Chiefs RB Kenneth Walker is already earning awards after his first week in Kansas City.

After a 31-10 win over the Broncos in Week 1, Walker has been named AFC Offensive Player of the Week. Walker led the league with 191 scrimmage yards (173 rushing, 18 receiving) in Week 1. Also, he recorded two scrimmage touchdowns (1 rushing, 1 receiving). He became one of just 6 running backs in NFL history to record 190 scrimmage yards, plus one rushing and one receiving TD in a Week 1 game.

Walker is the reigning Super Bowl MVP with the Seattle Seahawks. He has won Player of the Week only once in his career (Week 3, 2023). He’s one of seven running backs in franchise history to be named Player of the Week, and the first ever to do so in a season-opening game.

Inside Kansas City Chiefs RB Kenneth Walker’s impressive Week 1 performance

Kenneth Walker rushed for 173 yards, the most by a Chief since Jamaal Charles in 2012. Walker played his highest snap total since Week 11 of 2024. His 26 touches were also the most since Week 9 of 2024. He forced a career-high 14 missed tackles while posting the highest expected points added per carry (0.47) of any running back in Week 1, per NFL Next Gen Stats.

Walker had two carries of 20-plus yards, more than every Chiefs rusher combined during the 2025 NFL season. He’s clearly Kansas City’s No. 1 running back, and a dominant one at that. Walker had 108 rushing yards after contact and 101 rushing yards over expected, more than 50 rushing yards over expected ahead of the next closest running back in Week 1. He was one of only four running backs in Week 1 to have a carry reach 20 miles per hour.

Patrick Mahomes felt validated by Kenneth Walker’s Week 1 performance

Speaking to media members on Wednesday, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes felt that Walker validated some of his priors. He said that Walker was going to completely transform the offense, and he did just that in Week 1.

“I think it just more like solidified what (my) beliefs were. Like, I knew he had the speed, so I knew like when he bounced it, like I was probably the first one that had the one up. I knew he was going to get to the end zone, and I knew he ran tough. But I think that the contact balance and seeing him break those tackles, like you could see it in practice, but we’re not fully tackling every single day, and so you don’t know for sure. And I always tell the coach they blow the whistle a little too early on some of those plays, but he showcased it. It’s like you got to wrap him up; you have to hit him the right way in order to tackle him. And if you’re not going to, he’s going to get those extra yards. And I think that’s a special ability. And I thought he did a great job of that.”

Mahomes expects Walker and the running game to keep opening things up for the offense.

“100%, I mean, that’s how it works. If you’re able to run the ball like that, defenses have to adjust and have to change, and they probably came out in more shell coverages than we even expected from prior years, trying to see what we were going to do, and we were able to kind of showcase that we were going to stay true and we’re going to run the ball and get them out of those. And once they did that, and they started getting out of some of those shell coverages, the pass game opened up, and so that’s kind of the balance of it. You have to be able to do both in order to have a successful offense.

This is only just the beginning of the awards for Kansas City Chiefs RB Kenneth Walker

Walker is coming off a Super Bowl MVP campaign. AFC Offensive Player of the Week has him on track to earn AFC Offensive Player of the Month for September. He opened the season +3500 for Offensive Player of the Year. That line has shifted significantly after the dominant Week 1 showing. If he keeps this level of play, he could even make a case for league MVP. This is clearly only the beginning for Walker. He’ll have to prove Week 1 wasn’t a fluke. He should be able to do that against a Colts team that allowed Baltimore Ravens RB Derrick Henry plenty of rushing yards in Week 1.