The Kansas City Chiefs signed free agent running back Kenneth Walker III to a three-year, $43 million contract this offseason. They saw the former Seahawks star as the perfect remedy for their recent offensive woes. So far, it has worked beautifully.
Two weeks into the season, the reigning Super Bowl MVP leads the league in rushing by a wide margin. 290 yards on 47 carries. Still, Kansas City is concerned, and the Indianapolis Colts are advised to pay attention to what the Chiefs are saying.
Coach Andy Reid said this week that he wants to reduce that workload “a little bit.” Offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and running backs coach DeMarco Murray agreed. Bieniemy and Murray are former running backs themselves who recognize how much punishment ball carriers take in the NFL.
The Indianapolis Colts still need a second running back to reduce Jonathan Taylor’s workload
Between carries and receptions, Walker is currently averaging 28 touches per game. That is well above his norm in Seattle, where he was typically part of a platoon. He rarely exceeded 17 touches per game. For Taylor, that would constitute a major decline, and it is a decline Shane Steichen and Jim Bob Cooter should seriously consider.
This has been an ongoing problem since Taylor entered the league, and Chris Ballard’s inability to adequately address the problem amounts to virtual managerial malfeasance. Taylor averaged just under 22 touches per game last year. Through the first two games of 2026, he is on pace for over 400 combined touches this year, or 25 runs and receptions per game. That pace is simply unsustainable.
The data on this is irrefutable. Through the first ten games of 2025, Taylor exceeded 100 yards in five of them. He averaged 112 yards rushing per game. The Colts went 8-2.
In the last seven games, that average plummeted to 64 yards per game. He never cracked 90 yards, and of course, Indy lost every game.
Sure, there were other factors. But this seems obvious. Jonathan Taylor wore down because the Colts didn’t trust any other back to touch the ball. Every other running back on the roster in 2025 – Ameer Abdullah, DJ Giddens, Tyler Goodson, and Ulysses Bentley – touched the ball 68 times combined. Taylor’s number was 369. That’s 85% of all running back touches going to one player.
That is simply insane. Even the Baltimore Ravens – with the indefatigable Derrick Henry – only gave their bell cow 72% of the team’s running back touches last year.
Ballard has not prioritized the running back position since drafting Taylor in 2020. The two other backs on the roster, Giddens and Seth McGowan, were late-round draft picks. In 11 professional games, they have combined for 28 carries and 96 yards. They have caught one pass for zero yards.
Since 2021, the year after he brought Taylor to town, Ballard has made 28 picks in the final three rounds of the draft. 13 of those players remain with the team. Eight have played this season. One, Jaylon Carlies, is a starter, though that status seems very much in jeopardy.
I mention the final three rounds because that is where many teams have identified quality backup runners in recent years. That’s what Ballard has attempted with Giddens and McGowan, and perhaps it will pay off one day. But it will never happen if Steichen doesn’t begin getting them on the field.
Kenneth Gainwell, Khalil Herbert, Isaiah Pacheco, Tyrone Tracy … those are just a few of the late-round draft picks who have provided quality support in recent years. Two others – Chase Brown and Tyler Allgeier – have done far more than that, each accounting for more than three thousand yards from scrimmage.
Last year, seventh-round picks Kyle Monangai and Jacory Croskey-Merritt both ran for over 900 yards. Any one of them would look awfully good in a Colts jersey.
One of the main reasons Andy Reid and the Chiefs express comfort in reducing Kenneth Walker’s workload is the presence of rookie Emmett Johnson. The fifth-round pick in last year’s draft has already had 14 touches and gained 103 yards in the first two games of his NFL career. That is more than Giddens and McGowan have gained in their combined eleven games.
Is this a question of Chris Ballard failing to value the importance of quality running back support behind Jonathan Taylor? Or has he simply failed to identify quality backs late in the draft? Or perhaps the players are fine, but Steichen and his coaches are simply unwilling to take Taylor out of the game.
We don’t really know the answer. We just see that what they are doing is not working. Yet they continue to do it. There’s a famous quote about that: something to do with repeating the same act over and over while expecting different results.
Maybe they should take a page from the Chiefs' book (that’s the same Chiefs franchise that has won three Super Bowls since the Colts last won a playoff game) and find ways to reduce the workload for their best player.
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