Gregg Bell of the Tacoma Tribune is usually right when he talks about the Seattle Seahawks, and if he is right about his latest Kenneth Walker revelation, it sheds fascinating light on the way this past Super Bowl Season played out. The Seahawks’ beat reporter appeared on The Hawks Eye podcast recently with some surprising news.
As all 12s know, the Super Bowl MVP is leaving Lumen Field to join Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes in Arrowhead Stadium. He agreed to a new deal with the Kansas City Chiefs on the first day of legal tampering.
The contract will earn the 2022 second-round draft pick 43 million dollars over three years, and it could creep up a bit higher with incentives. That places his annual salary fourth amongst league running backs, trailing only Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffrey, and Derrick Henry.
Insiders knew Kenneth Walker would be leaving the Seattle Seahawks before the season even began
This was always seen as a likely outcome. Super Bowl teams lose players. It’s the price of success in the salary-capped NFL. Still, fans hoped general manager John Schneider would figure out a way to retain the man who climbed to number eight on the club’s all-time rushing list in just 58 games. Based on Bell’s recent comments, it was never going to happen.
“I think Kenneth Walker was gone in September when they decided to do the job share with Zach Charbonnet. He may have been gone in August…” Bell told podcast host Bryce Coutts.
Walker told Bell before the season that Schneider had not yet begun negotiations on an extension and Bell explained that this was a pretty clear sign the GM did not view his running back as a “foundational player.”
From that point, Walker knew that he would be testing the waters in free agency. His outstanding season, culminating in that Super Bowl MVP, ensured he would get offers, placing him out of Schneider’s price range.
I’ve written throughout the season just how valuable Kenneth Walker has been to the Seahawks’ offense. Jaxon Smith-Njigba was the unquestioned offensive MVP, but after JSN, no player– not Sam Darnold or Grey Zabel or Charles Cross – had a bigger role in making this offense function than Walker.
His blend of power and speed forced opposing defenses to play differently. Charbonnet is a fine runner, but he does not alter game plans the way Walker does. Seattle’s offense will struggle without that game-breaking explosiveness next season.
But that’s in the past. Walker may be just what the Chiefs need to revive their stagnant offense. The new Seahawks’ offensive coordinator, Brian Fleury, will no doubt find ways to make use of the talent he is left with to keep the offense on the right track. Change happens, and teams move on.
So I think it’s best at this point to place a positive spin on Bell’s reporting. Because this entire affair actually provides a perfect example of why Seattle remains a very well-run organization.
There are no bad guys in this story. John Schneider has always adhered to a set of principles in negotiating contracts. He determines a price based on his assessment of a player’s value and then is disciplined enough to stick to that price. If a player can get more elsewhere, Schneider wishes him the best of luck and moves on.
That approach has yielded three Super Bowl appearances and two championships in the past fifteen years. Even with some down years toward the end of the Pete Carroll era, Schneider’s methods have carried Seattle to the sixth-best overall record in the NFL over the past ten seasons.
One of the things Schneider prioritizes is character. And that brings me to the even more laudatory part of this episode.
If Bell is right, Kenneth Walker knew he was likely to be leaving Seattle before the 2025 season even began. And he never said a single word about it. This story did not come out until Bell speculated about it several weeks after the season ended.
Think about that for a moment. How many times have we heard a player complain about his contract, or his snaps, or the press coverage he is receiving? Sometimes, it happens in the middle of an otherwise successful season, and it can damage team chemistry. (And yes, I’m talking about A.J. Brown here, but he is far from alone.)
All Kenneth Walker did was go out and play lights-out football. He kept his mouth shut and let his legs do the talking. Instead of being a distraction, he was the MVP in the Super Bowl. And he has been rewarded with a championship and a huge new contract.
Like every fan, I am sad to see him go, and perhaps more than most, I think his absence will provide a major hurdle for the team to overcome. But let’s not think for a moment that the story Gregg Bell told this week is a sign of dysfunction in any way.
Both Kenneth Walker and John Schneider did their jobs this past season. They both showed their skill and their character. They have both been rewarded. Seahawks fans can wish Walker the best of luck as he moves to KC, and can rest easy in the knowledge that their franchise is being run the right way.