It can't be possible that when the Seattle Seahawks decided to let Kenneth Walker III leave in free agency, they had the insider’s scoop that he would be doing what he's doing for the Kansas City Chiefs right now and still let him go. They knew they were losing a good running back, but unlikely a great one.
Walker is making the Seahawks look bad; there's no way around it. While he's putting up historic numbers, Seattle has had virtually no running game through four weeks of the season. Their best ground performance came against the Los Angeles Chargers, led by Emanuel Wilson's 81 rushing yards.
With injuries also in play, the Seahawks are in the middle of signing other running backs to keep things afloat. Meanwhile, in Kansas City, the Chiefs appear to have their running back for the long haul. The remarkable thing is how exceptional Walker looks, which, surprisingly, makes his Super Bowl MVP performance look, in a word, tame.
The Seattle Seahawks can't be faulted for Kenneth Walker III's historic start
It's not their fault—the Seahawks couldn't have known Walker would be this good in another uniform. Walker is on a ridiculous pace that would see him finish the season with 2,282 yards on the ground and 2,639 total yards, 17 rushing touchdowns, and 26 total touchdowns. All would be record-breaking.
If he reached these projected numbers, the Seahawks still wouldn't be at fault, but they should be scarred for not paying Walker when they had the chance. That said, there's no guarantee that if Seattle had re-signed him, the same thing would be happening now that’s happening in Kansas City.
What makes Walker's first quarter of the season even more remarkable is that he's playing significantly better than he did when he won Super Bowl MVP in a Seahawks uniform last season.
To be clear, Walker had a field day against the New England Patriots' defense that day, running for 135 yards and catching two passes for 26 yards for a total of 161 yards—an MVP-caliber performance formed by concrete.
That was one game, though, and before that Super Bowl, Walker had not had a game like that since his rookie season in 2022, when he posted 167 yards and two touchdowns (including a 74-yard TD run). What he did twice in four years, he's done three times in four games; although the rushing numbers reach similar incredible heights in each game, it feels entirely different today.
Walker's Super Bowl numbers aren't drastically different from this season's; he just simply looks like an entirely different running back. Walker appears more lethal, dangerous, and, well, elite; three attributes he was never able to truly qualify for with the Seahawks.
If Seattle could have peered into the crystal ball, maybe they would have forked out the money to keep their Super Bowl MVP before anyone else even had a chance to lift their fork. Walker has turned into a menace, and the Chiefs are, and will be, better for it.
Sam Darnold may be internally wishing he had Walker today. Patrick Mahomes is definitely thinking the Seahawks can keep their Super Bowl MVP; he wants today's Walker.
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