KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs have ruled Kenneth Walker out of Sunday's game in Atlanta because of a groin injury, leaving them with rookie running back Emmett Johnson, ailing youngster Jaydn Ott and journeyman Nate Carter against Bijan Robinson and the Falcons.
The Chiefs made the announcement Saturday, one day after listing Walker as questionable on their injury report. He had tweaked his groin in practice on Thursday, and coach Andy Reid said the team would be monitoring his progress over the next couple of days.
The Chiefs were flying to Atlanta on Saturday, and they did not expect any changes to their flight plan following the Federal Aviation Administration’s ground stoppage a day earlier. Defensive tackle Chris Jones was not traveling with the team for personal reasons, but the Chiefs said he would join the team in Atlanta and he carried no game designation.
Walker is the league's second-leading rusher with 872 yards, trailing Robinson by just eight, though he's also played one fewer game than his Falcons counterpart. Walker also has caught 22 passes for 172 yards and four touchdowns.
Johnson has played well when given a chance this season, though. The overlooked fifth-round pick out of Nebraska has run 26 times for 111 yards and a touchdown, and he's caught 14 passes for 237 yards and another score.
“He’s going to play anyway, whether Ken’s there or not,” Reid said Friday. “Everybody has confidence in him.”
The bigger problem for the Chiefs is the lack of options behind Johnson on the depth chart. Brashard Smith went on injured reserve with a hamstring injury on Oct. 24, and Ott — who carried three times for 19 yards in mop-up duty in last week's blowout of the Jets — has been dealing with a sore hamstring of his own, leaving him questionable for Sunday's game in Atlanta.
The Chiefs elevated Carter and wide receiver Jacob De Jesus from the practice squad Saturday.
Carter spent last season with Atlanta, appearing in seven games and carrying nine times for 60 yards. He was waived by the Falcons as part of their final roster cuts, and Kansas City signed him to its practice squad a couple days later.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Kansas City Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III (9) celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the New York Jets, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)
Kansas City Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III (9) breaks a tackle by New York Jets safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (29) during a touchdown run in the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III (9) i tackled by New York Jets safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (29) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)
Thousands of flights Saturday would likely be affected by delays or cancellations, but officials assured passengers that the nationwide ground stop was not caused by a nefarious actor and would not threaten ongoing safety.
The longest flight stoppage in 25 years ended around 8:15 p.m. ET Friday, allowing some domestic flights to take off from U.S. airports. Officials expected a full recovery by Sunday.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication the failure was related to a cyberattack and that no lives were at risk.
Here’s what to know.
The system was stable Saturday after Friday's massive disruption, Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford said.
Ultimately, 12,000 scheduled flights were unable to take off Friday, including 9,000 commercial flights. Bedford reminded passengers that airlines are obligated to offer free rebooking on another flight or a full refund if the flight was canceled. Passengers should contact their airlines for information.
Of the 41,000 flights scheduled Saturday, as many as 5,000 will likely be canceled, Bedford said.
“That will set us up for a full recovery tomorrow,” Bedford said. “I do think the worst is behind us, but we still do have a significant amount of recovery work to do.”
Bedford offered an apology for stranded travelers and thanked air traffic controllers, pilots and flight attendants for managing the fallout.
A contractor had been working on replacing a section of the system’s old copper wire with new fiber wire Friday afternoon, leading to the system overload, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said Saturday. Duffy said officials were investigating whether contractor error or a faulty router was the cause.
Officials stressed that the ground stop was not the result of a system outage or nefarious activity by a foreign actor. When they couldn't quickly locate the cause of the overload, they decided to keep flights grounded nationwide.
“We did that out of an abundance of caution,” Bedford said, saying they stand by the decision. “I'm sorry that we put you through this, but we did it for the right reasons.”
The air traffic control modernization began last year after Congress approved $12.5 billion of funding. Duffy and the White House are pushing for $30 billion more to complete the work.
Microsoft said it had no indication that the ground stop was related to the service disruption that took Outlook and other services offline Thursday, a spokesperson for the company said.
Microsoft said Saturday that services were fully restored after its massive outage.
Users reported that Microsoft 365 services, including Outlook, Teams and AI assistant Copilot, had been interrupted.
Over 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, Microsoft said on its website. Problems started appearing around midday Thursday in the U.S.
Two travelers sleep in the baggage claim area at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights nationwide. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Baggage waits for travelers to claim in at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights nationwide. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
A traveler sleeps at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights nationwide. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
A display board shows canceled flights to the U.S., in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026. (Florian Wiegand/dpa via AP)
