Ken you smell what the Walk is Cook'in?

Kenneth Walker's fourth season is bound to be his best, if he can stay healthy

This simple running concept explainer by Fourth and Film had me thinking about what to expect from Klint Kubiak’s outside zone scheme, but also Ryan Grubb’s influence on the Seahawks run game during his one season as the offensive coordinator. It would be an overreaction to say that John Schneider sabotaged the team with the hire, yet Seattle’s ability to call and execute successful run plays last season was so bad that it may as well have been.

Given the major changes on that side of the ball over the past seven months though, including the subtraction of arguably the league’s worst run play caller, perhaps Kenneth Walker is due for a breakout season just based on the addition of Kubiak alone.

4th Season RB Stars

Although the criteria is rather arbitrary, I wanted to see what the best fourth year seasons were by running backs over the past six seasons. As Walker enters his fourth season, and is coming off of his worst career year, could he find inspiration from any of these running backs?

There were 12 1,000-yard seasons by fourth-year running backs since 2019:

Dalvin Cook, 2020

We just BARELY miss the boat with regards to Dalvin Cook’s fourth season, which came one year before Klint Kubiak’s appointment as the Vikings offensive coordinator in 2021. However, Klint’s father Gary Kubiak was the offensive coordinator in 2020 and running the same concepts that we should expect Klint to use in 2025; Klint was Minnesota’s QBs coach under Gary.

Cook was dominant in 2020, rushing for a career-best 1,557 yards, 5.0 yards per carry, and 16 touchdowns. The only reason he wasn’t first-team All-Pro?

Derrick Henry rushed for 2,027 yards and 17 touchdowns that same year.

• Henry averaged 133.8 total yards per game

• Cook averaged 137 total yards per game

It’s really more of a random factoid than anything else, but Cook’s fourth season (under a Kubiak) was in some ways better than Henry’s 2,000-yard season. Cook was very good in year 3 (1,135 yards, 13 TD, 4.5 YPC), but Walker’s first two NFL seasons were far superior to Cook’s.

Dalvin Cook: 5’10, 210 lbs, 4.49 40-yard dash, 41st overall pick

Kenneth Walker: 5’9, 211 lbs, 4.38 40-yard dash, 41st overall pick

Is there a reason I’m unaware of that would suggest that Walker (who has arguably the best ball security in the league, whereas Cook was always fumble prone) can’t be as good or better than Dalvin Cook?

Josh Jacobs, 2022

Like Walker, Jacobs was coming off of his worst career season when the Raiders made a change at offensive coordinator (and head coach) in year four. Although Josh McDaniels is not necessarily the high watermark for coaching, here were Jacob’s year 3 to year 4 improvements:

• Rushing Yards +781 (career-high 1,653)

• YPC 4.0 to 4.9 (career-high)

• TDs +3 (12)

• Success Rate +4.4% (career-high 57.4%)

• YPG +39.1 (career-high 97.2)

• Receiving Yards +52 (career-high 400)

Jacobs experienced the breakout season that many expected three years earlier as a first round rookie (largely aided by 229 yards against Seattle) and gained 2,053 total yards with 12 touchdowns. He played the next season on the franchise tag and then posted 1,329 yards and 15 touchdowns with the Packers in 2024. “Jacobs or Walker?” is simply a matter of taste, not talent.

Derrick Henry, 2019

I’ll briefly touch on Henry again, who you may or may not remember only had 1,234 yards in his first two NFL seasons because he was backing up DeMarco Murray at the time. Henry had 1,059 yards with 4.9 yards per carry in his first season as a starter, then became the “DERRICK HENRY” we all know in year four when first-time offensive coordinator Arthur Smith replaced Matt LaFleur:

Henry had a league-leading 1,540 yards, 16 touchdowns, 5.1 yards per carry, and 102.7 rushing yards per game.

Miles Sanders, 2022

A slightly unusual example out of this group because Sanders only ever had one great season.

A second round pick out of Penn State in 2019, Sanders had a high yards per carry average in his first three seasons (5.1) but had trouble handling a heavy workload and missed 10 games. He didn’t even score a touchdown in his third season.

But in Shane Steichen’s second year as the OC under Nick Sirianni, Sanders played in all 17 games and rushed for 1,269 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 4.9 yards per carry en route to a very solid performance in the postseason.

Sanders signed with the Panthers after the season, was a free agent bust in Carolina, and is about to enter training camp with Brian Schottenheimer in Dallas.

D’Andre Swift, 2023

Another uber talented early second round pick, Swift can swap injury stories with Walker in addition to giving advice on having a breakout fourth season. The 35th overall pick in 2020, Swift proved talented but never meshed well with the Detroit Lions over his first three seasons, including two for offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.

As we’ve seen with Jahmyr Gibbs, talented running backs should always mesh with Ben Johnson.

In Swift’s case, he needed to get away from Johnson to find success:

• Traded from Lions to Eagles for a 4th round pick in 2023

• +130 rushing attempts in year 4

• +507 rushing yards (1,049 total)

• +6.6% success rate (54.1%)

• First Pro Bowl season

Swift left one great offensive line for another and finally had the breakout season that so many expected, and despite his name he actually did not test as well as Walker: Swift’s 4.48 40-yard dash is a .10 slower than Walker!

Swift ended up in a bad situation in 2024 — Shane Waldron’s Bears — and now he finds himself back where he started: Playing for Ben Johnson.

One other honorable mention example I would use, and he doesn’t even have a fifth season yet, is Chuba Hubbard. A fourth round pick of the Panthers in 2021, Hubbard has been put through the washing machine and the dryer over and over again:

• 2021: Joe Brady and Jeff Nixon offensive coordinators

• 2022: Ben McAdoo offensive coordinator

• 2023: Thomas Brown offensive coordinator

• 2024: Brad Idzik offensive coordinator

To say that Hubbard has had five offensive coordinators in four years would probably even be generous. The Panthers have had five different head coaches also, including former Seahawks coach Dave Canales, and he’s probably been the best influence on the offense so far.

Hubbard had 1,195 rushing yards, 10 touchdowns, 4.8 yards per carry, and 43 receptions (but only 171 yards) in 2024.

Those are really good numbers — again, not as good with the ball as Walker because Hubbard had four fumbles — and we’ll soon find out if he can repeat them with OC continuity.

OC continuity is something that Kenneth Walker doesn’t have this year, and it’s certainly not what he wanted after what Seattle went through last season with Grubb. But if Kubiak’s outside zone scheme and decades of familial experience is the perfect fit for Walker that we think it could be, and if he stays off of IR, he’s found the right offensive coordinator at just the right time.

A contract year.

Seaside Joe 2326