Kenneth Walker Could Transform the Entire Chiefs Offense

Kenneth Walker is in Kansas City, and the impact could go way beyond the run game. Sterling Holmes and Josh Briscoe break down how Walker could unlock the Chiefs offense, help Patrick Mahomes, and change the way defenses have to play Kansas City.

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to the Arrowhead Addict podcast on this Tuesday.

Sterling Holmes, Josh Briscoe.

You can find him on the X at JB Briscoe, myself at home stretch, KC Briscoe is in Florida.

I'm the Florida man today.

That's, that's the, the turning on its head that we're gonna have on this edition of Tuesdays with Sterling.

I barely know what day it is.

I was at the beach an hour ago, um, for the first time this week, and yes, I do already think I am in the real sunburn danger zone.

Um, my, my shoulders are, are red enough right now.

Now for me to call up Kenny Loggins and ask him what to do from here .

But, uh, I'm happy to see your smiling face, Sterling, happy to talk about what I assume has been a very busy 48 hours.

I've been a little bit out of the loop, but, um, I'm sure there was probably something huge out of the, the owners' meetings or maybe the Chiefs have, uh, had a bunch of 30 visits, or did the Chiefs maybe already, already trade up the 5 for Ruben Bain?

What did I miss?

All of that and so much more.

Yeah, I like this from Josh.

Are you buzzed yet?

Have, have you had a few cocktails on the beach?

Not today, no, not yet , cause I'm, I'm doing this and then, then only weird games later on today.

So I thought, I'm gonna go ahead right now.

I've, I've had a couple of, uh, frescas, I think, and I'm having a little, uh, Lipton diet green tea here, um, that actually, I think my mom said was here since the last time we were in town, so this is probably expired.

But I'm a little thirsty.

It's extremely expired.

So let's drink up.

This might now be alcoholic because of the fact that it apparently went bad in October.

Uh, the fact that you haven't drank because you have shows to do is a skill issue.

You can do both.

This does not taste good, so I will not be drinking this throughout the rest of the show today.

Mm, no, please do.

Uh, all right.

Not a ton to digest, but we'll pontificate on some Chiefs topics as we go forward.

I still want to talk a little more about Kenneth Walker because the more we've Had time To see and think about what he could do for the offense, the more I'm enamored at, OK, it's not just a running back coming to KC.

It's what he can do for the rest of said team.

Obviously, we saw Patrick throwing a football, which was nice to see as far as regards to his progress.

It didn't look the most smooth.

It didn't look the most comfortable, but he threw a pass.

That's at least progress.

I'm at least excited in that regard.

But there's a tweet by Jesse Newell that's been going a little, a little semi-viral, uh, on the X, and that is quote, Chiefs coach Andy Reid says running back Kenneth Walker worked a lot two years ago out of shotgun, and last year primarily under center, says his stats were good in both.

Reed says Chiefs feel like they have an RB who can be effective in either setting, end quote.

And as innocuous as that sounds, Chiefs fans did not take it that way.

One of the first things underneath it is nothing's gonna change significantly with his offense until Andy's gone.

In other words, in other words, they're going to run Walker out of shotgun 95% of the time.

So it sounds like Chiefs fans are in full force of anything Andy says.

We're gonna find the worst parts of it.

And again, I, I'm not necessarily arguing because I do think early on in the year, Briscoe.

The Chiefs probably will run out of shotgun a ton because Patrick's coming back off of a major injury.

I did expect this, I had not seen that tweet, so this is perfectly timed.

I did expect that to be a little bit more, a little bit more electric than the final quote ended up being.

Like, there was the quote from Andy, I can't remember who he was talking to, but I think it ended up being on NFL.com, maybe, where he talked about, you know, Having pretty good rooms at wide receiver in the O-line and the defensive backs are gonna be OK, it's just like, Andy in offseason mode of just going like, hey, man, um, I'm not gonna tell you what we're gonna do this year because it's March 2026, and uh I'm just not gonna give you very much.

Sometimes I think Veach has some things we might talk about.

What his quote was, I think Veach is a little bit of a different animal in that regard, but I think Andy's just gonna basically say like, hi, I want you to believe, at bare minimum, I want you to believe that we like our players at the positions they're at.

