The Chiefs didn’t bring in Kenneth Walker just to add another name to the backfield. They signed him because they believe he can help change the shape of the offense.
That’s a big job, but it’s also the kind of assignment Walker seems built for. In his first NFL coaching role, running backs coach DeMarco Murray has already seen what the Chiefs were hoping for when they moved quickly at the start of free agency to land the 25-year-old Super Bowl MVP.
Walker, Murray said, has made the learning part easy.
“Man, he’s very eye-opening when it comes to being receptive of information and understanding,” Murray said. “He’ll text me, ‘Hey, Coach, you’re right. I saw that after I watched the film.’
“He’s been everything-plus that we wanted.”
That sort of attitude matters because Kansas City did not make this move for a gadget piece. The Chiefs brought Walker in to address a problem that has been nagging them for seasons, even as the offense kept humming in other ways.
Andy Reid pointed to the broader shift that has changed the league over the past several years. Defenses, he said Wednesday in a sit-down with local writers, have become more varied and more difficult to diagnose before the snap.
“Before, you’d have two or three coverages that they would run,” Reid said. “Very seldom would they take a shell coverage and put in there a single-safety-middle coverage with it.
“They were kind of, ‘We’ve got three single-safety-middle coverages. This is what we do.’ And so, as offenses evolved, the defenses had to evolve, and they start combining these things.”
That evolution, Reid said, has put more strain on the passing game. The Chiefs have seen that firsthand.
“Obviously, the shell coverage, these soft-shell coverages, they’re going to limit your down-the-field throws,” Reid said. “Then you’ve got to go body blows, and they’re not all going to be knockout shots. That’s where your run game comes in and some of your play-actions and naked games and all that stuff.”
Kansas City’s answer is Walker, whose skill set gives the offense more ways to attack once defenses start squeezing the field. Reid said the Chiefs needed someone who could help them land those body blows more consistently.
Seattle’s usage of Walker last season gave Kansas City a fuller picture of what he can do. The Seahawks planned to work in Zach Charbonnet throughout the year because Walker was headed for free agency after the end of his rookie contract, according to Gregg Bell of The Tacoma News-Tribune in mid-March.
Walker played 47% of Seattle’s offensive snaps, while Charbonnet was at 49%. Charbonnet handled many of the third-down passing situations and red-zone snaps, and in the red zone he had 50 carries and 11 touchdowns in the regular season. Walker had 31 red-zone carries and four scores in a split that “privately irked” him, Bell reported.
The Seahawks’ Super Bowl run also limited what outsiders could see. Charbonnet was injured in the divisional round and did not play, while Walker rushed for 135 yards in Seattle’s Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots.
“The other running back got hurt,” Reid said. “They relied on (Walker) now for third down and for protections - catching the ball out of the backfield a little bit more, flexed him out a little bit in a couple situations.
So you got to see him, and he did pretty good with, at the same time, carrying the load that he carried it. From our standpoint, I’m glad we got to see that.”
The Chiefs think that version of Walker fits what they want to do. Offensive line coach Andy Heck, who also handles run game coordination, said the addition makes every run call “super dynamic.”
“We can run the same kind of runs - and to his credit, he’s a guy that can run multiple concepts,” Heck said, “whether it’s downhill, hard-nosed power football, get on the edge with stretch plays. He can do it all. And his balance, his strength, his ability to make guys miss I think are going to be special for us.”
Reid called Walker talented and also praised him as a route runner. Murray went even further, calling him “unbelievable.”
The Chiefs, in other words, are not just expecting Walker to carry the ball. They’re planning to use him in all the ways Seattle didn’t, especially when the field tightens near the goal line.
“As you start creeping down the field and the field gets smaller - red zones and all that - that’s where a guy like that, that extra guy, becomes kind of handy for you,” Reid said. “We haven’t gone through a season, but it looks like it’s a full package of a player.
And he works at it. That’s the part I appreciate.
Always asking questions and pretty impressive.”
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