Kenneth Walker III could provide the "big-time juice" that Kansas City Chiefs have been missing, says Jeff Reinebold.
Walker signed as a free agent for the Kansas City Chiefs in a $45m deal this week having been named Super Bowl MVP as the Seattle Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots in Santa Clara in February.
Reinebold, speaking on the latest episode of Inside the Huddle, welcomed the news as much-needed help for Patrick Mahomes in his return from injury
"He's got to be the guy that takes some of the pressure off of Patrick," said Reinebold. "Because right now, you know, Pat's having to create; throwing the ball to receivers that I'd say are somewhere in the mid-pack of the NFL as a group."
Reinebold, though, does not believe the news of Travis Kelce returning to the Chiefs for a 14th season, which broke on the same day as Walker's signing was announced, is enough of an answer for the franchise.
"He gets Kelce back, which is going to be good, but Kelce is a lumbering tight end now: he's not a nifty guy anymore," Reinebold added. "He's still going to catch his balls, he's going to sit in the zone and catch a ball and go down; that's what you're going to get.
"So they need, and I love Phoebe's word for it, 'juice'. And this is what Kenneth Walker brings: he brings you big-time juice.
"Remember, if that long run hadn't been called back in the Super Bowl in the second half, he would have had over 160 yards of rushing yards in that game. And I cannot remember the last time we had a 150-yard runner in the Super Bowl."
The Chiefs struggled to make impactful plays with their running game last season, their running backs only combining for one rush of at least 20 yards all year. Your Site NFL's Phoebe Schecter thinks Walker could be the answer.
"The Chiefs for ages now, one of the biggest complaints around them is they have no explosive run game," she said. "So I'm totally on board with what Jeff is saying. I think they're hoping that, you know, they've had the Pacheco who is a bit of a battering ram in there and can run it down the middle.
"But they need somebody who's going to be able to give you more than that, because they've really struggled against defenses lately. And a guy like Kenneth Walker, just coming off his Super Bowl MVP, he's had four-plus runs of over 50 yards.
"That's the kind of juice I think that they've been looking for. We've said in the past, it's been Mahomes having to really make that happen. And they just can't live like that anymore, we've seen what those injuries can look like."
Mahomes ended 2025 by picking up a torn ACL in a 16-13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, which also put an end to the Chiefs' playoff hopes.
Reinebold does still have some concerns about Walker, particularly amid suggestions the Chiefs could have looked towards Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love at the Draft.
"Kenneth Walker is an outstanding player, no question, but he split time in Seattle last year, and one of the reasons for that is that he struggled in pass protection," he said.
"You're going to put him in front of Pat Mahomes and yes, they'll free release him and they'll use him out of the backfield like they did Pacheco and some of those other guys, but people are going to come after him when he's in the backfield.
"The other thing about this one was - and this is how this whole thing can get blown apart in a second - everybody was talking about Kansas City being able to pick up Love, the running back from Notre Dame, and everybody knew that they needed running-back help, and that that was going to be where they went.
"[Everybody] thought they'd go young with the kid from Notre Dame who's really an exceptional, exceptional player, and instead, they pivot and go after a guy who has some injury history, has never been a full-time starter and has pass protection issues. So this is going to be a really interesting one to watch unfold in Kansas City."
