The Seahawks were close to signing Joe Mixon but went in another direction after his physical. Seattle has been busy at running back since placing Jadarian Price on IR. The current room:
Emanuel Wilson
George Holani
Velus Jones — signed off the practice squad Saturday
Robert Henry — signed off the Moons’ practice squad Monday
The Seahawks also placed Jacardia Wright on practice squad IR and signed undrafted rookie Dontae McMillan to replace him. Henry is also an undrafted rookie.
Seattle waived safety A.J. Finley to make room for Henry on the 53-man roster.
These moves should have minimal impact on Seaside Joe’s Seahawks player rankings.
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Scott M: When Charbs comes back which of the RBs (assuming they are all healthy) is going to be replaced (assuming we don't keep an extra RB)?
Zach Charbonnet will not return this week, but maybe we’ll see him against the Broncos in Week 6.
The Seahawks are in a bind because Emanuel Wilson isn’t a dynamic runner and George Holani can’t get the team out of this jam either. Charbonnet isn’t going to be a first-down or every-down back even at full strength, but he could be Seattle’s best option. This is where a mystery box like Robert Henry is one to watch.
You have to laugh that Kenneth Walker is the best running back in the league right now, but I don’t think his success would be nearly the same if he were still on the Seahawks.
Grant: I think Rashid Shaheed needs to get at least 5 carries per game, while also running some routes from the backfield while Price is out. We know they have this in the playbook, because they've already done it. I worked well last week. I just want to see more of it over the next few weeks. Our healthy running backs are too slow to consistently win outside and we're paying Shaheed too much to not manufacture some touches. Perhaps this could also give Horton a few more opportunities at WR.
I didn’t completely finish answering the question because I think Grant makes a fair point. Seattle’s best bet for explosive running plays is using Shaheed out of the backfield more often. It’s not that weird, as Velus Jones is basically the same size and is a former receiver.
It’s hard to say if Shaheed is a very good receiver anyway. He doesn’t seem to be a good blocker and his route running leaves something to be desired, but if you put the ball in his hands he can do things.
Maxx: I posed this question on last night's article and will ask you directly Ken, with as well as Lock played in relief of Darnold and with as shaky as Darnold has played in his return these last 2 games, do the Seahawks have a quarterback controversy brewing?
I ended up answering this question with an article before I even read what Maxx wrote, but if there are only two takeaways to focus on:
Sam Darnold didn’t get to face the Cardinals
Drew Lock didn’t have to play against 54% pressure
In such a small sample size for either quarterback, the comparison doesn’t matter much. It’s nothing against Lock, it’s merely giving context to every game. It’s like if I make 80% of my shots and you make 40% of your shots, but we leave out the part that I was shooting layups and you were shooting from half court.
That’s not a perfect analogy but you get the idea.
Samuel Garfield: Coach Mike said that they’re going to look through the penalties on Sunday and break them into “cost of doing business” and “selfish” penalties and figure out how to proceed from there. If you made your best attempt at grouping the penalties thusly what’s the ratio? Also consider a third category: refs being over-zealous/making mistakes. Any interesting trends etc. if we break it up that way? If you had to guess, who or what is primarily to blame for the problem?
How nervous are you feeling for the Niners game and why?
Here’s an answer that I bet nobody wants to hear: NFL refs are AMAZING.
About 97% of the time, they prove that they can spot things with their eyes that humans shouldn’t be able to see and I’m impressed. They almost never get credit for it.
It’s kinda crazy these guys and gals are just doing a necessary job and have totally normal lives off the field but once a week they go on TV to get obliterated by fans who need their services—and they’re not full-time employees.
They get calls wrong sometimes. Those wrong calls can look egregious. It’s not rigged. They’re not betting on the game. They don’t hate your favorite team or your favorite player. There isn’t a secret cabal in the NFL head offices making sure to screw you over. In my opinion, it’s merely a job and we only talk about the refs when they interfere with a positive outcome for our favorite team.
I think we’ll all remember where we were for the “Fail Mary” and the last thing any Seahawks fan feels the need to talk about is the fairness of the call. Maybe at most a fan will say “Yeah, that was a bad call..ha ha ha.”
In the end, all the good calls and bad calls balance out.
I don’t have much to add about the penalties except it was odd how many unnecessary roughness calls there were. I think Macdonald’s comments were mostly things a coach has to say like “that’s not us” and “unacceptable” and that’s all totally fine, but I wouldn’t expect any changes. Is Nick Emmanwori going to play fewer snaps? No. If he gets another penalty like that, will they bench him for a while? I doubt it.
If I were a fringe roster player though, I’d definitely be on my Ps and Qs.
As for the 49ers, the Seahawks could lose but I can’t say I’m “nervous”. Not to play a game of semantics, but I can’t say I’m ever nervous about a game. This should be a close game between two of the best teams in the NFL and I think Seattle will win.
scottula: Are there any twists to the dirty rotten 9er's gameplay this season that could be beneficial and/or problematic, in new ways?
