Jadarian Price Injury Puts More Pressure on Seahawks’ Struggling Run Game

RENTON, Wash. - On the heels of a dreadful 44-yard performance as a team in a 33-31 loss to the Washington Commanders, the Seattle Seahawks hope to get a struggling ground game back on track against the Los Angeles Chargers returning to Lumen Field for the first time since their season opener.

But that mission became much tougher for Seattle for the foreseeable future on Saturday with the team placing starting running back Jadarian Price on injured reserve after he re-aggravated a chest injury during practice on Wednesday. Even though the rookie out of Notre Dame has fumbled twice in the first three games and received a “soft” benching last weekend as a result, he’s been one of the few bright spots for a running attack that has been anything but potent for most of the first month of the 2026 season, rushing 28 times for 119 yards and 4.2 yards per carry.

“Unfortunately, injuries happen,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said of Price after confirming he would not play against the Chargers following Friday’s practice. “He can’t control these things. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do since he got here. He’s had a great attitude. He’s been a great teammate. He has a great future. He’s going to play great football for us when he comes back, whenever that is and we move forward. I don’t think there’s any big picture things. It’s unfortunate.”

Macdonald didn’t have a timetable for how long Price would be out at the time, but with him now set to miss at least four games before he’s eligible to return, the Seahawks will have to get by without him and Zach Charbonnet - who returned to practice for the first time since tearing his ACL back in January on Thursday - for at least one or two games before the latter can make his season debut. Without either available against the Chargers, and likely against the 49ers one week later, the onus will fall on Emanuel Wilson and George Holani to shoulder the load and pick up the slack after both players have endured somewhat slow starts through the first three games.

Coming to town from Green Bay in free agency, Wilson had an excellent performance against Arizona on the road in Week 2, bulldozing his way through and around the Cardinals’ exhausted defense in the second half to finish with 92 yards on 21 punishing carries. Among NFL backs with at least 15 carries this season, per Pro Football Focus, he ranks 14th with eight missed tackles forced, tied with Price for the team lead. That helped him offset the fact he has averaged barely a yard per carry before contact, the second worst mark on the team behind Price.

But those missed tackles haven’t necessarily generated much extra yardage or big plays for Wilson and the Seahawks’ run game either. On 32 carries, he has averaged just 2.38 yards per carry after contact, which ranks 34th out of 51 running backs with 15 or more carries, and he got stuffed on multiple carries on a failed series at the goal line in Arizona. Not known for his speed at 230 pounds, he also has not been a source of explosive rushes, eclipsing 12 yards on just one of those carries with a mediocre 16.5% breakaway rate, along with only six first down conversions.

Compounding matters, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, Wilson ranks a dreadful 41st out of 46 qualified backs with an Expected Points Added total of -9.8 and has been marginally better with a 43.8% success rate on his 32 carries.

Relegated mostly to third down duties behind Price and Wilson, Holani’s previous preseason success hasn’t translated to regular season games thus far in a limited sample size. Rushing 15 times for just 52 yards, the former Boise State star has also been hindered by subpar blocking to an extent, averaging under 1.3 yards per carry before contact. But he still has posted a sub-zero yards over expected (-0.9/carry), has only generated a single missed tackle, and has yet to produce a rush of more than 10 yards or a single first down conversion.

If there’s a feather in the cap for Holani that Wilson doesn’t have, as Macdonald pointed out on Friday, the third-year back has been a reliable target in the passing game for Drew Lock and Sam Darnold. Targeted seven times out of the backfield, he has caught six of those passes for 50 yards and ranks 16th among qualified backs averaging 8.3 yards per reception, forcing four missed tackles off those receptions with a pair of first downs and no drops.

“I don’t think he was the primary, [they were] checkdowns, but how he played with the ball after it’s delivered is important,” Macdonald said. “He did a good job maximizing yardage on the checkdown game.”

Considering neither Wilson nor Holani has brought much juice to Seattle’s run game up to this point, Sunday may present the best opportunity yet for versatile veteran Velus Jones Jr. to make his mark as a change of pace option coming up from the practice squad. The former Tennessee/USC receiver has bounced back and forth between wideout and running back since entering the league as a third round pick for the Bears, including changing positions on the Seahawks’ roster multiple times during the offseason before settling into the backfield in training camp, providing a spark on plenty of occasions on the practice field.

Boasting legitimate 4.3 speed, Jones brings a different level of athleticism to the equation that Wilson and Holani cannot match and showed off those wheels rushing for 32 yards on four carries last year, though he still remains unpolished at a position that he has only played for a portion of his NFL career. He comes with clear limitations, including being quite raw and unrefined picking up blitzes in pass protection, along with unique strengths as a receiving weapon with his background playing on the outside.

Nonetheless, that elite burst Jones boasts could come in handy against a Chargers defense that got gashed on outside runs by James Cook and the Bills last weekend, with 93 of Buffalo’s 176 rushing yards coming off tackle or wider on 16 carries. His presence as a secondary target in the passing game may also be valuable, especially with Los Angeles dealing with several injuries on defense, including star safety Derwin James being questionable with a hamstring strain.

“Velus is a guy that we were excited to bring on last year. When he had his opportunities, he did a great job,” Macdonald said, touting his positive impact on special teams. “He’s played great at gunner for us. On offense, he’s had a great offseason. Just like all these guys. If you get an opportunity, we’re excited to see what he can do. He’s worked hard to give himself a chance if that opportunity arises.”

Ultimately, it won’t matter which running back(s) the Seahawks send into the huddle on Sunday if the offensive line doesn’t play better creating push at the line of scrimmage than it did in Landover last weekend. With four of their starters from last season’s Super Bowl squad healthy and playing, there were far too many plays last Sunday where the Commanders managed to infiltrate the backfield with immediate penetration, shutting down runs before they could even get started with nine carries netting two or fewer yards.

With that said, Seattle’s blocking hasn’t been solely to blame for the run game struggling to launch in the early portion of the season. Per ESPN’s Run Block Win Rate, the team currently ranks a respectable 11th overall at 74%, and guard Christian Haynes ranks in the top five among interior offensive linemen in two starts replacing an injured Anthony Bradford to lead the way, providing reason for optimism that the ground attack can rebound against a vulnerable Los Angeles front seven with a bit better game plan from offensive coordinator Brian Fleury to support the offense as a whole and build momentum moving forward.

Whether Wilson or Holani earn the start with Price sidelined or Jones takes on a bigger role to offset the latter’s absence, Macdonald hasn’t lost confidence in the Seahawks’ backfield depth at all even as things haven’t gone quite as planned out of the gate running the football and believes they can build a quality run game meshing their talents together with Fleury’s system. While not having the explosive rookie in uniform for the next month presents a disappointment, he has no reservations about the rest of the running back group being able to deliver without him or Charbonnet, eager to see how the unit performs back in front of the 12s on Sunday.

“I’m excited to see these guys play. It’s unfortunate with JD [Jadarian Price]. Hopefully this gives him the opportunity to get healthy. We’ve got guys that are ready to go behind him that are preparing their tails off and are good players. I feel like we have a good plan and we’ll go play a game.”