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Walker Got His Ring. He Just Didn’t Come Get It.
We knew Kenneth Walker III was the lone champion missing from Thursday night’s Super Bowl LX ring ceremony. Now we know the number attached to his absence. Walker signed a three-year, $45 million deal with the Kansas City Chiefs, and the explanation for why he wasn’t in Seattle accepting jewelry turns out to be almost boringly logical: the Chiefs held their own mandatory minicamp that same Thursday.
$45M
Walker’s new three-year deal with the Chiefs, signed about a month after the Super Bowl.
So before anyone builds a monument to the snub, understand the mundane version first. He had a day job in Missouri. The man can’t be in two states at once, and one of those states signs his paychecks now.
But the boring explanation and the meaningful one can both be true. Walker told Mike Florio months ago that he knew during the 2025 season his time in Seattle was ending. He played anyway. He carried the ball 27 times for 135 yards in the Super Bowl on a torn-up backfield after Zach Charbonnet’s ACL, and he walked off the best running back Seattle had. Then he took Kansas City’s money and didn’t look back.
He won the biggest game of his life on that turf, then declined to come back for the jewelry. The ring will keep. The point was already made.
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He won the biggest game of his life on that turf, then declined to come back for the jewelry. The ring will keep. The point was already made.
Jadarian Price gets the carries now, and Walker comes back to Lumen Field in Week 7 wearing red, under the Sunday night lights. We’ll have plenty to say then. For now: congratulations on the bag, Ken. The seat we saved you is going to charity.
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Analysis
The Champs Aren’t Even Favored in Their Own Division
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It is an odd thing to read about a team that beat Los Angeles in the NFC Championship four months ago. Leonard Williams was asked about it Thursday and made clear it’s the kind of thing this locker room will be happy to carry into the season.
Good. Use it. The roster that won everything is almost entirely intact, every player who logged 700-plus snaps last year is back, and the one thing this team can’t manufacture in June is a chip on its shoulder. Vegas just handed them one for free. Bank it until September.
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AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
A third billionaire has circled the franchise sale: financier Todd Boehly, who already owns chunks of the Dodgers, Lakers, and Chelsea, is weighing a bid. The estimated price tag is $7 to $9 billion. At this point the line to buy this team is longer than the line for the new locker-room espresso machine. FOX 13 Seattle
The general expectation around the building, per the summer-break notebook, is still that Devon Witherspoon gets his extension before Week 1. No new number, no signature, just the same patient hum. The deadline that matters is training camp, and training camp is when Hard Knocks shows up, so the cameras may get the press conference whether anyone planned it or not. Seattle Times
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
PFF’s crew named the Rams’ 2026 breakout picks, and the names tell you everything about life after a blockbuster: third-year tackle Braden Fiske and second-year edge Josaiah Stewart. When you trade Jared Verse and three premium picks for Myles Garrett, your ‘breakout’ candidates are the kids you froze in place behind the new toy. They paid Hall of Fame money to win now and are quietly hoping the cheap guys figure it out fast.
NINERS
San Francisco re-signed running back Sincere McCormick and waived Jordan Mims to make room, which would be unremarkable except Mims had only been signed two weeks earlier. The bottom of the 49ers’ backfield is a revolving door spinning so fast it’s generating its own breeze. A $400 million roster, and they’re playing musical chairs to figure out RB4.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This receiver was drafted eighth overall by the Seahawks in 1995 and immediately set a franchise rookie record with 67 receptions, all while moonlighting as a punt returner who took one back for a touchdown that same season. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Joey Galloway. The Ohio State product was an instant burner, and on top of that rookie-record reception total he returned 36 punts for 360 yards and a score in 1995.
Got a Question for the Mailbag?
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He kept the ring, we kept the trophy. Fair trade. Go Hawks. — The Rooster