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WEEK 6
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Kenneth Walker III takes the NFL rushing lead with 665 yards; Bijan Robinson and James Cook III are within 38

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Kenneth Walker III leads the NFL with 665 rushing yards after Week 6, passing Bijan Robinson; only two players reached 100 rushing yards in Week 6.

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WhyNFL Sports DeskPublished
Exterior of Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs
Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City (file photo). Photo by Justin Brockie, CC-BY-2.0, resized.

Kenneth Walker III is the NFL’s rushing leader after Week 6. His 128 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries in Kansas City’s 22–6 win over the Chargers lifted him to 665 yards, past Atlanta’s Bijan Robinson, who led through Week 5 and managed 61 yards on nine carries against Chicago. Buffalo’s James Cook III is third at 627 after 95 yards at Las Vegas, so the top three are separated by 38 yards.

Walker has done it in five games, because the Chiefs had their bye in Week 5. His 133.0 yards per game are 26.2 more than anyone else in the league (Robinson, 106.8), and his 6.27 yards per carry are the best among the 21 players with at least 75 carries. All rushes league-wide this season have averaged 4.15 yards.

NFL rushing yards leaders after Week 6

RankPlayerTeamGAttYdsYds/GAvgTDLongWeek 6
1Kenneth Walker IIIKC5106665133.06.2767619-128, 2 TD
2Bijan RobinsonATL6111641106.85.774599-61
3James Cook IIIBUF6117627104.55.3663522-95, 1 TD
4Derrick HenryBAL613053489.04.1173217-58
5Jahmyr GibbsDET5105504100.84.80722Bye
6Jonathan TaylorIND612249282.04.0372421-94, 1 TD
7Jaylen WarrenPIT68446076.75.4815014-50
8Bucky IrvingTB69645275.34.7127219-46
9Chuba HubbardCAR58942685.24.7943228-120, 1 TD
10Aaron Jones Sr.MIN59741082.04.23220Bye
11D’Andre SwiftCHI69439866.34.2363216-44, 2 TD
12Kyren WilliamsLAR68039365.54.9143010-50
13Bhayshul TutenJAX69438864.74.1322012-39
14Christian McCaffreySF67735058.34.5571616-64, 2 TD
15Tony PollardTEN68734958.24.0111819-76

Only five players have reached 500 yards: Walker, Robinson, Cook, Baltimore’s Derrick Henry (534) and Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs (504), who was on bye. Henry has the most carries in the league at 130, ahead of Indianapolis’ Jonathan Taylor at 122.

How the top 10 moved in Week 6

PlayerTeamYds through Week 5Rank through Week 5Week 6 ydsYds nowRank now
Kenneth Walker IIIKC53721286651
Bijan RobinsonATL5801616412
James Cook IIIBUF5323956273
Derrick HenryBAL4765585344
Jahmyr GibbsDET5044Bye5045
Jonathan TaylorIND3989944926
Jaylen WarrenPIT4106504607
Bucky IrvingTB4068464528
Chuba HubbardCAR306141204269
Aaron Jones Sr.MIN4107Bye41010

Carolina’s Chuba Hubbard made the biggest jump. He carried 28 times for 120 yards and a touchdown in the 25–14 win at Philadelphia, moving from 14th to ninth at 426 yards. Taylor’s 94 yards against Tennessee took him from ninth to sixth.

A quiet week for 100-yard games

Week 6 produced only two 100-yard rushing games, Walker’s 128 and Hubbard’s 120, the fewest of any week this season. Week 5 had nine, and the season total is 29.

Week100-yard rushing games
17
23
33
45
59
62
Total29

Walker has four of those 29 games, the most in the league: 173 yards against Denver in Week 1, 117 against Indianapolis, 177 at Las Vegas and 128 against the Chargers. Cook has three. Robinson, Gibbs, Henry, Hubbard, Pittsburgh’s Jaylen Warren, Minnesota’s Aaron Jones Sr. and Chicago’s Kyle Monangai have two apiece.

Yards per carry, minimum 75 carries

RankPlayerTeamAttYdsAvg
1Kenneth Walker IIIKC1066656.27
2Bijan RobinsonATL1116415.77
3Jaylen WarrenPIT844605.48
4James Cook IIIBUF1176275.36
5Kyren WilliamsLAR803934.91
6Jahmyr GibbsDET1055044.80
7Chuba HubbardCAR894264.79
8Bucky IrvingTB964524.71
9Christian McCaffreySF773504.55
10D’Andre SwiftCHI943984.23
11Aaron Jones Sr.MIN974104.23
12Bhayshul TutenJAX943884.13
13Derrick HenryBAL1305344.11
14Jonathan TaylorIND1224924.03
15Tony PollardTEN873494.01
16Javonte WilliamsDAL853173.73
17Cam SkatteboNYG812943.63
18Omarion HamptonLAC802893.61
19Emanuel WilsonSEA873033.48
20J.K. DobbinsDEN812703.33
21Ashton JeantyLV983133.19

Robinson (5.77), Warren (5.48) and Cook (5.36) are the only other qualifiers above 5.0. Las Vegas’ Ashton Jeanty is last among qualifiers at 3.19 on 98 carries.

Touchdowns and what is next

Walker’s six rushing touchdowns put him in a tie with Cook and Chicago’s D’Andre Swift. Gibbs, Henry, Taylor, San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey and Dallas’ Javonte Williams have seven, one behind Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen’s eight.

Week 7 sends Walker to Seattle, his former team, for Sunday night. Robinson and the Falcons host the 6–0 49ers, Henry and the Ravens host Cincinnati, and Gibbs returns from the bye with Green Bay visiting Detroit. Cook cannot add to his total, because Buffalo is on bye.

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