Chiefs News 3/10: Signing Kenneth Walker points to scheme shift

Walker had 14 carries for 20 yards on RPO play calls.

That’s it.

The Chiefs are changing who will be running the football — and, ideally, how they’re running the football.

Or at least they better, if they want to take advantage of the skill-set of the player who will cost them $45 million over the next three years. (You don’t spend $45 million without knowing what has made the player great.)

It would make far less sense to ask Walker to completely change what’s made him successful than it would for the Chiefs to change something that has driven so little of their success.

Walker spends more time in the backfield than literally any other running back in football, per Next Gen Stats. He isn’t exactly a straight downhill runner, averaging 3.19 seconds to cross the line of scrimmage, highest in the NGS decade-long era.

He’s different than what the Chiefs employed a year ago.

The Chiefs needed a different talent. But they also need a modification to the running scheme.