Seahawks respond to Kenny McIntosh injury

Seattle was forced to make a pair of transactions on Monday, but they didn't exactly add a "running back" to replace McIntosh

The Seattle Seahawks placed running back Kenny McIntosh on IR on Monday, ending his season after a knee injury that he suffered in practice on Saturday. The press release didn’t specifically mention a torn ACL, but that is believed to be the cause of his latest trip to injured reserve. McIntosh also acknowledged his ACL tear via Instagram over the weekend:

This is the second time in three years that McIntosh has suffered a major knee injury in training camp. McIntosh was hurt in Seattle’s mock game in 2023 and ended up missing the first 11 weeks of the season. He returned for three games and played exclusively on special teams prior to then finishing the season on IR over the last four weeks.

A seventh round pick out of Georgia, McIntosh led the Bulldogs in rushing as a senior en route to winning his second national championship in as many years. He had a total of 1,334 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2022, averaging 6.9 yards per play.

But there wasn’t much pre-draft buzz on McIntosh after he ran a 4.62 40-yard dash at 6’, 204 lbs. He had been buried on Georgia’s depth chart for a career mostly spent behind D’Andre Swift and James Cook:

McIntosh is best suited for a complementary role that allows him to explore the flanks of the offense instead of trying to pound and create between the tackles. He lacks the vision to recognize and exploit opportunities quickly and the elusiveness to dart in and out of developing run lanes. He’s more than capable of finding big runs over the tackles and becomes a more physical finisher as the run progresses. McIntosh has excellent hands and the potential to mismatch coverages when isolated out of the backfield. He could become a RB2 with full-time third-down reps.

One scout saw McIntosh as an ideal third-down back in the NFL, but the Seahawks haven’t really needed to find out most of the time because of Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet. As the running backs got banged up over the course of 2024, McIntosh did see an opportunity arise last December. Here were his numbers in the last five games of 2024:

• 62 snaps

• 27 rushing attempts

• 156 yards

• 5.8 yards per carry

• 3 catches for 22 yards

• 4 kickoff returns for 118 yards (29.5)

McIntosh had a career-high 7 carries for 49 yards in Week 18 against the Rams, but entered 2025 training camp fighting for his life on the roster after Seattle picked Damien Martinez in the seventh round.

McIntosh was slotted somewhere between third and fifth on the Seahawks depth chart going into camp, but likely had an uphill battle to climb unless he won the kickoff returner job. The team’s depth after Martinez includes 2024 undrafted free agent George Holani and 2025 undrafted free agent Jacardia Wright. But with McIntosh going on IR on Monday, the Seahawks have added one more name to the list:

D.K. Kaufman.

Rookie running back D.K. Kaufman was signed to fill the open spot on the 90-man roster. Kaufman, who went undrafted out of NC State, took part in Seattle's rookie minicamp as a tryout player, and is making a position switch after spending his college career playing safety. Kaufman, who is from New Orleans, began his college career at Vanderbilt before transferring to Auburn, where he spent three seasons before finishing his career at NC State.

Kaufman, who went by “Donovan” in college, is going to enter the competition at kickoff returner rather than serve as a threat to any running backs. He had 31.3 yards per return with NC State in 2024, third-best in the country.

Although he is being called a “running back” now, Kaufman was primarily a safety in college. He is listed at 5’8, 202 lbs per measurements from his pro day but has no official times for a 40-yard dash or anything else.

Update: According to MathBomb, Kaufman ran a 4.53 somewhere and had pretty good numbers across the board, but his 9.35 RAS would be as a safety, not as a RB. Moving him to RB should make his RAS score worse.

While we can’t expect Kaufman’s name to come up often after today, he has somewhat of a shot of relevancy given his history as a kick returner and Seattle’s need for someone to return kickoffs. Not just someone, but two someones given the NFL’s new rules from last season.

As I wrote three weeks ago, there were probably receivers on the team rooting for anyone to beat Steven Sims for a job. Not necessarily a receiver. Because if Sims doesn’t win a job, that means that the Seahawks could keep a receiver who isn’t Steven Sims.

But McIntosh’s injury means that Sims might default into a kick returner, which could be bad news for someone like Jake Bobo or Ricky White III depending on how Mike Macdonald wants to organize the number of receivers that Seattle keeps on the 53-man roster. Maybe it doesn’t matter, but losing McIntosh certainly increased Sims’ chances.

Seaside Joe 2338