Kenneth Walker III heads back to Seattle on Sunday night as the best running back in football — wearing different colors. The Kansas City Chiefs star leads the NFL with 665 rushing yards through five games, and his return to face the defending champion Seahawks is the headline act of Week 7’s primetime slate.
Walker has been everything the Chiefs paid for and more. He is averaging 6.3 yards per carry with six rushing touchdowns, adding two receiving scores for eight total touchdowns and 760 yards from scrimmage, according to Field Level Media. That puts him on pace for more than 2,200 rushing yards over a full season.
Kansas City signed Walker to a three-year, $43.05 million contract in March after he helped the Seahawks win Super Bowl LX and earned MVP honors in the process — 135 yards on 27 carries in Seattle’s 29-13 victory over New England, per FOX Sports and the Associated Press. Reports indicate Seattle never made him a formal offer in free agency, even after his postseason run drove his market up. League sources told The Athletic’s Michael-Shawn Dugar there were “no serious discussions” about a return.
No revenge talk — just business
Walker isn’t biting on the revenge angle. “I’m just focused on critiquing the mistakes we made,” he said this week, referring to last weekend’s sluggish 22-6 win over the winless Los Angeles Chargers. “Once we get to that point, we’ll see.”
Others had plenty to say. “I know it’s going to be a special moment for him to get back to the place where you kind of built your career and won a Super Bowl,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “But at the end of the day, we have to win a football game.” Seahawks safety Julian Love called it “weird for sure” watching film of Walker breaking off long runs for Kansas City: “His tape looks incredible. And so it’s all hands on deck to try to contain and try to stop him.”
A test for the 5-0 Chiefs
Seattle (3-3) knows Walker’s strengths better than anyone, and its run defense gets first crack at containing the man who was splitting carries with Zach Charbonnet there just months ago. For context on the Seahawks’ drop-off: the entire Seattle roster has managed 643 team rushing yards through six games — slightly fewer than Walker has by himself, per Particle News.
Kickoff is 7:20 p.m. Central on Sunday night. Kansas City arrives as one of three remaining unbeaten teams, and Walker’s old crowd will be waiting.