They're still gonna, guys, they're gonna draft players in April.

They are gonna bring in new players, right?

So it's gonna be OK there.

With that being said, I do also think, this is a a question that I immediately posed to Seth and Nate when Kenneth Walker signed, and a question I've posed to anybody who's, who's looked at Kenneth Walker film to figure out what he's gonna do in Kansas City.

I've, I've asked, again, I think the first question that jumped to my mind was, OK, are the Chiefs going to evolve a little bit offensively to look more like Seattle's run game last year?

Or are we gonna ask Kenneth Walker to evolve as a runner to do more in the Chiefs' offense?

And this entire time, I've kinda hoped for 60, 40, and believe that it'll be 25, 75.

It's not gonna be 100% in either direction.

I think it would be a little bit silly to assume that the Chiefs are going to be amongst the league leaders.

Running under center next year, even with Eric B back.

I do think that even from a fan's perspective, I think you have the, the authority as a fan to ask the team to please run under center a little more, and, and more importantly, more effectively when they do.

And I think Kenneth Walker certainly makes you more effective running under center when you do it, and, and just the way that the offense works and I don't know, this might be some like Andy Reid pop psychology.

I think it's really just probably, if you're an offensive-minded coach, what do you do?

When something's working better, you're probably gonna start doing it more.

And so, if the under center game improves with the addition of Kenneth Walker, I think Andy's probably gonna say, you know what, the hot hands getting under center and handing the ball to that absolute bowling ball of a man.

So, not that he's like, built like a bowling ball, but, you know, it's a hard thing to tackle.

I, I, I, I do think there's like a little bit, I understand, I'm empathetic to Chiefs fans who look at that and go, OK, great.

Well, we're just, it's, the enemy is back and we're just running out of shotgun, it's gonna be RPO City.

I don't think it's going to be the exact same offense as last year, because I think if they wanted to do that, they'd have the same offensive coordinator, running backs, coach, and wide receivers coach.

I also don't think it's going to be significantly different because The head coach is the head of the offense and that's still Andy Reid.

Yeah, he's not gonna come out and be like, yeah, dude, uh , the position is two groups of ass, or this was atrocious last year.

It was a dumpster fire, and I'm completely changing our philosophy.

He's not gonna say that.

I personally hate Isaiah Pacheco as a human being.

And 2026, not getting said.

And Andy Reid is.

The king of coach speak.

Yeah, and sometimes that's what being a player's coach means, like , we're in the, on the media side, so like, this can be exhausting because you're just like, please, Andy, please, like a, a, a drop of truth.

But that's one of the things, you know, players' coach oftentimes from the outside, you go, that means you're soft, that means you don't run hard practices, which, like, if you're saying that about Andy Reid, you've never been to Saint Joseph, Missouri in, in the middle of the, the heat.

Um, but being, sometimes being a player's coach means, like, making sure that you don't throw your players under the bus publicly or your coaches for that matter.

Clearly, maybe I haven't had anything to drink, but I'm feeling loose here in Florida.

Clearly, the Chiefs did not want Matt Naggy to return, like, because they could have if they wanted to, and it's a miracle in a lot of ways , that Matt Nagy.

He got an offensive coordinator job this year, like, it was near the end of the coaching cycle.

It's like, where is he gonna land?

And Andy Reid publicly was telling you, not only that Matt Naggie should be an offensive coordinator, he was telling you he should be a head coach again, that the Titans should hire him to be their next head coach.

I don't think he said the Titans in particular, that might be tampering, but that's just, that's what he does.

I, I think.

By and large, to, to properly get annoyed with an occasional shortcoming and, and where the Chiefs go, you've gotta be calibrated to the right stuff, and that quote for me is a nothing burger in terms of, like, something to get riled up about.

And it just feels like a lot of folks have been.

Riled up by said, quote, Yeah, and you, you're coming off a losing season for the first time in a million years.

Like, I understand that everybody's a little bit, everybody's a little heated.

I get it.

So, yeah, maybe fewer RPOs, but they're gonna try something new called ROPs.

It's run option pass.

It's a very new thing.

It's, it's cutting edge, innovative.

Uh, they're gonna be doing ropes.

They'll, they'll be, uh, they'll be doing ropes.

