Kenneth Walker Is A Prime Fantasy Football Target In Round 2
Fantasy

Kenneth Walker Is A Prime Fantasy Football Target In Round 2

Ian Hartitza examines the Kansas City Chiefs' running back situation, focusing on if Kenneth Walker is the missing piece to lift up this offense.

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For most of his career, Patrick Mahomes has had little to no help from his running game. Injuries and ineffective draft picks (CEH division) have relegated No. 15 to putting the offense on his back, though he has had some help with a couple of pass catchers who were pretty good. But on the RB side, not much. That could change now that Kenneth Walker has joined the Chiefs fresh off winning Super Bowl 60 MVP just four months ago. Ian Hartitz breaks it down as part of his Kansas City Chiefs Team Preview.

How high is too high to rank Kenneth Walker?

The reigning Super Bowl MVP posted quality 221-1,027-5 rushing and 31-282-0 receiving lines during the regular season despite operating in an evenly split committee alongside Zach Charbonnet. Walker has finished inside the position's top two performers in terms of tackles avoided per carry in each of the past three seasons. The artist known as K9 is among the league's most skilled players at making something out of nothing.

Overall, Walker ranks 2nd and 11th in tackles avoided per carry (27%) and explosive rush rate (8.9%) since entering the NFL in 2022. Chiefs RBs during that same timeline rank dead-ass last in both metrics. It can't be overstated how much of a pure talent upgrade Walker is over post-leg-break Isiah Pacheco and old man Kareem Hunt.

While the ability to break tackles at a high rate is objectively good, the one flaw with Walker's game is his tendency to forgo singles in the pursuit of home runs. This can be seen by looking at success rate, which measures how often an RB successfully picks up ample yardage depending on the down-and-distance:

  • 2022: 39.9% success rate (33rd among 33 qualified RBs)
  • 2023: 46.6% (24/35)
  • 2024: 44.4% (26/31)
  • 2025: 43.9% (30/33)

Still, Walker wasn't exactly operating behind world-class offensive lines in Seattle, and his big-play ability makes the occasional annoying stuff worthwhile. Throw in solid demonstrated pass-catching ability, youth (26 in October), and a newfound workhorse role, and it seems VERY possible Walker could have the most productive years of his career in front of him.

Here's the catch: Walker (RB10, pick 16.7) is hardly someone you're going to be able to draft at a discount. He's in an eight-RB mess at the Round 1-2 turn that features fellow veterans like James Cook, De'Von Achane, Chase Brown, Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry, as well as youngsters Ashton Jeanty and Omarion Hampton.

And guess what: Fantasy Life's crew of alleged expert rankers prefers Walker to almost all of them! Cook gets the edge, but K9 is ranked as high as RB6 and no lower than RB7—good for a consensus rank as the RB6. The bull case surrounds Walker simply having more pass-catching upside here compared to guys like Barkley and Henry, superior talent over the likes of Hampton and Brown, and the reality that the Chiefs boast more offensive upside than the Dolphins (Achane) or Raiders (Jeanty).

Also note: Fun fact: Emari Demercado is the No. 1 running back in career yards per carry (6.5) in the Super Bowl era (minimum … 100 carries). While nobody will ever forget him committing the cardinal sin of dropping the ball before the goal line against the Titans, this is a 215-pound RB with big-play ability and at least somewhat demonstrated pass-game chops (50 career receptions). Fifth-round rookie Emmett Johnson could certainly have something to say about that; the Nebraska product also has enough size (5-foot-10, 202 pounds) and pass-catching ability (92 career receptions) to theoretically be able to handle a three-down workload. That said: It would not be at ALL surprising if the Chiefs simply (again) re-signed current free agent Kareem Hunt should they suffer an injury in the room; neither backup is anything more than a VERY late-round prospective handcuff dart. Be careful about assuming Johnson is the next man up here like early ADP currently suggests.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. Kenneth Walker
    KennethWalker
    RBKCKC
    PPG
    12.2
    Proj
    229.5
  2. Emari Demercado
    EmariDemercado
    RBKCKC
    PPG
    4.3
    Proj
    22.2

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