Kenneth Walker III is five games into the 2026 season without a fumble, rushing for 665 yards and scoring eight touchdowns for the Kansas City Chiefs heading into Sunday Night Football at Seattle. He has been the most consistent piece on an offense still searching for answers at wide receiver.
No running back has won the NFL MVP award since Adrian Peterson in 2012, but Walker’s start to the season has put his name into a conversation that position players rarely enter. This weekend, Denver Broncos legend Mark Schlereth called Walker the engine of Kansas City’s offense and made the explicit MVP case.
Mark Schlereth Raises Kenneth Walker III for MVP, Credits Him as the Constant in Kansas City’s Offense
The Chiefs have not settled on a clear go-to wide receiver through the first five weeks, with the position still a work in progress as Kansas City waits for options to step up and the unit to get healthy. Travis Kelce remains a reliable and effective target but is no longer the same force he was at his peak.
That uncertainty in the receiving corps has made Walker’s week-to-week production all the more central to how Kansas City operates. During a segment on “The Stinkin Truth Podcast with Mark Schlereth,” co-host Mike Evans noted that Walker is on pace for 2,261 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns on the season based on his current output.
Schlereth pointed out how consistent Walker has been for the Chiefs so far.
“They’re still trying to figure out what their wide receiver position is. They’re still trying to figure out who the go-to guy is. And while they’re trying to figure that out, while they’re waiting for somebody to step up and everybody to be healthy, Kenneth Walker is one consistent, one consistent king of key cog. He’s the actuator of that offense, and he has just been exceptional,” Schlereth said.
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Evans followed with an observation about how their entire Chiefs conversation had gone without mentioning Patrick Mahomes once, and used that to frame what Walker’s role has become.
“Wow. We just spent all this time talking about the Kansas City Chiefs, and I don’t think we talked about Mahomes once. So that tells you how things are going right now with Kansas City,” Evans remarked.
Schlereth then made the direct MVP push and pointed to how long the award has been out of reach for running backs.
“If we’re going to start talking about MVPs, and we’ve got to throw quarterbacks in there, this dude is an MVP candidate. I think the last running back to win the MVP was Adrian Peterson. And then it just became a quarterback award. So let’s put some respect on Kenneth Walker and what he’s doing,” Schlereth said.
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Peterson’s 2012 season is the most recent instance of a running back winning NFL MVP. He rushed for 2,097 yards that year, finishing just nine yards short of the all-time single-season record, and took both the MVP and Offensive Player of the Year honors.
As for Walker, his production has been consistent throughout. He opened with 173 rushing yards and two total touchdowns against Denver before adding 117 rushing yards and 61 receiving yards in an overtime victory over Indianapolis. He followed with 70 rushing yards and two touchdowns against Miami, before his best ground performance of the season in Week 4, posting 177 yards and two touchdowns against Las Vegas.
He kept the pace going in Week 5 with 128 yards and two more scores against the Chargers and has not fumbled once through the entire five-week stretch.
According to PFN’s RB Impact Metric, Kenneth Walker III is ranked first among running backs with a grade of 96.5, the top mark at the position in the NFL. He has accumulated 760 scrimmage yards, 665 of which came on the ground, along with eight touchdowns on 129 touches for the unbeaten Chiefs.
Kansas City faces the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night Football at Lumen Field tonight.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.