Seahawks Camp Preview: Will New Offense Unlock Ken Walker III, Gifted RB Stable?
RENTON, Wash. - While the valuable of the running back position remains much up for debate, the Seattle Seahawks have zigged while many others have zagged continuing to prioritize the position in recent years, selecting four of them in the past four drafts.
In back-to-back drafts in 2022 and 2022, general manager John Schneider invested a second-round pick in a running back, selecting explosive runner Ken Walker III and physical runner Zach Charbonnet in successive years to build an exciting one-two punch. Additionally, the Seahawks double dipped in the backfield in 2023 by snagging Kenny McIntosh in the seventh round and found a diamond in the rough in undrafted rookie George Holani a year ago.
But while Walker, Charbonnet, and the rest of Seattle’s backfield crew don’t deserve all of the blame - or even the vast majority of it - the group hasn’t come close to living up to expectations given the investments made by Schneider and the organization at the position. In each of the past two seasons, with two different offensive coordinators in Shane Waldron and Ryan Grubb, the team has finished a dismal 28th in rushing yards, failing to establish desired balance on offense to take pressure off of former starting quarterback Geno Smith and keep opposing defenses on their heels.
Battling several nagging injuries during that time, Walker hasn’t been able to recapture his play from a dynamic rookie season where he became only the third Seahawk running back in team history to rush for over 1,000 yards in his first year. He missed six games last season, rushing for a career-low 573 yards and just 3.7 yards per carry, while Charbonnet nearly equaled him as a replacement with 569 yards and a healthier 4.2 yards per carry average. McIntosh blossomed in December with more opportunities while posting 5.5 yards per carry, but still only received 31 carries for the entire season.
In fairness to Walker and the rest of the group, lackluster performance from a maligned offensive line up front made life difficult for all of Seattle’s runners in a scheme that didn’t emphasize the ground game. With multiple starters at center, guard, and right tackle over the course of the season, the line received poor marks from every major outlet, including ranking 24th in Pro Football Focus’ run blocking grade metric and 28th in ESPN’s Run Block Win Rate metric.
Frustrated by the underwhelming results, Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald orchestrated full scale changes to the Seahawks’ offensive coaching staff, starting with the decision to fire Grubb on the day after the 2024 season ended and replace him with Klint Kubiak, who spent last season calling plays for the Saints. Tag-teaming with Kubiak in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle also brought in seasoned offensive line coach John Benton and Super Bowl-winning run game coordinator Rick Dennison from New Orleans, taking a 180 degree pivot away from having one of the least experienced staffs in the NFL a year ago.
Personnel-wise, banking on a revamped coaching staff getting more out of the blockers up front to fuel a revived rushing attack in Kubiak’s zone-heavy system and take a load off new quarterback Sam Darnold’s shoulders, Seattle will have its full complement of runners back in 2025, including a healthy Walker, who will be expected to resume his role as the lead back heading into the final year of his rookie contract. Behind him, the depth chart was further reinforced by using a seventh round pick on Miami star Damien Martinez in April, throwing another talent back into the mix to push Charbonnet, McIntosh, and Holani.
As Kubiak noted bluntly after an OTA practice in June, the Seahawks haven’t been able to do much in terms of assessment with their running back group without pads on, but he has been happy with what he has seen thus far with one of the few returning coaches in Kennedy Polamalu diving into the fundamentals and details with them. Fortunately, it won’t be long until real evaluations can be made with camp and the preseason on the horizon.
"It's early. You'll see the pads come on in the fall and then we'll see who our best running backs are,” Kubiak said. “This time of year, we're out there practicing in underwear. So their main skill set doesn't get to shine through, but I've been really pleased with the detail they're putting in. They have a phenomenal coach in Kennedy [Polamalu], and he's going to stay on them."
