Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III headed to Chiefs
Published 11:46 am Monday, March 9, 2026
Super Bowl MVP running back Kenneth Walker III and the Kansas City Chiefs have agreed to a three-year free-agent contract worth up to $45 million, including $28.7 million guaranteed, league sources told The Athletic.
With free agency looming, Walker couldn’t have picked a better time to hit his stride than during the Seattle Seahawks playoff run. In three postseason games, he recorded 417 scrimmage yards and four touchdowns, capping it with a 161-yard performance in the Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots that earned him the MVP trophy. He also played in all 17 regular-season games for the first time in 2025, after various injuries caused him to miss time in his first three seasons.
Against the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round, Walker had 19 carries for 116 yards and scored a career-high three touchdowns while adding another three catches and 29 yards receiving. In Super Bowl LX, Walker became the first running back to win MVP since the Denver Broncos’ Terrell Davis did it in Super Bowl 32 following the 1997 season.
Walker, 25, was the second-ranked running back and seventh-best free agent in The Athletic’s top 150. The Seahawks selected him in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft out of Michigan State.
Walker gives the Chiefs what they’ve desperately needed from their running game: some big-play ability. Per TruMedia, Walker had 10 20-plus-yard runs last season. Meanwhile, the entire Chiefs running-back room combined for just one.
Even Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who usually stays vanilla with his public comments, acknowledged he wanted to see more from Chiefs running backs next year.
“Somewhere, you’d like to have a few bigger plays in that area,” he said after the season. “Not 3-4 yards. Every once in a while, you need to hit on a few.”
Walker adds immediate juice to a running game that needed an offseason overhaul.
Safety Coby Bryant to sign with Bears
The Chicago Bears have made their first big splash in the open negotiating window of free agency, agreeing to a multiyear deal with safety Coby Bryant to join the back end of their defense on Monday, league sources told The Athletic. Bryant, who will turn 27 later this month, is coming off a Super Bowl championship with the Seattle Seahawks and will reset his career in Chicago.
According to initial reports, Bryant has agreed to a multiyear deal with an average annual value north of $13 million, arriving to add playmaking ability to a secondary that is rebuilding its safety room.
Rated as The Athletic’s No. 41 available free agent, Bryant was originally drafted as a fourth-round pick in 2022 out of Cincinnati. During his four seasons with the Seahawks, he converted from cornerback to safety and demonstrated his ball skills with seven interceptions over the past two seasons.
The Bears’ four top safeties — Kevin Byard, Jaquan Brisker, Elijah Hicks and Jonathan Owens — will all see their contracts expire when the NFL’s new league year begins Wednesday afternoon. The team’s efforts to restabilize that position are underway, and it remains to be seen if any of the aforementioned Bears safeties will return.
The Bears have been active on Monday in adding pieces to their defense with Bryant’s agreement coming shortly after the team reached terms on a deal with defensive tackle Neville Gallimore.
Bryant certainly knows what championship-level defense looks like, playing a key role on a Seahawks unit that was dominant during the 2025 regular season and all through the playoffs. Seattle finished in the top five of the league in interceptions, with Bryant providing four of those as well as seven passes defensed and a forced fumble. He will arrive as a new chess piece for coordinator Dennis Allen, who values versatility in his defensive backs.
The Athletic’s Jeff Howe, Dianna Russini and Dan Wiederer contributed to this report.
