over $14 million annually.
Early returns suggest the Chiefs got a bargain—and the Seahawks may have committed a major personnel blunder. Walker leads the league with 665 rushing yards. That total is particularly eye-opening because the Chiefs have already had their bye week, and Walker has one less game played than the next three running backs on the cumulative list.
Conversely, the Seahawks only have 643 rushing yards as a team over six games.
In Week 7, the Chiefs will travel to Seattle to face the Seahawks — and many of Walker’s former teammates — on “Sunday Night Football.” Expect the league’s top rusher to keep a low profile on the homecoming aspect.
“It’s been smooth,” Walker said on Friday about his feelings on the matchup. “I’m treating it like any other week. I’m just getting the plan down and getting ready for Sunday night.”
Earlier in the week, head coach Andy Reid expressed confidence that Walker would handle the Seattle return appropriately — particularly the extra burden of preparing against defenders who will be very familiar with his game.
“He’s wired right to do it,” Reid remarked on Wednesday. “One thing when you’re on a team, everybody knows your strengths and weaknesses and your quirks and everything else. So, I’m sure the boys there will try to get after him a little bit, but he’s a pretty level-headed guy. The way he plays, you’re getting a good rep when he gets the ball in his hands. He’s kind of got one speed. He’s coming at you. It really doesn’t matter, I don’t think, who he’s playing, where he’s playing, all that.”
At Lumen Field, one of the NFL’s loudest venues, the same fans who once cheered on Walker will now try to throw him off. He may also face on-field trash-talk from former teammates.
“[Walker] knows it’s going to be loud,” Reid predicted, “and I’m sure his guys will be talking to him a little bit. He’s pretty level-headed that way. I think he has a pretty good idea of what to expect there, and that doesn’t mean they don’t like him and respect him, but that’s just what guys do. So, I’m sure they’ll try to give him the business. But he’s level-headed, and the kid’s got one speed. So, it doesn’t matter if he’s playing in a McDonald’s parking lot, he’s going to go fast — and that’s what he does and plays hard.”
Walker has discussed his Seattle return with Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, who played running back for three NFL teams.
“It was mainly me and EB talking about how he went to a former team and how he felt about stuff and giving me pointers on stuff like that,” Walker recalled. “But you can’t make it bigger than what it is. I’m not the only one on this team; everybody’s going out there and playing a game. I don’t feel like it should be just about me, if that makes sense.”
Walker’s most famous teammate agrees the Seahawks are one of a season’s worth of opponents, but expects the running back to have extra motivation.
“I know it’s going to be a special moment for him,” said quarterback Patrick Mahomes on Wednesday. “You get to go back to the place where you kind of built your career, where you win a Super Bowl. I know how special that is being here. And those fans are kind of the people that were around him for all of that. And those are still a lot of the guys that were his teammates that he kind of grew up with as well in the NFL.
“So, it’ll be a special moment for him. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to win a football game, and he knows that we have his back. We’re going to go out there and try to do whatever we can to win the game.”
