{"id":525914,"date":"2026-03-16T00:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T00:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/525914\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T00:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T00:29:09","slug":"the-seahawks-decision-that-irked-kenneth-walker-iii-before-chiefs-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/525914\/","title":{"rendered":"The Seahawks decision that &#8216;irked&#8217; Kenneth Walker III before Chiefs signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Even before Kenneth Walker III earned the Super Bowl MVP honor after the Seahawks defeated the Patriots, and even before he signed with the Chiefs at the start of free agency, the star was \u201cprivately irked\u201d by splitting carries, <a href=\"https:\/\/amp.thenewstribune.com\/sports\/nfl\/seattle-seahawks\/article314982259.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to The News Tribune<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Walker, during the regular season, received 47 percent of the offensive snaps, while Zach Charbonnet received 49 percent for the Seahawks.<\/p>\n<p>After Charbonnet suffered a torn ACL during the postseason, though, Walker starred as their primary back and collected 135 rushing yards during Seattle\u2019s 29-13 victory over New England in the Super Bowl \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/09\/sports\/kenneth-walker-iii-signs-with-chiefs-in-nfl-free-agency-splash\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">turning that into a three-year contract worth up to $45 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38786926\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fourth-quarter-new-england-patriots-122143024.jpg\" alt=\"Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III in action during Super Bowl LX.\" class=\"wp-image-38786926\"  \/>Kenneth Walker III is pictured during the Super Bowl on Feb. 8. AP<\/p>\n<p>Seattle planned to \u201caudition\u201d Charbonnet, who collected 730 yards and 12 touchdowns during the regular season, for the starting job moving forward last season, according to The News Tribune, and the share also was reportedly planned to ensure that Walker made it to the playoffs healthy.<\/p>\n<p>Walker, a 25-year-old selected by the Seahawks in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft, then switched agents in January ahead of his stint in free agency.<\/p>\n<p>So instead of returning to Seattle and needing to split carries again after Charbonnet recovers, Walker will join a Chiefs team that has won two of the last four Super Bowls and has started to rebuild its offense around Patrick Mahomes after missing the 2025 playoffs.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38786922\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/kansas-city-chiefs-newly-signed-123398899.jpg\" alt=\"Kenneth Walker III smiling at a press conference with Kansas City Chiefs and University of Kansas Health System logos in the background.\" class=\"wp-image-38786922\"  \/>Kenneth Walker II addresses reporters during his March 12 press conference after signing with the Chiefs. AP<\/p>\n<p>Inking Walker \u2014 who finished with 1,027 rushing yards during the regular season \u2014 to a deal served as a critical step, and it left Seattle staring down an uncertain future at running back heading into 2026 with Walker gone and Charbonnet recovering from a serious injury.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d Walker told reporters during his introductory press conference with the Chiefs, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kansascity.com\/sports\/nfl\/kansas-city-chiefs\/article315030715.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to the Kansas City Star<\/a>. \u201cYou feel appreciated and wanted \u2014 that\u2019s what everybody wants. So I\u2019m just happy to get in here and get to know the guys and work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kansas City hasn\u2019t watched a running back top 1,000 yards since Kareem Hunt in 2017, and last season, Hunt led the Chiefs with just 611 rushing yards while Isiah Pacheco added 462 across 13 games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even before Kenneth Walker III earned the Super Bowl MVP honor after the Seahawks defeated the Patriots, and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[1236,349,8852,99],"class_list":["post-525914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-nfl","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}