The Kansas City Chiefs signed Kenneth Walker III to power up their running game, and the insights here are impressive.
The Kansas City Chiefs have been getting stellar grades for signing Kenneth Walker III, which was a shocking move given that the Chiefs have designed most of their so-called “running game” around the talents and scrambling ability of quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The Chiefs have also said they’re going to revamp their running game to feature Walker’s ability to run beneath the tackles, which has raised all kinds of questions about how that’s going to work.
To answer those questions, The Athletic’s Jesse Newell turned to a unique source—Brett Taveau, who’s written a pair of books on football X’s and O’s including one on the Chiefs. Taveau has also been a high-school offensive coordinator in Nolensville, Tenn., which might inspire some eye rolls, but Newell’s goal was to have Taveau look at Walker’s talents and potential through the eyes of a coach.
As it turns out, Taveau has been seeing a lot of what the rest of us have. He used Walker’s Super Bowl tape to laud Walker’s ability to get to the second level when “the picture isn’t perfect.”
His breakdown of Walker’s biggest strength was also familiar.
“I would say his burst, vision and ability to make the first defender miss are his greatest strengths,” Taveau said.
To back up his assertion, Taveau used a sequence of snapshots from a play against New England that shows a Walker run being perfectly defended, at least until safety Jaylinn Hawkins slightly overruns the play. Hawkins is responsible for handling cutbacks, and Walker cuts all the way back across the line back to the D-gap and uses his explosiveness to turn a negative play into a nine-yard gain.
That led to a question about what Walker offers that the Chiefs haven’t had with their running backs, and once again he offered a precise answer that was intriguing.
“Without question, it’s him being able to turn negative runs into efficient runs and efficient runs into explosive runs,” Taveau added “His ability to create explosiveness in the run game is something the Chiefs haven’t had since Jamaal Charles in the 2010s.”
Newell also asked Taveau what Walker’s “area of improvement” might be, and Taveau responded with an answer that aligns with the comments of other experts, including those of analyst Chris Collinsworth during the Super Bowl.
“From the small sample size of the Super Bowl (and according to Pro Football Focus season grades), I think his ability in pass protection is the weakest part of his game,” Taveau said.
His breakdown from there was especially revealing. Taveau again uses s series of snapshots to show that Walker is in a good position to take out the inner half of linebacker Christian Ellis, but Ellis is able to push the pocket and get a hit on quarterback Sam Darnold.
"This is a situation where you’d like to see a little more attack and strength from Walker to hold his ground, which would give Darnold a safer pocket and help him avoid taking a hit,” Taveau concludes.
Taveau may not be an NFL or college coach, but everything about what he's seeing here rings true, and it’s an excellent example of how coaches in general would look at this tape and breakdown some of the fundamentals and higher level issues.