Beneficial in that the 49ers only have six sacks and Nick Bosa is out. Problematic in that nobody has sacked Brock Purdy this season and he’s leading the NFL in a lot of statistics.
The 49ers are an “outlier” team in a lot of ways. For example, they’re the most successful offense in the NFL when they have pre-snap motion and they run it the most often. The Seahawks are the most successful defense against motion.
I lean on how the Seahawks played against the 49ers late in the year and expect Seattle’s defense to have another great day. The question is how will the offense do against the 49ers defense and how much does having Brian Fleury calling plays help them or hurt them?
West Seattle Tim: How hard is MM going to come down on individual players that received personal foul penalties? I know he likes an aggressive defense, but some of those were just plain awful. I imagine him calling them out in front of the team during game film and letting them know what it cost the team.
Having taken a ton of leadership courses in my life, be it the Marines or just as a small business owner, I know “praise in public, punish in private” is a sign of good leadership. But sometimes people just need to be called out in front of their peers to drive that message home. I hope Spoon gets an earful, as does Emmanwori. Hall and Lawrence’s penalties were suspect, so I give them a pass. Russell and O’Toole were not great penalties either, but some of the others just gave the Chargers continued opportunities that they turned into points. Its like the team missed the old Riq and DK vibes and felt the need to do dumb things at critical times.
All that being said, do you think this is a one time occurrence, or is this an issue we need to worry about moving ahead?
I hope one day we get an “East Seattle Tim” and you guys can be rivals.
Yeah, I think your points are fair. Maybe that’s what Mike Macdonald did today behind the scenes. I think we’ll never know.
Devon Witherspoon and Nick Emmanwori are better players than Riq Woolen and DK Metcalf and I believe they are more likely to be self-aware and make adjustments, in the same way that Jaxon Smith-Njigba got a couple of taunting or celebration penalties early last year and then it completely went away.
I have no concerns about these two.
Eduardo: Brian Fleury's offensive scheme is supposed to lean heavily on TE play. We heard of an increased role for Barner/Arroyo as well as a lot of 13 personnel usage prior to the start of the season. I don't know if its the adjustment to the new system/role for AJ Barner, but I have seem him draw a few penalties and play a bit off his usual self. I'll also add that TE Arroyo has been all but non-existent. All that to say; What is your take on how the TE aspect of the new offensive system is shaking out?
I touched on this with the answer to an earlier question that was posed in the Tuesday morning edition of Seaside Joe.
Basically, A.J. Barner is on track to post all the same receiving stats he had in 2025. Calling him out for a few bad blocks may not look any different than if I were able to isolate some of his worst plays of 2025. It’s early in the season and I have no concerns about Barner.
We have to remember that “a lot” of 13 personnel is like 5 plays per game.
Per SumerSport, the Seahawks run 12 personnel higher than league average and they are a top-six passing offense out of 12 personnel. They struggle running out of 12, but they’re struggling with the run in all facets.
Elijah Arroyo isn’t have the type of contributions offense that anyone hoped for or expected when he was a second-round pick. This could be caused by a number of things, including being a bad pick, but it might also be that Arroyo is exactly where he should be for a 23-year-old without much experience playing the second-hardest position to learn on offense.
I’ll give Arroyo the benefit of the doubt. Nobody except for JSN is “wowing” us as a pass catcher through four games, so if and when somebody steps up it could come from anywhere, including Arroyo.
One other note: I don’t think it’s quite fair to say that Fleury’s scheme is “supposed to lean heavily on TE” just because he was a former tight ends coach and his most famous player coached is George Kittle. You mention the pre-season hype around using tight ends more creatively, so I totally know where you’re coming from, Eduardo.
I just think it’s important to note that Fleury didn’t have a scheme. He’s a first-time coach and he’s got to carve his own path. His job is not to force a pre-concieved scheme, it’s to be successful based on the personnel he’s given on the 2026 Seahawks. That means highlighting JSN above everyone else, and then hopefully getting the run game going at some point.
So I wouldn’t feel disappointed that Seattle’s tight ends don’t have more yards. The passing offense is actually quite good! It’s the run game he needs to fix.
I think the most important point coach Mike could make about the "selfish" type penalties is that they extend drives which means your defensive players have to spend more time on the field than they should and those extra plays lead to annoying injuries to important players like Leonard Williams when they should have been resting on the sidelines. I know injuries can happen at any time, but in general, the less plays you are out there for, the less chance of getting injured. (And yes, I also know this may make it more likely someone on the O-Line gets hurt because they may have more plays - I just know that when I saw big Leonard go down I yelled at my TV "that's why you don't stupidly extend drives" and I still feel that way two days later so I'm using the great Seaside Joe comment section to vent!)
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