‘Class Act’: Jadarian Price Brings Professional Approach, Rare Traits to Seahawks’ Backfield
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Seattle Seahawks running back Jadarian Price stands alongside coach Mike Macdonald (left) and general manager John Schneider at the VMAC. Credit: Corbin Smith/Emerald City Spectrum [/caption]
RENTON, Wash. - No matter where a prospect starred, even in an era now defined by NIL and the transfer portal that has blurred the lines between amateur and professional considerably, there’s no such thing as a college football player being 100% prepared for jumping up to the highest level of the sport in the NFL.
If there’s a program that truly offers the complete package preparation-wise prior to entering the league, however, the “golden domers” at Notre Dame may just take the cake. The Fighting Irish not only have one of the most storied traditions for winning in college football on the field with 972 victories all-time, but they boast one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world, providing a unique, one-of-a-kind environment that fosters both strong work ethic and real world habits that translate well to the high-stakes life of playing in the NFL.
Earning a degree in sociology while helping Notre Dame reach a College Football Playoff Championship Game along the way, Jadarian Price made the most of his four-year experience in South Bend, and as the latest first round pick for the Seattle Seahawks, he’s already seeing the benefits of playing for the Fighting Irish as he adapts to his new team and surroundings.
“I'm just blessed to be here in Seattle and part of a winning program, winning culture, and just coming into a locker room and being able to compete,” Price told reporters during an introductory press conference on Thursday. “Coming from a culture like Notre Dame and you being taught so many things and the habits I created, they'll translate to this NFL level, so that'll help. But, I'm just blessed to be in this position that I am.”
Selected 32nd overall in the 2026 NFL Draft, Price won’t have to worry about the rigorous academic standards that every player at Notre Dame has to tackle while on campus. But the time dedicated to pursuing his degree will now have to be fully invested into football, which can be a massive adjustment for any player transitioning from college life to a professional sport.
Flying in to Seattle on Thursday morning, as will every one of the team’s eight draft picks, Price will have a new playbook from first-time offensive coordinator Brian Fleury to learn and acclimate to on the field, presenting a different type of challenge than would take place in a 400-level Sociology course. Given his academic pedigree, he likely won’t have any issues learning Fleury’s terminology and more complex verbiage that often comes with NFL play calls.
With that said, taking handoffs from Sam Darnold out of under center looks will undoubtedly be a major changeup for Price, who spent most of his time flanking the quarterback in the backfield in shotgun sets at Notre Dame. The Seahawks employ a West Coast style scheme that has significant contrasts from the one that he and fellow first-round pick Jeremiyah Love excelled in, as the Fighting Irish relied almost exclusively on shotgun and pistol formations with the quarterback rarely taking snaps under center.
While this may not seem like a big issue, Price’s angles out of the backfield to get to the quarterback for handoffs will be more downhill and direct hitting the hole compared to shotgun runs that tend to have flatter, more linear angles with an immediate handoff deep in the backfield. As a result, the back doesn’t have as wide of a scope visually reading blocks, requiring more decisive reads and cuts closer to the line of scrimmage, which can be a shell shock to runners who haven’t done that often.
But as his coaches discovered at a young age as he blossomed into a start in his hometown of Denison, Texas and eventually earned a scholarship from Notre Dame, Price has always had a natural gift when it comes to blending vision with patience as a runner. That special trait - which general manager John Schneider called the “best in the draft” on Thursday - shows up most on wide zone or stretch runs, where he has an uncanny ability to see cutback lanes before they develop and hit the crease with an elite accelerator that allows him to quickly rocket to the second level.
Even if there’s an adjustment period figuring out the nuances of running from under center, Price doesn’t have any concerns about the transition to a pro style offense in Seattle, expecting his success as a wide zone rusher to translate nicely to Fleury’s system.
“I like the options it gives me as a runner,” Price explained. “Being able to stretch [the] defense and puncture, as they say, and just allow the linemen to do what they do and get up to the second level on the double teams. I really like to see it develop, and I'm pretty good at keeping my shoulders square once I get to the line of scrimmage. So I love all the run plays, but it just happens to be, you know, at Notre Dame, we did a little mixture of mid zone and outside zone, and that just was what I was pretty good at.”
With football now being his sole job and the immense physical demands that go in tandem with the profession, Price will also have to make taking care of his body the utmost priority, but after dealing with adversity right out of the gate as an early enrollee at Notre Dame, that shouldn’t be near as much of an obstacle for him as it may be for many of Seattle’s other rookies. After all, he’s already been doing it for years.
Weeks before the start of his true freshman season, Price ruptured his Achilles tendon during offseason workouts, forcing him to undergo surgery and receive a medical redshirt. As he recalled on Thursday, the injury initially left him devastated, as he had been in the mix for a starting job during spring ball, only for that opportunity to be taken from him as he spent the entire fall and winter rehabbing.
But the setback proved to be little more than that, as Price made a full recovery and once he returned, his emphasis on getting stronger with the weight room becoming his “new passion” during a rigorous rehab. Those efforts pumping iron paid off with him adding more physicality and power to his running style, providing a nice one-two punch with Love out of the backfield. By the 2023 season, with Notre Dame advancing all the way to the title game in the College Football Playoff, he further altered his approach after a long season to protect and take care of his greatest asset, which gave way to a fantastic junior season with 674 rushing yards and 15 total touchdowns.
From Price’s perspective, that success boiled down to developing the habits of a professional, learning the habits during his time at Notre Dame that will be necessary for him to fulfill the lofty expectations that come with being an NFL first round pick, particularly joining the defending Super Bowl champions.
“Just carrying yourself as a professional. I'm not in college anymore, but at Notre Dame you had a rigorous athletic schedule but also academic schedule, so you always had to be on time, take care of your stuff, but also taking care of your body,” Price said. “I really learned my body and how to take care of my body outside of the facility as well. Yeah, just carrying those habits over.”
If there was a theme to Price’s introductory presser, no word was thrown around more than class, which the running back seems to exude from his pores. Above his immense athletic traits and raw football talents, that stood out to Schneider more than anything during the pre-draft process this spring, saying the young man would have been a favorite of legendary former Packers general manager Ted Thompson.
Not surprisingly, with that reputation, many of Price’s new teammates - including receiver Cooper Kupp - took time away from their busy offseason schedules to give him a warm welcome to Seattle in the days after his selection. As he reiterated several times on Thursday, he feels blessed to be able to transition from a program with a winning culture at the college level to an organization with a winning culture in the pro ranks, believing he landed in the perfect spot.
But after celebrating with family and friends for a few days, Price knows the time to get to work has arrived, with the unrelenting goal to always improve driving his every action. Whether that’s continuing to snag passes running through drills with receivers, hitting a blocking sled to sharpen up his blocking technique, hitting the ice bath in the training room, or sneaking an extra film session inside the VMAC, understanding the commitment that comes with being a professional, he’s ready to pay it forward to help the Seahawks defend their title however he can.
“The person I am, as soon as something good happens, I'm like, ’okay, on to the next, how can I get better from this point on?’ It didn't sink in until a couple days after I had the draft parties and that stuff. When I'm sitting down and meeting with Coach and going over the playbook, it's like, okay, it's the real deal now.”
