The contracts are rolling in. Kind of seems like there was some talking between players and teams long before the legal tampering period began an hour ago. Among the big ones, especially fantasy-wise, is Kenneth Walker leaving Seattle to sign with Kansas City.
Reportedly it's three years and $43.5 million, with $28M guaranteed. Nice payday for a running back.
I've long been a Walker fan. Most notably, it bugged me that they kept taking him off the field the past couple of years for less-efficient Zach Charbonnet. Kansas City is paying him enough money to think he'll be something close to full-time for them, which they haven't really had in their backfield in a number of years.
Despite losing a lot of playing time to Charbonnet, Walker has been pretty solid for Seattle since entering the league. On a per-game basis, among running backs who've started at least half the time the past four years, Walker shows up 15th in PPR leagues. Three of the guys ahead of him will likely be out of the league this year, and a couple of others will be on their last legs. Walker is 25 years old.
| RUNNING BACKS PER GAME, 2022-2025 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | Run | No | Rec | Total | TD | PPR |
| Christian McCaffrey | 53 | 74.8 | 5.0 | 44.4 | 119.2 | .96 | 22.7 |
| Jahmyr Gibbs | 49 | 73.1 | 3.7 | 29.6 | 102.6 | 1.00 | 20.0 |
| Bijan Robinson | 50 | 78.1 | 4.0 | 34.8 | 112.9 | .69 | 19.4 |
| Jonathan Taylor | 50 | 91.6 | 2.1 | 15.0 | 106.6 | .89 | 18.1 |
| Kyren Williams | 44 | 82.8 | 2.3 | 15.2 | 98.0 | .96 | 17.9 |
| Saquon Barkley | 62 | 87.4 | 2.7 | 18.9 | 106.3 | .74 | 17.8 |
| Austin Ekeler | 36 | 47.0 | 4.8 | 35.9 | 82.9 | .75 | 17.5 |
| Derrick Henry | 67 | 92.9 | 1.4 | 14.3 | 107.1 | .88 | 17.4 |
| Josh Jacobs | 62 | 76.1 | 2.6 | 21.3 | 97.4 | .77 | 17.0 |
| Joe Mixon | 45 | 63.6 | 3.3 | 25.0 | 88.7 | .74 | 16.6 |
| James Cook | 55 | 72.7 | 2.2 | 19.3 | 92.1 | .73 | 15.8 |
| Alvin Kamara | 53 | 56.8 | 4.4 | 31.8 | 88.6 | .38 | 15.5 |
| James Conner | 45 | 66.9 | 2.8 | 20.4 | 87.3 | .64 | 15.4 |
| Breece Hall | 56 | 60.7 | 3.4 | 29.3 | 90.0 | .50 | 15.4 |
| Kenneth Walker | 54 | 63.1 | 2.4 | 18.4 | 81.5 | .56 | 13.8 |
| Travis Etienne | 61 | 58.7 | 2.6 | 19.9 | 78.6 | .54 | 13.7 |
| D'Andre Swift | 62 | 58.6 | 2.6 | 20.8 | 79.4 | .49 | 13.5 |
| Aaron Jones | 57 | 60.8 | 2.9 | 21.7 | 82.4 | .36 | 13.3 |
| Chuba Hubbard | 42 | 63.3 | 2.3 | 15.1 | 78.4 | .51 | 13.2 |
| Rhamondre Stevenson | 57 | 52.2 | 2.9 | 20.5 | 72.7 | .48 | 13.1 |
| David Montgomery | 61 | 54.2 | 1.8 | 15.8 | 70.0 | .64 | 12.7 |
| Javonte Williams | 46 | 53.5 | 2.8 | 14.2 | 67.7 | .49 | 12.5 |
| Tony Pollard | 50 | 63.3 | 2.6 | 15.1 | 78.4 | .33 | 12.4 |
| Najee Harris | 51 | 61.0 | 2.1 | 13.4 | 74.4 | .47 | 12.3 |
| Brian Robinson | 40 | 57.7 | 1.6 | 14.7 | 72.4 | .51 | 11.9 |
| Isiah Pacheco | 40 | 55.3 | 2.0 | 13.0 | 68.3 | .40 | 11.3 |
| Tyjae Spears (C) | 41 | 23.2 | 3.0 | 21.1 | 44.3 | .24 | 8.9 |
| Zach Charbonnet (C) | 40 | 30.2 | 1.7 | 10.9 | 41.0 | .38 | 8.0 |
| Kenneth Gainwell (C) | 47 | 19.7 | 2.5 | 16.7 | 36.4 | .26 | 7.7 |
| Kareem Hunt (C) | 49 | 28.0 | 1.4 | 8.9 | 36.9 | .41 | 7.6 |
Note that a couple of guys at the bottom of this table toiled for Kansas City the last two seasons: Isiah Pacheco, and Kareem Hunt. Both will probably be gone, with Walker featured. They'll probably work in a second back of some sort, but Walker can play on three downs if they so choose. I'm interested.
Other early deals: Dolphins sign Malik Willis (releasing Tua Tagovailoa). The Colts resign Alec Pierce and traded Michael Pittman to the Steelers. Giants sign Isaiah Likely. I'm sure we'll be talking about these deals, and others, all week.
--Andy Richardson
