We cover every single player here at Fantasy Alarm. I personally have about four different sets of rankings in the Fantasy Alarm Draft Guide, with best ball, dynasty, linear redraft, and a special set of color-coded rankings that I like to call the Dynamic Tier Rankings. So every player is accounted for in multiple formats - and not just with my opinions. 

That said, some players are special. Each year, I take some time to highlight a few guys in their own standalone articles who we think could return huge value in fantasy football at ADP. Last year, we looked at guys like Josh Jacobs, Chris Godwin, Alvin Kamara, Rashid Shaheed, etc., as guys we were targeting. But it’s time to look ahead to 2025.

The first player we covered as a possible big discount was Michael Pittman That player profile article can be found here. Now we turn our attention to a divisive running back who we think could have top 5-10 upside. And like Josh Jacobs and Alvin Kamara for us last year, you don’t need to pay a super high premium to get him. So let’s take a look at the talent, scheme, and opportunity for Kenneth Walker to see if everything will come together in 2025. 

 

 

 

Kenneth Walker Talent

The talent has never really been a question for Kenneth Walker - only the health. When healthy, he’s an explosive playmaker in both the run and pass game, but he’s missed time in each of his three seasons. Last year, he dealt with an abdominal sprain early in the season, a calf strain in weeks 14 and 15, and then his season ended on IR following an ankle sprain in Week 16. In previous years, he’s also dealt with abdominal and ankle issues as well as groin problems on multiple occasions. That’s obviously going to scare some folks off, which partially accounts for his ADP not being among the top backs. It made us nervous when he was limited for OTAs a month ago but he just posted a video to his YouTube channel this week of him working out with Cameron Ward and Tyler Lockett at SMU, running routes and making one handed catches. So he seems good to go for training camp.

The flip side to the injury coin is that the array of health issues could have also affected his efficiency. He looked explosive in Week One last year with 20 carries for 103 yards at 5.2 yards per carry, but after getting hurt in that game, he never quite got back to that level. The offensive line also had its own injury and continuity issues. The left side of the line was fine, but the right side saw a revolving door all season. And center Connor Williams actually retired abruptly during the season. 

Despite that, Walker did flash at times. He also made the most of a bad offensive line situation by creating for himself. Among players who played at least 10 games, his 4.18 forced missed tackles per game was second only to James Conner. If you get Kenneth Walker in space, especially at the second level, arm tackles are not going to cut it.

They also subsidized the run game issues by throwing to Walker out of the backfield, where his 4.8 targets per game were third behind only Alvin Kamara (6.4) and De’Vone Achane (5.1) per Pro Football Reference. It’s worth noting that Alvin Kamara, who averaged over a target per game more than any other back, was operating in Klint Kubiak’s offense in New Orleans. Per Pro Football Focus, Kamara ran 4.3 routes from the slot last year which was third behind only Austin Ekeler and De'Vone Achane (who is in a similar scheme). In 2023, when Kubiak was the pass game coordinator for the 49ers, Christian McCaffrey ran 5.6 routes per game from the slot which was second only to Achane.  McCaffrey actually ran 138 routes from a WR spot that year. And now Kubiak is the offensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks. 

 

 

 

Kenneth Walker Scheme

It’s no secret that we’re a fan of Klint Kubiak’s offense for fantasy football. We did a write-up back in April discussing some of the implications for fantasy at all positions. The short and sweet there is that the personnel choices highly consolidate the targets among a few guys while also being friendly to the quarterback and running back.

One of the keys to that is the usage of fullbacks and blocking tight ends. Take a look at offenses like the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers (where Kubiak was the pass game coordinator in 2023). They use fullbacks like Alec Ingold and Kyle Juszczyk as well as blocking tight ends like Durham Smythe, Julian Hill, Eric Saubert, etc. That not only takes the WR3 out of the game often, which highly consolidates the touches, but it naturally benefits the run game in a big way to have bigger and better blockers on the field.

In New Orleans last year, Alvin Kamara led the backfield in snaps for Kubiak. You’d think that guys like Jamaal Williams, Kendre Miller, or Clyde Edwards-Helaire would be next in snaps, but it was actually the fullback, Adam Prentice, who was quietly second. That’s on top of Taysom Hill also playing 65 snaps at fullback in his limited games. In his opening press conference, Kubiak said he’d be bringing the fullback to Seattle, and they did bring Adam Prentice in for a workout before deciding to go with veteran Brady Russell and rookie Robbie Ouzts. If I were a running back, I’d certainly be interested in running behind this 270-pound moose.

