Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III just delivered perhaps the most complete playoff run by a Seattle Seahawks running back in a decade. Yet, when general manager John Schneider was asked directly about Walker’s future, he made a deliberate pivot, talking about who coached him.

“I think Justin Outten did a great job with that room when he took over,” Schneider said in an exclusive interview with Seattle Sports. “I felt like Ken was a little bit more decisive. It was so sad when Zach got hurt, Ken really took that like a badge like ‘I’m going to kick butt for my buddy.’ Those guys are so close, and he did a great job.”

In the face of this response, Seattle journalist Chris Cluff stated the obvious, which was on everyone’s mind.

“That might say all you need to know about whether Walker will be back,” Cluff wrote on X.

Schneider saw improvement and praised how K9 channeled Zach Charbonnet’s ACL tear into personal fuel. But crediting the coach first, when the question was about the player’s future, appeared to be a calculated deflection. 

News served to you like never before!

Prefer us on Google, To get latest news on feed

Prefer Us on Google

“We’ll go down to the combine next week and sit down with everybody and get a lay of the land and see where everybody’s heads are at,” Schneider said.

Kenneth Walker is 25, entering free agency for the first time after his rookie deal. He brings serious upside to get a big contract next. In the playoffs, he erupted with 4 touchdowns for 313 yards. His Super Bowl MVP title made him the first running back to earn the honor since Terrell Davis in 1998. Yet, Seattle seems okay with letting him go.

“It’s unlikely the Seahawks will use their franchise tag on running back and Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker,” writes Adam Schefter on X. “The Seahawks have multiple free agents they want to retain and sign. They also will try to extend WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba. There are enough Super-Bowl tax costs that now make using a franchise tag this off-season unlikely.”

Walker’s tag could cost Seattle roughly $14.5 million, a steep ask for Seattle with multiple extensions looming. Spotrac projects Walker at four years, $33.5 million. James Cook, drafted the same year and round, got a four-year extension worth about $48 million from the Buffalo Bills. But the Seahawks have only used the franchise tag twice in the last 16 years.

For now, nothing seems set in stone, at least until the combine. But even before the decision is made official, it feels like Seattle already knows that the franchise can’t keep a Super Bowl MVP, and the fans seem to know that too. 

Seattle’s reactions say it all for Kenneth Walker’s future

John Schneider’s carefully worded non-answer lit up the comment section. The performance that made Walker immortal in Seattle may not be enough to keep him there this spring. That tension is now playing out in real time, and the reactions pouring in from the community have mapped every possible outcome.

“I think he will be back tbh,” wrote an optimistic fan.

But cynics read between the lines and spotted a chess game in play. One fan even called out the mastermind move made by Schneider.

“I think deep down JS is hoping someone else drastically overpays and offers k9 an offer and he can’t refuse,” wrote the person.

Another saw Schneider’s comments as a warning for Kenneth Walker and even ran the contract math.

“Yeah I think that was more like a reminder to Ken, don’t forget why s*** turned better for you,” wrote the fan “I have no info but I think Ken won’t get the number he was ultimately hoping for, but it will still be higher than the hawks originally planned to go. 3 years for $36.”

While the debate on Walker’s Seattle future went on, the pragmatists offered the most grounded takes.

“They love K9 and would love him back but they have a number for him and will only resign him at their price,” one fan wrote.

Others even went so far as to draw a few lines in the sand and offer warnings to the Seahawks front office.

“I think he won’t be back,” wrote one fan, while another dropped the warning: “Never overpay for a RB unless they are a top 5 RB in the league. Hope he stays but the Hawks will be just find without him.”

Walker surely wouldn’t negotiate from a position of weakness. But John Schneider doesn’t seem to be blinking either. The NFL Combine next week will put real numbers on the table. Until then, Seattle faces its hardest question: what is the man who carried them to a Lombardi actually worth?