Snap Confidential: Seahawks’ Week 1 Play Time Confirms Competitions at RB, LB

With the outcome of the game taking a devastating turn in the final two minutes thanks to missed opportunities on both sides of the football, the Seattle Seahawks fell just short of a Week 1 victory as they dropped a 17-13 contest to the San Francisco 49ers at Lumen Field.

As is always the case coming out of a loss, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald and his staff will be taking a close look at everything as they shift focus towards preparation for their road opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers next weekend. This includes a couple of competitions for starting jobs that now be very much up for grabs at running back and WILL linebacker in the early stages of the schedule.

When asked on his weekly interview on Seattle Sports on Monday morning about the running back rotation between Ken Walker III and Zach Charbonnet, Macdonald simply said, "There's going to be more opportunities for both of them moving forward."

As for the linebacker spot, Macdonald indicated “we have some competition” ongoing for snaps next to starter Ernest Jones IV, further confirmed by a rotation on Sunday between Tyrice Knight and Drake Thomas.

Diving into the snap counts and positional breakdowns courtesy of Pro Football Focus, what does Seattle’s Week 1 loss to San Francisco suggest about plans at running back and linebacker? And what other surprises emerged from the opener?

• Seattle didn’t wait long to break out their Jalen Milroe package, which had been a curiosity since his arrival as a third-round pick back in April, sending the athletic rookie quarterback in for the third play from scrimmage. But the 49ers snuffed out a designed QB keeper for just one yard and the former Alabama star didn’t check in again for the remainder of the afternoon, including on a pivotal 4th and 1 in the fourth quarter where the Seahawks opted to kick a short field goal rather than go for it to extend the drive with sights on scoring a touchdown or chewing more clock.
• There had been plenty of speculation coming into the season regarding Charbonnet possibly usurping Walker as the Seahawks’ primary running back, and Sunday did nothing to pour water on the flame. Charbonnet wound up playing 30 snaps compared to Walker’s 21 and proved far more effective, managing to rush for 47 yards on 12 carries while his counterpart had 24 total yards on 13 touches as a runner and receiver. The offense seemed to be more in sync with the former on the field rather than the latter, which may have had more to do with the opponent than anything else, but Walker appears to be in an uphill battle at the moment when it comes to carving out more playing time.
• Not surprisingly, based on Kubiak’s history and the fact Jake Bobo and Dareke Young were both inactive, Seattle didn’t utilize many three receiver sets, calling 11 personnel on just 48 percent of their offensive snaps. What was somewhat unexpected, however, is that it was Cooper Kupp, not Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who led the team with 46 offensive snaps. Smith-Njigba actually played only 40, or less than 80 percent of the Seahawks’ offensive plays, while rookie Tory Horton wasn’t even targeted on 28 snaps in his quiet NFL debut.
• Making his debut after a stellar preseason, Robbie Ouzts played 37 percent of Seattle’s offensive snaps with most of those coming out of 21 and 22 personnel groupings as a fullback. He also had two snaps as an inline tight end. Brady Russell, the other player listed as a fullback on the roster, didn’t have any offensive snaps.
• Bucking past trends, Kubiak seldomly sent in 12 personnel groupings on Sunday, as the Seahawks only ran seven plays (14 percent) with one back and two tight ends on the field against the 49ers. With that lower-than-expected rate, rookie Elijah Arroyo only played 16 out of 52 snaps, while Eric Saubert played nine. Starter AJ Barner logged an 85 percent snap rate, but away from him, the rest of the tight end group wasn’t relied on much, which was an interesting situation considering how much Kubiak has preferred multi-tight end sets in the past.
• In the good news department, the Seahawks didn’t have any injuries along the offensive line with all five starters playing every single snap. Veteran tackle Josh Jones checked in for one play as a sixth offensive lineman, but no other reserves played on offense at all.
• Along the defensive line, Leonard Williams played a whopping 78 percent of Seattle’s total snaps, which would have been one of the four highest rates for him in a single game last season, while his 59 total snaps would have tied his highest total in 2024. Byron Murphy II saw a substantial jump in playing time compared to most of his rookie season at 76 percent, while veteran Jarran Reed only played 50 percent of the defensive snaps. Nose tackle Quinton Bohanna played 10 snaps total at a 13 percent rate as a practice squad elevation, while Mike Morris only saw the field for three snaps total even with Uchenna Nwosu and Jared Ivey not active.
• Off the edge, the Seahawks employed a balanced approach rotating their top three players minus Nwosu, as Boye Mafe led the team with 56 snaps at a 74 percent rate, Demarcus Lawrence logged 52 snaps at a 68 percent in his team debut, and Derick Hall played 50 percent of the snaps. Interestingly, per PFF, Williams actually played double-digit snaps off tackle in this contest, helping offset Nwosu’s absence.
• After missing almost all of training camp and the entire preseason, Seattle did use a pitch count with Knight, though he still played 74 percent of the snaps, likely in part due to the early injury to rookie safety Nick Emmanwori. Still, the Seahawks rotated Drake Thomas in for 15 defensive snaps and he generated a key quarterback hit that led to Ernest Jones’ interception in the third quarter off a blitz. As Macdonald indicated on Monday morning, the competition is officially on at the WILL linebacker spot and Knight will have to quickly get back up to full speed to fend off Thomas, who had a strong preseason while Knight was sidelined.
• The injury to Emmanwori, who looked to be a big part of Macdonald’s game plan going into his NFL debut, forced the Seahawks to make schematic adjustments with cornerback Devon Witherspoon sliding back inside as the primary slot defender and Josh Jobe getting a ton of snaps on the boundary. They initially plugged in Ty Okada as a third safety with six total reps, but Jobe wound up playing north of 80 percent of Seattle’s defensive snaps and took full advantage with an interception and one catch allowed on five targets, which could put heat on Riq Woolen once Emmanwori is able to return to action from an ankle sprain and lead to some internal discussions for the coaching staff.