The Kansas City Chiefs’ 2026 NFL offseason plans seem to follow a trend that was successful in the league just a season ago.

Speaking to James Palmer and Steve Smith Sr. on the “89” podcast, former NFL All-Pro RB Maurice Jones-Drew discussed the Chiefs’ decision to draft Nebraska RB Emmett Johnson at length. Jones-Drew sees right through what his former coach, Eric Bieniemy, is planning in Kansas City.

He believes the Chiefs set out with a specific goal, adding Kenneth Walker III via free agency and Johnson via the 2026 NFL Draft. That goal? To reignite the running game by following a recent NFL trend at running back. The trend? Having skill set redundancy at the running back position to keep things unpredictable, no matter who is in the game.

Maurice Jones-Drew: The Chiefs are trying to capture the line of scrimmage through the running game

The Chiefs have invested a ton of money in the interior of their offensive line, and now it’s time to use it to build a dominant rushing attack. Maurice Jones-Drew recognized that the Emmett Johnson pick gives Eric Bieniemy a player to pair with Kenneth Walker who can do the same types of things.

“What are the Chiefs trying to do here? Let’s look at what the Chiefs are trying to do,” Jones-Drew explained. “They’re trying to get back to capture the line of scrimmage. They got away from running the ball way too much, right? So, you go get Kenneth Walker, you bring him in, and Kenneth Walker had a great year last year, the only year he’s been healthy in his career, though, right? And so you need to have a secondary guy that matches what he can do.”

Are they the same players? No, they’re not. However, there are enough similarities in their game that you’re not at a disadvantage when either player is in the game.

“Now, Kenneth Walker’s way faster, more explosive, I would say, than Emmett Johnson,” Jones-Drew continued. “But Emmett Johnson can catch the ball like Kenneth Walker out of the backfield. He can run every run scheme like him, and again, you want to talk about tread on the tires, he really didn’t play until two years ago, like halfway through the season he started playing… When you have no tread on the tires, it’s also like painting a wall. When you paint a wall, like sometimes you get these houses, someone’s lived in the house, right? So, you’ve got to go and fix it and change the house to the way you want it. Well, when you buy a new construction, I don’t got to do anything right. I can make that house mine. When you have less tread on your tires, you don’t have to undo as much as what other guys have when they played so much, right? Because, again, success is not always a good thing. Sometimes you have bad habits, and you’re successful with bad habits. When I spoke to (Eric Bieniemy), when I spoke to Emmett, like I thought this was a great fit. You’re going to have a guy that’s going to be able to do all these things that you’re looking for, right? While Mahomes is getting better.”

Chiefs RB Emmett Johnson creates the type of redundancy at the running back position that breeds success

Jones-Drew does not see Johnson as a complementary piece to Walker. He’s not going to be a third-down back or a short-yardage back, but rather a do-it-all player in the same way that Walker is. They’re going to create a two-back system like the ones that were so successful in 2025.

“I don’t know if it’s necessarily gonna be third down back,” Jones-Drew said. “I think because Kenneth Walker can do everything too, right? Kenneth Walker can play third-down back. I just think that you’re gonna have a two-back system. Where he may get a series, he may get a couple carries throughout the course of the game, but he’s going to be utilized, and so I don’t know if necessarily, because let’s remember, Kansas City, they don’t, they necessarily don’t run option routes with running backs, that’s not their, that’s not what they do, right? They, they run crossers. (Travis) Kelce) gets around, whatever he wants to do, gets open, all that. But if we’re running the football and want an explosive running game, we need two guys. Again, look at what Chicago was able to do in year one under Ben Johnson. Look what the Seattle Seahawks did, right? Like two running backs, you’re starting to see everybody wants these running backs, because if you have two of them, right, when one can wear down the defense, the other one can be explosive or vice versa, however you want to do it, but I think that they’re going to lean on that running game and lean on getting that offensive line going forward a little bit more.”

That’s not to say that Johnson and Walker won’t be involved in the passing attack. Jones-Drew recognizes that this offense has been at its best when the Chiefs have a trusted pass-catcher at running back. Guys like Jamaal Charles, LeSean McCoy, and Jerick McKinnon, for instance.

“But do you know that with Andy Reid and this offense, and (Eric) Bieniemy, in the past when they had it like a Shady McCoy, they had someone that they felt comfortable running those routes and catching a ball cleanly out of the backfield,” Jones-Drew said. “So, is that one of these guys that they can get back to having an option route or the Texas angle, because you want to be able to have that running back in there that doesn’t tip the defense off, ‘Hey, they’re possibly running a pass play.’

“I go back to why Seattle won last year was because there wasn’t, there wasn’t a difference if (Zach) Charbonnet was in or Kenneth Walker was in,” Jones-Drew continued. “There wasn’t a difference. It was literally they ran the same plays. The only difference, and I told people this — the Rams played them three times (and) lost two of them — is Kenneth Walker will take a play front side and cut it all the way back. He will wind that thing all the way back, so he makes your defense have to play sound defense. Charbonnet, if it’s supposed to go right, he’s going to go right, right? He’s not going to cut it all the way back. And so I think that’s going to be interesting to see how Kenneth Walker and Emmett Johnson work. Does Emmett take a little bit of that Kenneth Walker and cut it back and kind of make the defense play hole, or is he going to be…I’m going to tell you again, I played for Eric Bienemy, you know, he had some choice words for me. My freshman year, when I took an outside zone to the right, I cut it back left and went 90, and I was celebrating, I was happy. He told the defense, ‘If he does that again, do something to him.’ I didn’t appreciate that, but old-school, old-school coach. He’s a stickler on doing things a certain way, so it’s gonna be interesting to see, but I think they have two really good running backs that can go.”

At the end of the day, this all only comes to fruition if Andy Reid commits to running the football. Since the 2017 NFL season, the Chiefs have never had a rush play percentage of 42% or higher. They’ve consistently ranked outside of the top-20 in the NFL in terms of their rush play percentage. It’ll take a bit of a mindset shift to truly take advantage. They’ve got all of the pieces in place, from personnel to coaching, to make it happen.