That's what they're doing.

ROPs instead of RPOs, huh?

Innovative, I think is what that would be, but I don't have anything else to say about your acronym.

This is pretty fun about Oscar.

If you have Creed, Kingsley, and Smith, you gotta use them suboptimally.

That's kind of what it felt like last year, and there's truth, there's truth in that joke too, right, of like, hey.

You, and also like Josh Simmons is a people mover, and, and, and they're gonna spend 9 overall at a right tackle.

Think about how good the old line's gonna be then, um, son, that's me getting a little riled up about something that hasn't happened yet, but like, you do want to rely on the strength of your bulldozer offensive linemen, those guys in the interior in particular, run it through the A gap and, and make defenses deal with that.

And again, I think.

I don't think they signed Kenneth Walker, if they're not interested in doing that, right ?

Like, so that's, I'm, I don't know, I'm, I'm like a 4 in terms of the run game worry scale on a scale of 1 to 10 right now.

I, I do come from the understanding of when he says that and the frustration was nonstop, everyone can see, the analytics can see running out of, uh, under center has been vastly more successful for this particular team.

than running out of a shotgun.

And so when it's that obvious and everyone sees it, and Andy refuses to consistently do it, and then you hear this quote of, well, Kenneth Walker was good running out of shotgun two years ago as well, our minds immediately go to, This is what they're doing.

It's the connection.

It's the connotation.

It's the frustration of last year boiling over.

I was in that category for a little bit, but again, it's nuanced and the understanding of Andy Reid tells you nothing.

And at times, he just says things, I think to get the question over with.

And, uh, that's the way I think he's, I'm going to try and take it in this regard.

I do think Kenneth Walker, just again, going along the lines of how I believe he will open up this offense.

Even if the Chiefs, Chiefs do run out of shotgun, which I do think early on in the season, we're going to see a lot of frustration from Chiefs fans, from media, from myself, and I'm telling my future self now, Sterling, calm down.

They're going to be out of shotgun a lot more early on because of Patrick coming back from injury.

I think there's something to that.

was it Kirk Cousins who ran a ton out of pistol when he came back instead of under center because of his, his injury.

And so, again, I, I, I think, fair or not, the 1st 6 weeks, if they're out of shotgun, doing that a ton, take it with a grain of salt.

And also, you're probably not gonna want to try and switch the offense up a ton because Patrick's not going to be taking those first team reps probably in OTAs in training camp.

That's going to be Justin Fields.

So, You're not gonna change the entire offense if Patrick can't work on it and run it .

It's a weird season.

An offseason that we all want and are hoping for the Chiefs offensively, schematically to almost do an overhaul, yet the, Reality of it is, it's just not good timing.

Right.

And I, I do think, so this is like, just permission to care too much about a training camp storyline out in advance here.

I'll be a little bit curious because with that theory in mind of like, yeah, it might be a little bit harder to get into the center running game as Mahomes coming back from an ACL, I do wonder, like, if, if we, if we see Justin Fields out there and they're running, A significantly higher percentage of under center stuff in camp, um, or even maybe a little bit in the preseason just to get some live reps there.

That, maybe that's the sign that, hey, if we, if we see it in camp and, and early on with Fields, and then see it less with Mahomes, then it can be mobility-related, but also, you don't really want Mahomes out there mobility-limited.

Like, the ACL and the Achilles are a little bit different because, like, the Cousins example is the one that I think about and, like, I just simply would not have paid Daniel Jones that amount of money under any circumstances if I was the Colts with the Achilles in mind.

But I, I think on some level, it, you just run it with Justin Fields until Mahomes can move at full capacity.

I, I, I don't know if this is true or not, I'm, I'm, you know, thinking off the cuff, but, like, I'd almost rather just have Mahomes back week 5 at his powers.

It's not 100%, but maybe it's 90% of his powers, rather than him being there for the opening Monday night game of the year or whatever nonsense the Chiefs get scheduled for, and he's out there at 80%, and it's like, yeah, we're, if the Chiefs have to change the offense to account for his mobility, that's a bad sign, like, that's, that's just not a place that you want to be in.

It doesn't mean it's doomed, it's just a tough spot to have to see yourself in.

