The Kansas City Chiefs are entering one of the most pivotal offseasons of the Patrick Mahomes era after an unusually uneven year on offense and their first playoff miss with him at quarterback.
While the passing game still flashes elite potential, the ground game has lagged, putting pressure on the front office to inject more explosiveness into the backfield.
Chiefs Linked to Kenneth Walker III in Major Free Agency Projection
One prominent projection now links Kenneth Walker III, the Super Bowl 60 MVP, to Kansas City in free agency, suggesting the Chiefs could overhaul their rushing game and potentially move on from current starter Isiah Pacheco in 2026.
Walker, who has 31 total touchdowns across his first three seasons and is coming off a Super Bowl MVP performance for the Seattle Seahawks, is expected to draw significant interest if he reaches the open market.
Walker’s top landing spots include Kansas City as a logical fit, citing both the Chiefs’ need for more juice in the run game and their recent offensive struggles. The piece noted that the team’s offense “was a mess” by its own standards last season and that they are “looking to retool their offense after a disastrous campaign saw them miss the playoffs for the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era.”
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Internally, the evaluation of Kansas City’s backfield is blunt. “One way to fix their offense would be to fix their ground game. Isaiah Pacheco has been solid if unspectacular as the primary running back in Kansas City, but the team needs more there,” the PFSN piece explained.
The Chiefs have cycled through options behind Mahomes in recent years, including a first-round swing on Clyde Edwards-Helaire, without landing on a consistent, top-tier feature back who can tilt defenses on his own.
The same analysis argues that Walker could be that player, as Walker could give the Chiefs an explosive element in their run game. They’ve taken some shots there before, including using a first-round pick on Clyde Edwards-Helaire, but it has not worked.
With Walker fresh off a 1,000+ yard rushing season and a 135-yard performance on the biggest stage of the year, the idea of pairing his downhill burst and finishing ability with Mahomes’ passing attack is being framed as a way to restore Kansas City’s offensive ceiling.
Isiah Pacheco Could Be Headed Towards Chiefs Exit in 2026
Any serious pursuit of Walker would naturally raise questions about Pacheco’s future in Kansas City. The former late-round pick has run hard and carved out a reputation as a high-energy, physical back, but production and impact metrics suggest room for an upgrade at the top of the depth chart.
Pacheco’s output isn’t unimpressive as Kansas City’s primary running back. Still, the team is looking for something more explosive, underscoring that his current role is more of a placeholder than a long-term solution. Pacheco was ranked 49th with an F Grade in PFSN’s RB Impact Metric, suggesting that the Chiefs are likely to find a replacement this offseason.
Even with promising young receivers and a potential final stretch of Travis Kelce’s prime, the lack of a true difference-maker in the backfield has become a roster flaw the team can no longer ignore.
Bringing in Walker would likely push Pacheco into a reduced role or lead the front office to explore trade or release options, depending on contract structure and cap realities. That scenario would align with a broader offensive reset in which an established, touchdown-heavy runner takes over lead duties while Mahomes manages his own recovery from a torn ACL and the Chiefs lean more heavily on the ground game early in 2026.
