Is RB draft pick detrimental to the Seahawks?
Why the Seahawks wouldn't draft a running back
Most Seahawks fans would be elated to see that our Substack friend Sam Teets has Seattle drafting Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price in his latest mock. And the reason most fans would like the pick is when it happens:
Teets has the Seahawks picking Price at 64, not 32.
Not everyone is going to love a running back in the second round, but at least this would have Seattle getting the number two prospect at the position after 63 other players have been drafted. Teets’ first pick for the Seahawks is Texas A&M guard Chase Bisontis and their third pick goes back to the same school for cornerback Will Lee III.
Just two years ago only one running back went in the first two rounds (Jonathan Brooks at 46) so it wouldn’t even be that much of an outlier for RB2 to get to Seattle’s second pick. In the past 10 or so years, maybe there’s an average of 3.5 running backs in the first two rounds. Something like that.
Then we get to the 2026 class specifically and some are speculating that aside from Jeremiyah Love going much higher than Brooks did (maybe top-10), this is an even worse group of running back prospects. In this video by That Franchise Guy, he says Price would be RB7 in last year’s class.
As a reminder, the 2025 draft was led by Ashton Jeanty at pick 6 and then the sixth running back taken was Kaleb Johnson to the Steelers at pick 83.
Last year’s RB7 was Bhayshul Tuten, a fourth round pick by the Jaguars.
By this logic of Price being “RB7” last year but a top-50 player this year, the reason that some mocks have Price going in the first round and his consensus ranking is 48th on the NFLMockDraftDatabase big board would be that onlookers are afraid of what comes next at RB3 and beyond.
I covered 10 “draft-able” running backs last month and though I wouldn’t recommend it as anything more than a starting point for research, it’s a snapshot of the concerns people have for all the non-Love options in the 2026 draft class. Mostly because Price might be interchangeable with Jonah Coleman and Coleman might be interchangeable with Emmett Johnson and Johnson might not be far ahead of Nicholas Singleton, etc..
A lack of agreement on the order of prospects at a position can be a red flag for the group as a whole.
This can be best conveyed by reviewing some of the worst quarterback classes of all-time.
For example, leading into the 2022 draft there were people who swore by Malik Willis, others who stood by Desmond Ridder, some who were Matt Corral believers, and a few who felt Kenny Pickett was the safest bet.
Pickett was the only quarterback to go in the top-85 and it is one of the worst classes of all-tie.
I think you could apply the same logic to the 2024 quarterbacks who didn’t go in the top-3 that year, the debates over Michael Penix, J.J. McCarthy, and Bo Nix. Just one of those three is a definite starter in Week 1 and Nix was the one who went third out of that group.
The less that’s debatable, the more that’s relatable.
Drafting Devon Witherspoon was a matter of taste, scheme fit, and needs but there was consensus agreement that he was one of the best football players in the 2023 class. Grey Zabel wasn’t the first guard off the board, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who said he wouldn’t go early and be an immediate plus-starter.
Has your opinion of picking Zabel changed at all since the last draft?
If Seahawks fans want the team to use the draft to find an immediate plus starter at running back because Seattle’s roster doesn’t have an obvious number one, you may be left waiting at the altar when it’s all said and done.
#1 - John Schneider says “everything’s fine”
On Seattle Sports this week, the Seahawks GM said that he’s not worried about the running back position at all.
I mean, anything said by a team representative before a draft could be called a “smokescreen” and that’s whether it really is misleading or if the person listening to the message just doesn’t want to believe it’s true.
Schneider cites the time that he was with the Packers and they traded for Ryan Grant, a practice squad player who ended up averaging over 1,100 yards per season for Green Bay over the next three years. “You can find guys” at that position, said Schneider.
He praised George Holani as a guy who can do it all. Even more surprisingly he called Cam Akers “outstanding” and said that “everyone is really excited for him”, which shocks me as someone who watched every game he played with the Rams and, well…I’m glad someone is excited.
Akers has also had major injuries in the past, however maybe with three years of barely playing he has looked like a player with fresh legs in practice.