And it would be nobody's fault, it's just the, the fact of the timeline, like I said, it's just bad timing.

Not that it's ever good timing for the best quarterback in the world to tear his ACL, but, um, the Patriots, it was, for the Patriots, it was bad timing cause it was week one, and your entire season was not quite lost, shout out Matt Castle, um, it's not quite lost, but like, your Super Bowl aspirations were instantly, instantly shattered.

Mahomes was hurt at the end of an essentially lost season by that point and If, again, if we get 4 games of Justin Fields, I at least think the Chiefs are open to that possibility of being, being on the horizon because they moved a draft pick to make sure that Fields was their guy.

They just love moving 6-rounders.

It's, it's, it's in their DNA Jets just feels good, man.

Uh, from Steve, and I like this.

This is interesting.

Steven says the Chiefs should bring back the pistol.

You get the benefit of shotgun with more downhill running.

So the reason why I think it's interesting is because they did that with Alex Smith a good amount.

That was a big teeny bit last year, right?

Like, like on a handful of snaps.

I don't have a way to pull that up without making this computer explode.

Yeah, I don't have that in front of me.

I, I, I, off the top of my head, I, I can't.

I can't imagine it being a ton because it doesn't, it definitely wasn't a ton .

I, I feel like there were a couple of packages where they might have ran it this year, but, but for me, they ran it a lot with Alex Smith and it was fairly effective.

And did they bring Brad Childress in, I think, to help install one offseason with Andy.

And so I, I, I, I think the Pistol is intriguing in that regard.

Um, again, if that's what it takes for , for Patrick to feel comfortable and slowly move your way up to under center consistently, you just keep moving steps up at a time.

Like they create their own new, like, and so the pistol, it's like halfway between.

They're like, OK, we're in, it's called the, the toll.

It's just, there's no, well, I don't want to say there's no.

Yeah, caught myself.

There's no what, Sterling?

There's no piss.

It's just the toll.

Uh, you take half of it away and just keep moving up until you're eventually, you're, you're running from under center.

I'll tell you what, I'll just, I'll just take the interstate if I got to pay a piss toll.

Hate it.

Point remains, that does it for today's show.

Oh, it's only been 16 minutes.

Oh no, I burned my only good one.

The point remains though, I think what Stevens brings up is valid, and I think it's realistic because they have in Andy Reid's tenure and KC ran the pistol formation.

Often, at least again with a previous quarterback in, in Alex Smith.

So, getting into Kenneth Walker a little more, I, I think the benefit is, even if it's worst-case scenario, and it's all shotgun like last year, majority shotgun-like last year.

He's way more effective and efficient than Isaiah Pacheco.

I do think that's a huge part of it.

It's, it is, it is going to be better because the running back is better.

You want the, you want the game and the back to both be better, and I think that, theoretically, again, I think it'll be a little easier for the Chiefs to lean on Kenneth Walker cause he shows he earns the touches in a way that last year's version of Hunt and Pacheco just couldn't, and I think you hopefully have Eric the enemy coming in and who also obviously has a diversified background in terms of running games, where he knows what he's working with.

There should be a little bit more to work with in the offense and the running back should reward them for doing that.

I mean, because when you think about it, when you run out of a shotgun, Isaiah Pacheco had to do the Fred Flintstone, get his feet moving first before the car started to go.

And then you saw obviously with Kareem Hunt was just, uh, he saw the holes, just couldn't get there, see, you know, run out of, you know , uh, under center probably would give Kareem a better chance, which we saw him a lot under center on those short yardage plays, pick it up.

I, I think Kenneth Walker, again, this is, If we're talking bad case, I don't want to say worst case, but, but a poor case scenario and they're running out of shotgun a ton, just the addition of Kenneth Walker will be a massive improvement over what was currently there.

And again, even the fact that Andy brought up, you know, they did that a couple of years ago and Kenneth was still effective running out of shotgun.

Now, when it comes to Kenneth Walker himself and what he does, it's why I've said it's not just the player.

You and I had been in fairly lockstep for a while.

We saw and understood the.

Devaluation of the running back position or at least the player itself versus a culmination of guys, right?

If you can get 1800 yards with three guys, well, it doesn't matter if you have one guy getting paid 20 million or if it's three guys getting paid 3 million.

