Giants Rumor: Targeting Kenneth Walker? Maybe Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love?
The New York Giants are making it clear this offseason that rebuilding their backfield is a priority. According to ESPN’s Jordan Raanan, the Giants are “seriously looking at some of the top running backs, both in the draft and free agency,” and Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III is among the names squarely on their radar.
Walker, 25, is one of the most coveted players available in free agency after a career-defining postseason with the Seattle Seahawks. He enters the open market coming off a year in which he finally stayed healthy for all 17 regular-season games for the first time in his four-year NFL career, rushing for 1,027 yards and five touchdowns. While that touchdown total was the lowest of his career, context matters: Seahawks teammate Zach Charbonnet handled the bulk of Seattle’s goal-line carries throughout the regular season as part of the team’s backfield design, which suppressed Walker’s scoring numbers without diminishing his overall impact.
When Charbonnet tore his ACL in the first half of the Divisional Round against the San Francisco 49ers, Walker took over entirely and never looked back. He ran for 116 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-6 blowout of San Francisco, then added 111 yards and a score in the NFC Championship against the Los Angeles Rams. On the biggest stage of all, Super Bowl LX against the New England Patriots, Walker carried 27 times for 135 yards and added two receptions for 26 yards, capping a playoff run in which he totaled 313 rushing yards, four touchdowns, and nine receptions across three games. He was named Super Bowl MVP.
Now Walker heads into free agency, and the Seahawks are not expected to place the franchise tag on him, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, as the team prioritizes other financial commitments, including a contract extension for wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Walker has expressed a desire to return to Seattle, telling reporters, “I’ve been here four years… if it was my choice, I’d definitely stay.” But the market for a 25-year-old Super Bowl MVP running back is unlikely to wait.
A Backfield in Need of Answers
New York’s interest makes sense given its circumstances. The Giants finished the 2025 season at 4-13, and the backfield that new head coach John Harbaugh inherited is unsettled at best.
Rookie Cam Skattebo had been one of the early highlights of the Giants’ otherwise forgettable season. A fourth-round pick out of Arizona State, Skattebo took over as the team’s featured back and scored seven touchdowns in seven games, drawing comparisons to the kind of physical, electric runner the Giants have lacked since Saquon Barkley. That promising run came to a brutal halt in Week 8 at Philadelphia, when Skattebo suffered a dislocated right ankle with a fractured fibula and deltoid ligament damage, requiring emergency surgery in a Philadelphia hospital that same night. The injury ended his season.
As of the NFL Scouting Combine in late February, Skattebo had expressed optimism about his recovery — appearing without a brace on radio row- but his availability for the start of the 2026 season is not guaranteed. The team has projected a four-to-six-month recovery timeline, putting him on track for training camp if all goes well.
Second-year back Tyrone Tracy Jr. filled in admirably after the injury and will return next season, but Harbaugh — who built one of the most dominant run games in the NFL during his tenure with the Baltimore Ravens — has made no secret of his desire to install a run-heavy offensive identity in New York. His teams in Baltimore led the league in rushing in 2023 and ranked second in 2025. He will have a mobile quarterback in Jaxson Dart, who is entering his second NFL season, but a true bell-cow back remains the missing piece.
Walker would fit that vision almost perfectly. He is built for a Harbaugh-style offense — physical, decisive between the tackles, and capable as a pass catcher, having added 31 receptions for 282 yards in the regular season this past year. Signing him would give the Giants an experienced, Super Bowl-tested back to anchor the offense while Skattebo works his way back.
More Rumors: Love Could Be In Play
Beyond free agency, the Giants are also expected to be active in the draft at running back, and the name generating the most buzz is Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love.
Love met with the Giants at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis and came away from those meetings sounding genuinely enthusiastic. “Really cool people,” Love told reporters. “I like them a lot, I feel like they like me a lot as well. Hopefully, they call my name on draft night.” He even specifically mentioned the appeal of joining a backfield alongside Skattebo, noting it would give him an experienced teammate to learn from.
The feeling appears to be mutual. Multiple reports have placed Love among the top three candidates the Giants are considering with the No. 5 overall pick, alongside Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese and safety Caleb Downs. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah ranks Love as the second-best overall prospect in the entire draft class, behind only Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the consensus No. 1 pick heading to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Love’s college production makes the attention easy to understand. The 20-year-old finished the 2025 season with 1,372 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns on a staggering 6.9 yards per carry at Notre Dame, adding 27 receptions for 280 yards and three more scores. He was named the Doak Walker Award winner as the nation’s top running back, finished third in Heisman Trophy voting, and posted 40-yard dash times of 4.36 and 4.37 seconds at the Combine. ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller called him the best player in the entire draft class — “and I don’t think it’s particularly close”, drawing comparisons to Saquon Barkley and Bijan Robinson.
What It Would All Mean
They have Skattebo, we know this. His injury could take time to heal, so the team could pursue another RB. However, there are other needs the team should focus on. Whether Harbaugh and general manager Joe Schoen are willing to commit that level of resources to the position remains the central question.
What is no longer in question is the intention. The Giants are going to build this offense from the ground up, and they plan to run the ball.