As Kansas City Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker prepares to face his former team at Lumen Field, new surprising details are emerging about the star’s breakup with the Seattle Seahawks. It is not a surprise that Walker’s price tag topped what the Seahawks were willing to pay given the franchise’s task of keeping a Super Bowl roster intact ahead of the 2026 season.
Yet, Seattle would likely love a do-over as the team has struggled to find a suitable replacement for Walker. The Athletic’s Michael-Shawn Dugar reported that the Seahawks never made an offer to Walker during NFL free agency.
“There were no serious discussions — on that day (during the Seahawks’ championship parade) or any other — about Walker returning to the team that used a second-round draft pick on him in 2022,” Dugar wrote in an October 21, 2026, story titled, “The Seahawks let Ken Walker walk away. Now, the Chiefs star might be the NFL’s best player.”
“Walker’s postseason performance put him in such high demand that he effectively priced himself out of Seattle, which didn’t make a contract offer ahead of free agency, according to league sources not authorized to speak publicly about the matter,” Dugar continued.
“It might not have mattered, anyway. The Kansas City Chiefs, as it turns out, were very serious about Walker, making him one of the league’s highest-paid running backs with a three-year, $43 million contract.”
Chiefs RB Kenneth Walker Knew During the 2025 Season That He Would Not Return to Seahawks
Walker landed a three-year, $43 million deal with the Chiefs, a figure that the Seahawks were clearly not going to come close to touching. It represented a massive raise from Walker’s four-year, $8.4 million rookie contract with Seattle.
During a May interview with Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, Walker admitted that he knew during the 2025 season that he would not be returning to Seattle.
“I would say probably, if I’m being honest, probably like sometime during the season,” Walker remarked. “You know, things ain’t working out how I was expecting to, and that’s all right.
“It worked out for the team. So sometime during the season and then we get to free agency, pretty much knowing like you weren’t gonna be there no more.”
Chiefs News: RB Kenneth Walker Generating NFL MVP Buzz Ahead of Seahawks Game
The star is not only playing like one of the top NFL running backs, but Walker is now generating some MVP buzz. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky labeled Walker as the NFL MVP through the first six weeks of the season.
“Kenneth Walker is the MVP of the NFL right now,” Orlovsky explained during an October 19, interview with “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“… If MVP voting was happening today I would vote for Kenneth Walker.”
The Seahawks are unlikely looking forward to Walker’s return as the undefeated Chiefs come to the Pacific Northwest.
Stunning Kenneth Walker Career News Emerges 4 Days Before Chiefs-Seahawks Game