Well, if they're getting the same.

Numbers in the aggregate, moneyballing it, if you will.

There's not a huge difference.

Well, the issue was the Chiefs went so far the other way that it was unsustainable.

And even you and I agreed, OK, running backs matter at least a little more than the Chiefs value them.

Clearly, there's at least a little more, um, Impact they can have that's not just running the football because teams would have light boxes and those guys couldn't take advantage of it.

Well, you have light boxes against Kenneth Walker.

What happens?

Hopefully good things.

We wouldn't know because he was going up against heavy boxes last year and still producing very, very well, obviously, and still very, very efficient.

Well, this killed the pass game.

It wasn't just, oh, Mahomes is off or the wide receivers are buns and a Coleman.

Like, there's always gonna be nuance involved in these conversations.

And that's why I've, Taken back some of my criticism on the field only of Rasheed Rice.

Why I've, uh, peeled back a little bit of the criticism of Xavier Worthy, especially on the deep ball.

It's why I peeled back some of my immense criticism at times of, let's say like a Hollywood Brown, right?

I think part of it is, well, they're having an extra guy back there at all times.

You try getting open.

When instead of having maybe two other, at least one, but sometimes 2 extra guys in the box, and now you're like, OK, they have 6 defensive backs out here.

What are we supposed to do?

Good luck getting open.

And so I think Kenneth Walker will at least bring it more towards average.

It's why the Bills wide receivers at times had some success because they had to respect James Cook and obviously, Josh Allen's legs play a factor in that as well.

If you look at the difference of the neutral boxes versus light and heavy boxes, it's night and day.

It's why Josh Young would get a lot more one on ones.

It's why lesser receivers could be more effective and get open because they're not constantly having to deal with multiple dudes back there.

It'll make Patrick's life so much easier.

And that's why I was so thrilled with the contract at Kenneth.

I don't care if people think it was an overpay.

When you look at the running back market of what, Happened this past offseason, I think it's a line.

And then again, you take into account what he does to help open up and help things for Patrick.

I think Kenneth Walker helps things for Patrick more than maybe even a legit wide receiver one could.

That might sound blasphemous to most, but because of how many fewer.

Light boxes that will be seen defensively.

Schematically, this is gonna be a Christmas for, for Patrick.

I think the wide receiver, one thing is blasphemous, so I'll go ahead and go on the side of the, the, the, the pitchforks and torches and whatnot.

Um, but I do think that the, the gravity of the offense is, is the argument for the signing.

And I'll nitpick a little bit on the running back thing, like, I think part of it was that, part of it was the idea that if you don't have a top 3 running back, one of the top 5.

Guys, maybe.

The difference between guy 6 and guy 25 is really narrow and usually very dependent on circumstances.

Now, Christian McCaffrey and Derrick Henry and Saquan Barkley and a handful of others over the years have kept those very high levels of performance, so we're like, oh, that guy's a difference-maker.

And frankly, right now, we don't know if Kenneth Walker is one of those guys.

I think right now, you probably slot him in around like 10, which is in that group.

The issue for me with what the Chiefs did wasn't that the strategy failed, it's that to, like, and they had 3 hands in blackjack and they all busted.

They hit, hit, hit, bust, bust, bust, and you end up in a position where, really, since Isaiah Pacheco's injury, not just throughout all of last season , but early into the year prior, since then, They just didn't hit on the Damian Williams, Jarek McKinnon, early career Isaiah Pacheco, the guys that were able to, to keep the offense running at full power despite not being heavily invested in running backs.

If they could have just gotten 2026, Derek McKinnon and Damian Williams for a couple million dollars this year, that would have been ideal, but when you get to a point, Where Breshard Smith isn't ready to be that, that guy yet, where you don't have your McKinnon equivalent in the room right now.

It takes a little bit more money to fix the problem with some confidence, and I think they paid Kenneth Walker to fix the problem with some confidence at a premium for the running back position, not at a premium for offensive weapons.

Necessarily.

Now, I, I don't like the thing where it's like, well, just don't think of him as a running back.

Think of him as an offensive weapon.

Well, it's, that's not really how this actually works, even for like, Christian McCaffrey, who would have the best argument of that of anybody all time, right?

