Kenneth Walker III is Exactly What the Chiefs Needed

The Chiefs made one of the biggest moves in free agency by signing running back and Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III.

Walker should help improve a run game that has struggled in recent years. Last season, K.C. ranked just 20th in yards per rush and 23rd in runs of 10 yards or more. The year before, they ranked 29th and 32nd respectively.

He’ll add an element of explosiveness and provide another way for Andy Reid to attack defenses.

We’ll get into more of that below. But one of the reasons I love this move is because it shows a clear recognition by the Chiefs that they need to do more to support Patrick Mahomes by having elements to the offense that don’t necessarily depend on him.

You don’t need me to go chapter and verse through why Mahomes is a great quarterback. He could retire tomorrow and he’d be a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer.

However, the one thing I will point out (and I might be in the minority on this) is that Mahomes is at his best when he’s playing in rhythm and within structure.

I know that’s a weird thing to say because he’s so good (arguably the best we’ve ever seen) at making second-reaction plays outside the pocket.

But when he’s been at his worst, whether it was Super Bowl LV against the Buccaneers, or last year’s Super Bowl against the Eagles, or the 2021 AFC Championship Game loss to the Bengals, or random spurts throughout the 2021-25 seasons, it’s been when he has tried to force the play-making instead of letting the game come to him. It’s been when he’s abandoned the design of the play too early and unnecessarily.

The Chiefs, believe it or not, need to reel him in.

I get that might be counter-intuitive. You don’t want to put a saddle on a mustang. And to be clear, they don’t need (and shouldn’t try) to remove his desire to run around and make plays entirely.

But the Chiefs need to find ways to make him play within structure more frequently. Because he is really damn good when he does. And the Chiefs offense is at its best when he does.

Having a back like Walker should give Andy Reid the ability to lean more on the run game. He’ll be able to get more out of his screens too. The protection will be better as defenses have to honor both.

This will hopefully give Mahomes the ability to trust what’s around him and realize that he doesn’t need to try and do everything himself. He can take more breaks, give the ball to his running back, and the offense will still be able to pick up yards and keep marching forward.

And just maybe that will get Mahomes to feel less of a need to force the issue. He’ll be more inclined to stick with the design of the play. And the offense will perhaps regain the consistency that once made it seemingly unstoppable.