If he’s healthy and can stay on the field, Walker’s 4.3 speed and elite quickness would seem like ideal traits for Kubiak’s offense, which features a heavy dose of wide zone as the bread and butter concept for the run game. When he had better blocking in front of him as a rookie, according to PFF charting, he ranked among the league’s best producing 10-plus yard runs and ripping off explosives, including sitting atop the leaderboard in breakaway run percentage (43.2 percent).
But the Seahawks have other intriguing options in the backfield stable who could thrive in Kubiak’s system, which derives from former Broncos coach Mike Shanahan’s offense. For one, Charbonnet has more than enough juice to excel on zone runs and his downhill, physical mentality matches well with backs such as Olandis Gary and Mike Anderson who topped 1,000 rushing yards for Denver earlier in the century. McIntosh plays faster than his testing times with plus-ball carrier vision, a key trait for zone running, while Martinez combines excellent 217-pound size, tackle breaking ability, and vision as a battering ram with underrated shiftiness.
Adding in Holani, who impressed as a rookie out of Boise State last season and wound up dressing for five games, Seattle has all of the pieces in place to take a significant step forward running the football from a running back perspective. For the results to show up on the stat sheet, however, progress will have to be made on the offensive line with Benton and Dennison now in charge of that group, while Kubiak will be tasked with figuring out how to best deploy his new group of runners in his offense as camp unfolds.
Heading towards the start of training camp, here’s a look at the Seahawks depth chart at running back, a camp storyline that bears watching, and a bold prediction for the upcoming season:
Depth Chart
The Seahawks have done a fine job of building a versatile running back group with a wide array of skill sets, starting with Walker as the explosive bell cow. Though his rushing totals have dropped each of the last two years and he has missed significant time on the sidelines, he still ranked among the NFL’s best at forcing missed tackles and found the end zone eight total times last season. The 214-pound Charbonnet presents a stylistic change of pace, preferring to stick his cleat in the turf and lower his shoulder as a bruising complementary option, but both backs offer pass catching upside. The same can be said for McIntosh, who played some receiver at Georgia in college and has the formational flexibility to slide outside in a pinch while also boasting underlooked wiggle as a ball carrier.
Behind Seattle’s top three returning vets, Martinez enters the league with quite the resume in college, as he surpassed the 1,000-yard mark twice and averaged at least six yards per carry in each of his three seasons at Oregon State and Miami. While he’s taller and runs a bit more upright than Charbonnet, he has similar contact balance and tends to fall forward for extra yardage, making him a short yardage option to consider right away at minimum. Holani excelled as a pass protector in his first training camp and also caught a handful of passes, making him a third down candidate along with being a special teams cog, while undrafted rookie Jacardia Wright faces an uphill battle to be a practice squad player given the talent ahead of him.
Camp Storyline to Watch
All signs point to Walker resuming as Seattle’s starter out of the backfield, but that doesn’t mean that Charbonnet or even McIntosh couldn’t make things interesting as a pecking order is established in camp and the preseason. As evidenced in the past by players such as Gary and Anderson hitting the century mark in Shanahan’s offense in Denver, Kubiak’s system is built for success without having a top-of-the-line athlete as the primary backfield option, and it’s not as if Charbonnet is a slough of an athlete either. If Walker can’t consistently read his keys correctly and make the right cut, the coaching staff will grow frustrated quite quickly, opening the door for another back to push for more reps.
As for backup roles, Martinez’s arrival creates a fascinating battle to watch for the third running back job. McIntosh played quite well down the stretch last season and has a more polished game as a pass catcher than his new rookie competition, which could be a huge advantage fending off the rookie. At the same time, however, Martinez brings more speed to the equation with significantly better size and his punishing running style fits what Macdonald and Kubiak want from the run game. With one or two spots at most up for grabs, those two players and Holani squaring off will be one of the most compelling competitions to watch in August.
Bold Prediction
Back healthy and benefiting from upgraded blocking, Walker will return to the 1,000-yard mark, but it will be Charbonnet who leads Seattle’s backfield crew with 10 rushing touchdowns as the preferred short yardage and goal line weapon.