So, I, I still think a lot of that, those arguments hold, and I don't think the Chiefs were either foolish or just, like, high on their own supply, thinking, oh, we can, we can make this work.

With Pacheco and Hunt and a rookie, but their rookie ended up not really being a traditional running back, and they probably should have added another layer of, of insulation there, knowing that Pacheco was coming off an injury and Hunt was coming off of his forty-fifth birthday or whatever it was.

Um, that's unfair, that's.

I think Kareem Hunt's younger than I am.

Um, if nothing else, we're extremely close in age.

So, yeah, I, you know, I, Kareem Hunt also, if they bring him back before training camp, I will have no problem with that whatsoever.

He's a short yardage guy, freak.

Kareem Hunt is younger than both of us.

That's what I thought, that's what I thought.

So that's, in football years, he's 45.

In real years, he's got more life left in him than either of us do, um, and that's shouldn't be surprising.

He's also in much better shape.

I ate yogurt today, guy.

OK, I saw you eating yogurt and I'm proud of you for that.

I, the healthy kind of yogurt too, like the, not the, the unhealthy sugar boys.

I'm not here actually trying to, uh, you know, what's up, Chad?

Welcome to the unhealthy Sugar Boys.

I'm Joshua Briscoe.

He's Sterling Holmes.

It's almost summer season.

Gotta pop the tarp off soon, you know.

Gotta make sure that we got at least something going on down there.

That doesn't matter.

OK, keep going down there, um.

You know, I don't know.

I don't know at all.

Uh, but all of that to say, again, like, I don't, I don't think that Kenneth Walker's at a point where he's, like, definitely a top five running back right now.

I think being Super Bowl MVP certainly lifts your reputation, but he was, like, in a split-time backfield with the Seahawks even last year, and, and I think Amari DiMarcado is also a name we haven't said yet, who I think will really matter for the Chiefs in 2026.

And that he might be the one, maybe it's just that I can't get too excited about expensive running back.

Maybe there's something in my soul, but, man, I think DeMarcado is gonna be a really good fit for exactly what Kenneth Walker needs to, you know, have one full transformer of a running back that can do everything.

Um, and, and, frankly, man, like, I, I don't think that Kenneth Walker is incapable of catching passes out of the backfield.

I don't think he would be an unwilling pass protector, so I, I'd like to think that there's still some upside there, and I think the Chiefs probably believe that there is, um, cause it's not like they spent real money on DeMarcada, that was a cheap deal for him.

But ultimately, again, I just, I think they paid a little bit of a premium because also, they weren't spending that money on Romeo Dobbs or Alec Pierce.

I guess if you wanted to , now that we're still, it's almost, almost April, and I haven't heard anything about Jauan Jennings in a hot minute, um, I've referenced them a lot today, but between Seth and Nate Taylor said a couple of weeks ago, he's like, yep, well, Jauan Jennings, we'll, we'll hear about him whenever he gets his, uh, he gets calibrated to the market, something along those lines, that, uh, I, I think him and his agent asking for more money than anybody's interested in paying Jauan Jennings right now.

If you were like, hey, do you rather, would you rather have Jauan Jennings or Kenneth Walker and figure it out at running back some other way?

I'd have a really hard time turning down Jauan Jennings.

I think he'll still end up signing for more than Walker did though.

I don't, I don't think that's actually a 1 to 1.

Yeah, I, I, I think he's gonna be still more expensive.

I, I, I honestly, based on what I believe the contract difference will be, I, I would take Walker in a, in a heartbeat.

I'm just curious to see what that number ends up being.

And again, I don't think it's gonna be close, but that, that ends up being.

kind of the argument here if, if you spent money, and I, I, I know I've covered this now 10 times across 3 or 4 different shows in the last several weeks, but the Chiefs paid money to patch up non-premium positions in free agency, which leads me to believe that they're going to draft a lot of premium positions in the draft where you are able to, to have the cost.

Controlled long-term youth infusion at those positions and instead of spending a third round pick on a running back that no one's in love with, just considering how this draft class uh comes around and, and philosophically, that makes sense if it hits, if it, if you draft premium players and if half of those fit, then yes, yeah.

