Arrowhead Pride
The Kansas City Chiefs’ roster is littered with new faces heading into the 2026 season, with star running back Kenneth Walker being the headliner. The Super Bowl LX MVP signed with Kansas City for three years and nearly $29 million guaranteed in free agency.
The big-time addition could reshape the way the Chiefs’ offense looks.
Walker was a monster for the Seattle Seahawks last season, and he will need to continue that momentum with quarterback Patrick Mahomes coming off an ACL injury.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy have years of combined experience, but they would be wise to adopt some of the plays that made Walker so effective in Seattle.
Throughout Reid’s tenure in Kansas City, the Chiefs’ run game has varied, but last season, the talent deficiency in the backfield handcuffed the types of runs the team could run. The Chiefs primarily ran zone looks, with power and counter mixed in.
The Seahawks’ run game was much more diverse, and the offensive coordinator, Klint Kubiak, maximized Walker’s ability with plays that included some of the Chiefs’ same looks, as well as more outside tosses, lead plays with a fullback, and man-blocking plays like trap and wham.
Where Kubiak and Seattle found ways to maximize Walker was not only in the plays they called, but also in the formations they set him up in.
Last season, Seattle ran 52.6% of snaps from under center, the second-highest rate in the NFL. By contrast, the Chiefs ran 80% of their snaps from shotgun and only 20% from under center, which ranked third-fewest in the NFL.
With Mahomes coming off an injury and Walker in the mix, the Chiefs should look to run the ball more frequently under center and adopt some of the lead-blocker looks that Seattle used in 2025.
Motioning into the I-Formation, Seattle runs a midzone look to the right with the fullback as a lead blocker. The frontside of the run is not perfectly blocked, and the defense has a man-in-the-box, but the backside of Seattle’s offensive line perfectly washes and seals the flowing defenders, opening up a cutback lane for Walker.
Not every running back in the league can make this play, but this is why Walker is who he is, and why he is being paid the way he is in Kansas City.
Zone is a play designed to benefit from cutback lanes, and Walker has the vision, patience, and burst to capitalize on these looks. When run from under center, it gives the defense even less time to read the look.
The presence of a lead blocker can create the illusion of a downhill run and cause defenders to react more quickly and flow harder to the ball.
Pre-snap, the tight end shifts over, causing the defense to lean toward the heavy side of the field, but once the ball is snapped, the run heads to the right....
