Perhaps the most scrutinized position group over the past couple of years for the Kansas City Chiefs has been the running back room. Isiah Pacheco was never the same guy he was before breaking his leg a third of the way into the 2024 season. Kareem Hunt was an excellent short-yardage back, but that's where his contributions ended, and Brashard Smith was a seventh-round pick wrongly expected to turn into anything other than a lottery pick.
That all changed this offseason, as Brett Veach basically said out with the old, in with the new. His first move was to bring in reigning Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III on a three-year, $43 million deal and give the Chiefs backfield its first proven multi-year star since Jamaal Charles. Next was to add veteran Emari Demercado to the mix as a guy who could do a little bit of everything and who also possessed 4.4 40-yard dash speed.
Veach then capped the positional overhaul by drafting Nebraska running back Emmett Johnson, who was a statistical machine in his time at college. While Smith remains a part of the team, he's quickly been buried on the depth chart and will have to make do with the snaps he gets via special teams. For Walker, the pressure to live up to a hefty contract is evident, but the Chiefs paid him for a reason, and perhaps to do a little more than attack defenses on the ground.
Kenneth Walker's skill set is perfect for Andy Reid's aerial attacking scheme
In a recent article from ESPN's Nate Taylor, he noted that a big reason why KC splurged for Walker was more than what he does from under center, but rather how he can unlock a part of the Chiefs' offense that has been missing for far too long.
"Even this early in the process, the Chiefs believe that Walker's ability as a pass catcher might be an under-appreciated skill. In Wednesday's practice, the Chiefs ran a sophisticated screen pass. When Walker caught the ball, his speed and vision in the open field led to Smith and Humphrey to have the same reaction: "Wooooo!"ESPN's Nate Taylor
In the two practices open to reporters, Walker has caught every pass from Mahomes and backup quarterback Justin Fields, even when the ball was not placed in the ideal spot, including one in which he made a leaping, one-handed catch."
This is music to every Chiefs fan's ears that Reid and Mahomes are both incredibly excited to have a guy in the backfield who can attack defenses in a multitude of ways. Whether it be Walker taking a screen pass for 15-20 yards or him routing up a linebacker on a quick angle or crossing route, he's shown more than enough capability to do so in his career.
Over Walker's past two seasons, he's caught the ball 77 times on 89 targets for nearly 600 yards and a long of 46 yards. Having a good running back was something the Chiefs undervalued for one season too long, and it got the better of them in 2025. But now with Walker by Mahomes' side, Andy Reid's playbook becomes increasingly more dangerous. And that's pretty exciting.
Add us as a preferred source on Google