Um, A couple of, I think nuances here and, and one why I'm a little maybe lesser on Jauan Jennings and some.

I'm not saying I don't want the Chiefs to get Jauan Jennings.

It goes back to the same philosophy of When you face San Fran, you're not scared of their wide receivers.

The defensive game plan is not focusing on stopping Jauan Jennings.

It's focused on stopping CMC.

It's focused on stopping to an extent George Kittle when he actually plays.

When Ayuk was out there, when Debo was there, like it, it still kind of was, but yeah, I, I, I hear you.

It's, that was a, that was a super team.

And so when I think about it, I, I, I think that's why the San Francisco offense has looked.

Even good when all the receivers were out because they were facing heavier sets trying to stop the run game.

And so you have, again, in my opinion, when I say lesser, that I'm not saying Jauan Jennings, he's not a wide receiver, one.

But at times he can look like one because the emphasis on, uh, for, for defenses is not stopping him.

That's not the game plan.

It's stopping CMC and again, to an extent, George Kittle.

So you're gonna see more advantageous, uh, advantageous looks.

You go back to like the 2003-ish Chiefs.

Think about those teams.

I know the game's changed a lot in 23 years.

So this, this might be a little unfair, but I was just thinking of it during the show and I, it popped in my head and I want to at least get your thoughts on this.

Now, they had the best offensive line maybe of all time.

That, that's gonna play a factor.

We like Trent Green.

I think he's a great person.

He's a good quarterback.

Won a Super Bowl with, uh, with the Rams as a backup .

Like, I love Trent Green, but no one's sitting here saying Trent Green is.

Patrick Mahomes, right?

And when we look at those teams back in that era of, of cheat football.

Eddie Kennison was the best wide receiver.

And I like Eddie Kennison.

It's not like he's, but he was more maybe Jauan Jennings, right?

Like that's not Ja'Marr Chase or Justin Jefferson.

I mean, we like Eddie Kennison.

We like those guys.

But the reason why they, those guys were elevated, the, the pass game in general, yes, the offensive line.

But 2, because teams had to stop Priest Holmes.

And then Larry Johnson, and then eventually Jamal Charles, and then they couldn't find any quarterback.

So again, you at least have some sort of quarterback here.

But the point I'm making here is that's because teams were so focused on stopping the run game.

It allowed the elevation of maybe wide receiver 2s and 3s to go to wide receiver 1s and 2s.

Now, the playoff success, all of that, throw that out the window.

But you look at this current Chiefs team right now.

The wide receivers are probably still better than the 2003 wide receivers.

But you can't.

The bar for that has raised a lot, but I, yeah, you know, it's, it's raised a ton.

It's raised a ton.

But the point , I, I, I, I think it's at least a semi-fair one, and I, again, I just thought of this, so I haven't sussed it out and done a whole bunch of research on it, but, You look at the wide receivers, you look at those offenses, yeah, times have changed.

That's why I think Kenneth Walker has me so excited.

I'm not saying he's Priest Holmes.

I'm not saying defenses are only going to say, OK, that's all we're stopping now.

Then forget that the Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes back there at quarterback.

But can you get a more balanced defensive look?

Can you go back to year one, Patrick?

That's why I think it helped with Damian Williams because he took advantage of the lighter boxes when those were with him, when he saw those.

Just my thought here, my two cents.

I'm not trying to say I'm going so far from running back, don't matter to you now.

All of a sudden, running backs are the key to your , your team.

It's not what I'm trying to do here.

I'm not trying to talk myself into because the Chiefs got Kenneth Walker, that everything's fixed, but I think there's some nuance in a middle ground somewhere in there that really is getting me excited for this upcoming season, even if philosophically and schematically, the team doesn't change a ton.

Yeah, a place where I'll definitely meet you there is that you, you need to have ways to capitalize on what happens when the defense makes you play with one hand tied behind your back.

And I, I think that can be your wide receiver one is.

Ja'Marr Chase, and so T. Higgins is a cheat code because he's the guy that's not getting the attention, and who cares who your running back one is, they just have to be competent.

Now, again, like, kindly, the Chiefs didn't really have competent running back play over the last couple of years, and that's a little bit unfair cause Kareem Hunt kind of was, but not in a, not in the modern NFL where he want efficiency and explosion.

