Arizona Cardinals linebacker Cody Simon figured he had Jadarian Price right where he wanted him.
Midway through the second quarter on Sunday in Seattle, Seahawks backup quarterback Drew Lock opened a drive by finding Price coming out of the backfield for a checkdown in the left flat. But Price didn’t go down for a short gain — he juked Simon to the turf before slithering through a pair of Cardinals defenders for a 17-yard pickup.
Price finished the 17-3 win over the Cardinals with four catches and a team-high 54 receiving yards. While Price chipped in 24 rushing yards on nine carries, the rookie was most impactful in the passing game.
“He’s electric,” wide receiver Cooper Kupp said. “He is a slash runner. He’s decisive. Obviously has great hands, and him being able to activate them in different parts of the field, I think all of our backs have shown an ability to do that.
“But Jadarian did a great job of that.”
Halfway through the season, there have been few examples of Price living up to his billing as a first-round rookie. He has played in only five of Seattle’s nine games and was benched for much of the 33-31 loss to the Washington Commanders on Sept. 27 after losing a fumble for the second consecutive game.
After that game, Price missed all of October with a chest injury, which turned out to be a significant blow to Seattle’s already-sputtering rushing attack. The Seahawks were without fellow running back Zach Charbonnet for the first seven weeks of the season while he recovered from a torn ACL, before he and Price returned for last Monday’s 34-17 loss to the Chicago Bears.
Since then, Price and Charbonnet have combined for 41 of Seattle’s 42 rushing attempts by running backs, totaling 153 yards (3.73 yards per carry). Price has 47 carries for 172 rushing yards and zero touchdowns halfway through his rookie season.
That’s far from putting the Seahawks among the league’s elite rushing teams. Seattle still ranks last in the NFL in expected points added on rushing plays this season (minus-57.4), per TruMedia, though much of that damage came on early-season fumbles. Over the past two weeks, they rank 23rd in rushing EPA (minus-7.6) — not where the team wants to be, but a small sign of progress.
The combination of Price and Charbonnet has brought competency back to a position that lacked it for much of the Seahawks’ 5-4 start to their Super Bowl title defense.
“Shout out to those guys, man,” said tight end AJ Barner, who had the team’s only rushing touchdown on Sunday, a 1-yarder out of the “Barnyard” sneak package. “Charbs running incredibly tough. JD, just the spark that he provided, and the O-line, too, just getting back to what we were doing. Again, there is a whole other level that we can get to. But I felt like we took a lot of strides.”
Price wasn’t just a change-of-pace option relative to the bruising Charbonnet, nor was he just Lock’s safety valve out of the backfield. The 5-foot-11, 209-pound tailback made an over-the-shoulder catch for 15 yards on third-and-8 on Seattle’s first touchdown drive, flashing both his speed and hands in the process.
Many questioned Price’s receiving abilities when he was coming out of Notre Dame, as former Fighting Irish teammate and current Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love often handled obvious passing situations. Price quelled those concerns with the best receiving performance of his young career.
“That’s something that I’ve worked on,” he said. “I’ve built the trust from the coaches and the players. It’s really just the coaches giving me more opportunities and me being able to show what I can do in games.”
Price has also earned the respect of his pass-catching teammates, including the NFL’s leading receiver, Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
“We want to play complementary football in the run and the pass game,” Smith-Njigba said, “and him being able to catch a few passes out of the backfield makes us more dangerous as a unit. We’re going to need that throughout the season.”
The Seahawks also still need a true No. 2 offensive weapon to emerge to help Smith-Njigba, especially with starting quarterback Sam Darnold out because of a quad injury and Lock dealing with both elbow and oblique issues. Darnold will not play in Week 10 against the Las Vegas Raiders but should be ready to return in Week 12 after Seattle’s bye, coach Mike Macdonald said Monday. Lock is expected to start again in Las Vegas.
Rashid Shaheed, Seattle’s speedy return specialist and receiving threat, has not played since injuring his knee against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 7 and also wasn’t particularly impactful in the passing game when healthy. Kupp, a seasoned vet, has been targeted more than five times in a game only once, during the Seahawks’ 17-14 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos.
Though both Shaheed and Kupp possess plenty of pedigree, neither has seized the opportunity. Second-year wideout Tory Horton has impressed at times with his big frame (6-2, 196 pounds) and speed but has not been terribly consistent. Barner had his second career two-touchdown game Sunday, yet he’s seen his production dip in his third NFL season.
Price’s breakout performance in the passing game could be an aberration, much like Barner’s showing in Week 9, or when Kupp hauled in five passes for 50 yards against the Broncos. Or, it could be the beginning of Price realizing his potential.
“I felt him out there,” Macdonald said Sunday. “I thought he was decisive with his runs. Sometimes he’s the primary in some of those pass concepts. Sometimes he’s kind of at the end of the progression, and when the ball finds him, if you can make a guy miss, it’s a great example: It doesn’t have to be some extraordinary play to create explosives.
“I think he’s just going to continue to get better. Now that he’s kind of stacking weeks and keeps getting healthier, that will help us.”
Having both the burly Charbonnet — who broke several tackles on a 17-yard run to help kill the clock late in the fourth quarter — and the shifty Price healthy gives Seattle a running back tandem as strong as any team in the league. That duo would benefit from Seattle’s offensive line, which is temporarily without All-Pro left guard Quenton Nelson and left tackle Charles Cross, returning to 100 percent quickly.
But in Price, the Seahawks believe they have more than a dangerous runner. They believe they have a capable pass catcher who can create in the open field, too, as he did so effectively Sunday alongside Charbonnet.
“I think this offense is going to skyrocket for sure,” Price said. “Our running game’s going to improve. So, I’m excited.”
