Kenneth Walker had arguably the best season of his NFL career last year with the Seattle Seahawks.
He finished with 1,027 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns on 221 carries, averaging 4.6 yards per carry. And he added 282 receiving yards on 31 catches, marking a career-high 1,309 total yards from scrimmage.
He capped it off with an even more dominant playoff run. He ran for 116 yards and three TDs on 19 carries against the 49ers in the divisional round, over 100 total scrimmage yards in the NFC Championship Game against the Rams, and won Super Bowl MVP after leading the Seahawks to a championship behind 135 rushing yards.
Yet, despite the strong season and being in the prime of his career at just 25 years old, Seattle couldn’t match the three-year, $43 million deal he received from the Kansas City Chiefs, who desperately needed a true No. 1 running back.
Now, with the Chiefs’ training camp just around the corner, Walker has received a major vote of confidence, with ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler ranking him as the No. 9 overall running back entering the 2026 season after surveying executives, coaches, and scouts around the NFL.
Notably, one AFC executive compared him to former Pro Bowl running back Maurice Jones-Drew.
“He reminds me a lot of a mix between peak Kareem Hunt and Maurice Jones-Drew,” the AFC executive said. “Dense lower body, fast enough, tough to bring down. Not sure how his game will age yet, but he should be good this year.”
Jones-Drew spent most of his career with the Jacksonville Jaguars, where he evolved into a three-time Pro Bowler and earned first-team All-Pro honors in 2011 after leading the league with 1,606 rushing yards.
From 2009 to 2011, his three Pro Bowl years, he ran for over 1,300 yards in each of the three seasons, recorded 28 total rushing touchdowns, and never averaged fewer than 4.4 yards per carry. But he was also one of the best dual-threat RBs in the league. He racked up over 300 yards receiving in each of those three seasons, along with six receiving touchdowns.
At 5-foot-7 with a compact, powerful 210-pound frame, he remains one of the most productive undersized backs of his era.
By comparison, Walker is 5-foot-9 and around 211 pounds, representing a similar shorter but thick and strong build as opposed to taller, leaner running backs across the league.
Both MJD and K9 are compact, physical runners who run with a low center of gravity, break tackles, and generate power despite lacking prototypical size. Neither relies purely on speed, but both can still break away from defenders in open space.
Jones-Drew had the best years of his career from seasons four through six, when he was in his mid-20s. If the MJD comparison holds, the Chiefs can look forward to another strong campaign from the reigning Super Bowl MVP.