He was very useful, but the running game just never really got to where you wanted it to be.

So, you wanna have a guy that can do that as your, here's the other thing, as your easy button.

What has been easy for Patrick Mahomes over the last few years?

Very, very little, because you are trying to either get new receivers up to speed or you've got guys like MVS who at one point are a part of what makes your offense work, and then at some point, they, they hear the Activation code and they actively start playing against the team that you're on, you, you have to be able to take advantage of wherever that gravity of the defense does pull.

So, I do think Kenneth Walker makes Patrick Mahomes's life easier.

I, I also think Jauan Jennings would make Patrick Mahomes's life easier.

I think that with the way that the offseasons come together, this is why I've always, like, literally from I, like, Christmas, if not Thanksgiving.

I've been on the Carnell Tate bandwagon and I, I don't, right now, I'd assume the Chiefs don't have a chance to select him at 9.

But the thing about him that just is so easy for me to talk myself into is like, hey, sorry, Spags, it defensive end at 29, for sure, we got you, just hold on.

The idea that you can have a number one receiver who does start to demand that kind of attention from defenses, and now all of a sudden, and, and with Kenneth Walker elevating your running game, all of a sudden, a deep shot to Xavier Worthy twice a game is something that defenses fall asleep about, or they're stressed about it the entire game cause you hit one in the 1st quarter, and now everything's easier underneath for Rasheed Rice and Travis Kelsey out of the backfield for Kenneth Walker .

Um, there, there is undeniably, there is a, a give and take, a push and pull of the gravity of How defenses are going to defend your offense and especially last year, the Chiefs just had so few places to go where it just felt like stuff was always working.

And again, I'm, I'm still thinking also about the long term when we talk about drafting or big investments .

Kenneth Walker should keep the Chiefs from having to make another big investment in the running back position for the next couple of years.

They're gonna have to invest in receiver more as, as the years come on.

Well, yeah, especially with the uncertainty with Rasheed Rice.

As long as that lingers over.

There's no certainty, uh, at all.

It's nice to see Tyquan Thornton back.

I'm excited, uh, for Tyquan to be back in KC.

And again, what, what's nice about that's not just of him as a player, but him entering, entering his second year.

The understanding of the playbook again, right, wrong, indifferent, correct, uh, overblown.

Clearly, it feels like a lot of guys struggle the first year in Andy Reid's system as a wide receiver.

So that means Tyquan, hopefully, It is a nice little easy button.

That's why I think the Chiefs for a while kept bringing back wide receiver fours and fives because it was easier to have those guys come back like Justin Watson and MVS and Nicole Hardman, all those guys, because teaching someone the playbook, uh, apparently they didn't want to do it.

They didn't want to do it.

They didn't want to teach.

They wanted someone who could be a, a, a, what's it, a TA who, a teacher's assistant and just, just kinda, Teach the other young DeAndre Hopkins for like 8 games, whatever that ended up being.

Yeah, whatever.

Yeah, that, that nice, uh, combo there.

All right, this is fun.

I'm glad we got to talk some Kenneth Walker and at least the evolution we think the offense could look like even if schematically things don't change a lot and that would be worst-case scenario, but even worst-case scenario than the Chiefs' offense with Kenneth, uh, looks a whole lot better.

I'm still petrified at Edge.

I don't know exactly what's going on.

Don't love it.

Even if they take Carnell Tate at 9, I'll be thrilled for 2 seconds and then go, oh my gosh , but they still have FAU starting at Edge.

Is it Glati?

I don't know.

Neither sound great to me.

But what does sound great is you guys leaving us a 5-star review and a like wherever you get your podcast.

Please subscribe.

It matters to us.

Please, it does matter to us.

Briscoe, you can listen to him in about an hour-ish with, uh, Only Weird Games.

Uh, Nate and, and Seth, they're gonna have some nonsensical fun, I would assume.

Nate's at owners' meetings and, uh, Seth just looked at Makai Lemon, so we'll, uh, we'll talk to him about what he thinks there because I think that's another option at 9 when, uh, the draft gives you lemons, draft of the podcast.

Appreciate everyone hanging out with us.

Uh, we'll be back tomorrow, Adam Best and myself.

Until next time, we are out.

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