Schneider goes onto mention free agent signee Emanuel Wilson and former seventh round pick Kenny McIntosh, so en total if there are already four running backs in the competition before the draft then maybe Seattle’s GM isn’t bluffing when he says he’s not worried about it.
As I wrote a couple of days ago on the De’Vone Achane trade speculation, Schneider’s moves as GM without Pete Carroll’s influence have very clearly leaned closer to the “running backs don’t matter” tenet than in the past.
Whether you like that or it concerns you, it’s what’s Seattle’s projecting over the last three offseasons.
#2 - RB pockets just aren’t hitting Seattle’s picks
Schneider would be the first person to tell us that the draft is about pockets or areas of value, wherein by it’s not just forcing a selection because you’re on the clock and want to fill a need (this feels much more like what Seattle would do to take L.J. Collier or Rashaad Penny or Bruce Irvin) but it’s about knowing “What are the greatest strengths of this group of picks in the draft compared to the drop-off in talent later?”
As noted earlier, this running back class might be a terrible fit for picks 32 and 64:
What if Jadarian Price goes 20th? The next RB might not go until 70th.
What if Seattle passes on Price at 32? The odds of him getting to 64 might be low for all the reasons mentioned.
If the Seahawks don’t take a RB with their first pick, but 3 or 4 running backs are gone by their second pick, would the team just feel at that point that a UDFA is hardly worse than the crop at 64 or 96?
Because the Seahawks aren’t picking high enough to consider Love, but it’s also not clear if there’s a running back who would even be worth their picks at 32 or 64 (including if Seattle moved up or down with a reasonable trade), the most likely outcome could be that Schneider passes on the entire class.
#3 - Options are out there after the draft
Notice that Schneider didn’t say that the Packers drafted Ryan Grant, he specifically chose a running back who the team traded for instead. He didn’t mention Chris Carson as a seventh round pick (although he could have) or grabbing a high-profile option before the trade deadline like Marshawn Lynch (although he could have).
He just said “You can always get a running back” and then this example case was a 25-year-ol practice squad player from the Giants who Green Bay’s head coach at the time Mike McCarthy was highly skeptical of as a starter.
Someone like Wilson. Someone like Akers. Someone like Holani or McIntosh. The Seahawks have 7 running backs on the roster right now, tied with the Saints for the most by any team in the NFL.
But also there are a lot of running backs out there who aren’t going to make their current team’s roster.
Akers, Wilson, and Velus Jones are all just running backs who didn’t make another team’s roster recently. They might not make Seattle’s final 53-man roster either or any of them could end up having a large role on the Seahawks.
Whether it’s a small trade for a team’s RB3/RB4 in the near future, a free agent, a waiver claim, or a late trade at final cuts, Schneider probably sees a long road ahead of seeking out running backs to add to the roster.
By comparison, picks 32 and 64 in the draft could be the Seahawks’ last opportunity of 2026 to add an edge rusher or a receiver or a cornerback or a guard or a safety.
If Seattle had as many picks as the Dolphins, great then they’d probably draft a running back.
With so few selections on the table and only so many ways to address the gaps on the roster that Schneider wants to address this offseason, Wilson and Holani might end up catching more screens than they are being used as smokescreens.
As I post this, news of the Jaguars signing Jake Bobo. The Seahawks have 5 days to match the offer that Jacksonville gave Bobo. I don't really want to write a full article about it until we know the terms of the deal.
Thoughts on Bobo potentially leaving for Jacksonville?
I follow Sam Teets and really like what he has to say about linemen. I think Prince would be a solid pick at 64, but I would be disappointed in Bisontis at 32 unless all the top edges and CBs were gone. I lean more toward the 3rd round for RB or 4th round if they find a trade partner at 32. I just don’t see Price there at 64 in any of the mocks I ran, and Washington from Arkansas is a more of a posibility at 64. But if the Hawks go CB in round one or early 2nd with a trade back, I’d see if Jacas or Derrick Moore is there at 64. Or Dani Denis Sutton if they pick up an earlier round 3 pick. Trading back will be hard this year unless someone really enticing fall 10-12 spots from projected. And if that person is seen as a round one pick by the Hawks, why would they pass up on him?