Kenneth Walker III Comes Home Sunday — and Seattle's Broken Run Game Is Why It Stings

The Seattle Seahawks host the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night at Lumen Field with a 3-3 record, a two-game losing streak, and a defense playing well enough to win a division. Standing in the other huddle will be the running back they let walk.

Kenneth Walker III, the MVP of Super Bowl 60, signed with Kansas City in 2026 free agency. He now suits up for a 5-0 Chiefs team that arrives in Seattle averaging 28.0 points and 421.6 yards per game. The Seahawks, meanwhile, are averaging 107.2 rushing yards per game and have spent the last month auditioning replacements.

The run game never got off the ground

The plan was sensible on paper: pair first-round pick Jadarian Price with Zach Charbonnet for a one-two punch behind Sam Darnold. Reality intervened. Charbonnet tore his ACL in a January playoff game and hasn't played a regular-season snap in 2026. Price has carried 28 times for 119 yards and no touchdowns, and he isn't eligible to come off injured reserve for at least another two weeks.

That has left Emanuel Wilson as the primary back. He's been serviceable and occasionally better than that — 87 carries, 303 yards, two touchdowns, with a 92-yard day against Arizona in Week 2 and 81 yards against the Chargers in Week 4 — but the last two weeks produced 61 and 52 yards on the ground. Against Denver, Seattle ran 25 times for a combined 3.5 yards per play across 101 snaps.

Help may finally be arriving

Monday brought the most encouraging injury news Seattle has had in a month. Head coach Mike Macdonald said Charbonnet will get a full week of practice and called a Sunday return "a possibility." Charbonnet has been on the reserve/PUP list since being designated for return on October 1 and must be activated this week to play. His 2025 line — 730 rushing yards, 12 touchdowns, and 20 catches — represents the exact ingredient a 33.3% third-down offense and a 50% red-zone touchdown rate have been missing.

Whether a player coming off a torn ACL can absorb a full workload in his first game back is a separate question.

The passing game is the bigger crack

The run game is only half the diagnosis. Sam Darnold has thrown seven touchdowns and seven interceptions, posted a 77.4 passer rating, and absorbed 16 sacks — a 9.7% sack rate. He's been pressured on roughly 35% of his dropbacks, and over his last three games his completion percentage has dipped to 56.9% with a 65.0 rating.

The downstream effect shows up in the explosion numbers. Seattle's explosive plays by week: three, three, four, five, three, two. Against Denver the Seahawks generated two explosive plays on 58 pass attempts and averaged 3.51 yards per snap. Jaxon Smith-Njigba has been extraordinary — 49 catches, 717 yards, seven touchdowns — but Cooper Kupp sits at 16 receptions for 179 yards, and the offense has become a one-man show behind a line that isn't holding up.

The defense is being wasted

Seattle allows 20.3 points and 252.8 yards per game and has logged 16 sacks. That's a championship-caliber profile attached to a 3-3 record. The three losses — 33-31 at Washington, 32-29 to San Francisco, 17-14 in overtime at Denver — were all one-score games decided by the offense's turnovers (12 on the season, minus-one differential) and untimely penalties.

The power rating reflects the frustration: Seattle has slid from third to tenth, with its rating dropping 2.4 points in a week. San Francisco is 6-0 atop the NFC West, which makes this stretch close to must-win for divisional relevance.

What Sunday tells us

The market still treats Seattle as the better team at home — the spread sits around Seahawks -2.5 with an implied win probability near 58% — which says more about Kansas City's injury report (Rashee Rice is out with a hamstring, L'Jarius Sneed questionable with a knee) than about Seattle's form. But the underlying profile is trending the wrong direction, and a defense this good won't stay quiet forever.

The season hinges on whether Charbonnet's return plus a healthier offensive line can convert 250-yard defensive efforts into wins. If not, the Seahawks will spend December explaining how a top-five defense missed the playoffs.