Having those hybrid tight end/fullback types like Russell, Ouzts, and AJ Barner is crucial to the scheme. Barner’s best comparable player on Player Profiler is actually Durham Smythe, who was useful for Mike McDaniel in a similar setup. Kubiak’s offense heavily features pre-snap shifts and motion to give exotic looks that create mismatches. His bread and butter is zone blocking where you essentially have the line moving in the same direction with the covered lineman attacking the guy in front of them and the uncovered guys helping out or looking to the next level. The back then reads the gaps to see whether he should cut it up or bounce outside. Here’s an example of what some of that pre-snap tight end movement looks like along with the fullback usage - look how clear the running lanes can be. A back with good patience and vision can turn those into big chunk plays. 
 

And, when teams try to make the zone blocking concepts difficult by either stacking the gaps on one side or overloading the line of scrimmage in general, Kubiak will switch things up with a gap run. That's where the play is designed for a specific gap, often with either double teams or kicking defenders out with trap or wham blocks. In this example, the Rams have overloaded one side so Kubiak uses his tight end to block down inside with a pulling guard as the kick out.

Kubiak here has double tight ends at the bottom of the screen with a fullback in the backfield. The Giants attempt to combat the zone run block concepts by filling every gap with six guys on the line of scrimmage. Kubiak here once again has the tight ends block down but this time the tackle, Taliese Fuaga, pulls around the outside to lead block with the fullback, leading to another 10+ yard run.

Kenneth Walker Opportunity

It’s not just Kenneth Walker’s talent that matters here. And the scheme is only as successful as the player running it. Running back, perhaps more than any other position, relies on the success of the offense as a whole. We’ve seen studs like Saquon Barkley struggle on a bad Giants team and we’ve seen guys like Jamaal Williams and LeGarrette Blount score 18 touchdowns playing in elite offenses. 

The Seahawks are far from an elite offense. But, by default, we should see more continuity on the offensive line considering their center literally retired mid-season last year. Charles Cross was solid at left tackle, and they drafted Grey Zabel in the first round to start next to him. Zabel didn't do every test at the combine but showcased his athleticism with a 36.5 inch vertical jump, the third best ever for an offensive lineman at the combine. He should have no problem pulling if they want to mix in those gap concepts I mentioned above.

It will be crucial for Olu Oluwatimi to take a step forward as the center position is a pivotal part of Kubiak’s system. Kubiak did bring offensive line whisperer Rick Dennison and John Benton along with him to Seattle so hopefully they can get these guys up to speed and playing at a high level. If Walker could make things happen with last year’s line, he should look even better with this one.

The big bet Seattle made this year was moving off Geno Smith and onto Sam Darnold, a guy who garnered MVP votes last season. This offensive line is not as good as the Vikings nor are the weapons at the caliber of Minnesota's, but Jaxon Smith-Njigba is a young star and Cooper Kupp could remain healthy this year. That could see the Seahawks moving the ball well, and Aaron Jones was able to accumulate 1,546 yards from scrimmage last year in a Darnold-led offense, which was quietly more yards than even Justin Jefferson had.

 

 


 

Where To Draft Kenneth Walker In Fantasy Football?

We want pieces of this Klint Kubiak offense. The fullback and blocking tight end usage not only highly consolidates the offense, but it’s incredibly friendly to the running back. You might be surprised to see how high we have Kenneth Walker ranked in the 2025 Fantasy Alarm NFL Draft Guide, but based on the mocks and early drafts we’ve done, you may need to pounce early if you want a shot at him this year. Based on our Composite ADP, he currently goes in the RB15 range, but steam is growing for him as folks start to figure out how the stars are aligning. 

And, if we don’t get Kenneth Walker? Well, we’ll just take a stab on Zach Charbonnet late. We expect Walker to once again be the lead back, but it’s rare for modern NFL offenses to give all the work to one player. Charbonnet should once again be one of the better “handcuff plus” players, and every time he gets a chance to start, he plays well. Drafting the contingent upside of Charbonnet late is the second-best way to get access to a scheme that produced favorable results for us time and time again. But Kenneth Walker is the main guy we're after if we can get him.  

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