Since Kenneth Walker left to sign with Kansas City last month, folks are treating the Seahawks’ situation at running back as a crisis.
That is, folks who seek to manufacture crises for a Super Bowl champion.
In April.
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald and general manager John Schneider don’t see it as a crisis.
Seattle’s running backs, post-Walker, include Zach Charbonnet, the Super Bowl MVP’s job sharer last season. He’s a few months into recovery from reconstructive knee surgery. The Seahawks also recently signed Emanuel Wilson in free agency from Green Bay. They have George Holani, Cam Akers and Velus Jones Jr. returning from last season’s team and Kenny McIntosh returning from a season-ending injury last July. Seattle also recently hosted former Steelers 1,000-yard running back Najee Harris on a free-agent visit six months after he ruptured his Achilles tendon a few games into his only season with the Chargers.
Macdonald was asked on KJR-FM radio last week about his running-back situation that’s panicking many. The coach reminded all that his team doesn’t play a real game for another five months.
“Let’s respect the process,” Macdonald told KJR’s Dave “Softy” Mahler and Hugh Millen. The strong inference: We’re not done at running back.
The next step in that process is the 2026 NFL draft. It begins April 23 in Pittsburgh.
Seattle has only four picks. It’s the second-fewest in team history, one more than it had in the COVID-draft year of 2021.
Draft analysts from Maine to Maui are predicting the Seahawks will use their first pick, at number 32 to finish the first round, on…a running back. Those are logical dots to connect, given Seattle’s need at the position.
But Schneider prefers to take the best player, not need, when drafting for his Seahawks. The GM has said he’s erred in some of his 16 Seattle drafts when he’s pushed the team’s position need over the quality of a player he didn’t take.
When that best player at the spot Schneider is picking also happens to fill a huge need, it’s the GM’s best case. It happened last year, when Seattle selected guard Grey Zabel 18th overall in round one.
Top running backs in 2026 NFL draft
The consensus around the league is there is one running back in this draft class certain to go in the first round, perhaps among the top 10 picks if not the top five.
That’s Jeremiyah Love from Notre Dame.
The New York Giants, with new, veteran coach John Harbaugh bringing desire for a punishing rushing offense from Baltimore, could draft Love with the fifth-overall pick.
It then could be a long wait for the second running back to be selected.
It’s been well-chronicled how this pass-first, pass-heavy league has devalued running backs the last couple of decades, including at the top of the draft. Last year, just two of the first 35 picks were running backs: Ashton Jeanty from Boise State sixth overall to the Raiders, and Omarion Hampton 16 spots later in round one to the Chargers.
The Seahawks have selected only one running back in the first round in the 16 drafts Schneider has been their GM. That was Rashaad Penny at 27th overall in 2018. Seattle has only taken a running back in round one three times in its 50 years as a franchise. The Seahawks selected Curt Warner third overall in 1983, and Shaun Alexander with the 19th pick in 2000.
Schneider and his scouting staff typically have no more than about two dozen prospects with first-round grades on Seattle’s draft board in any year. Yet in his tenure, his Seahawks have often picked later than 24th in round one. Plus, the Seahawks view this draft as weaker than last year’s, and much weaker than what they and most of the NFL assesses will be the draft class of 2027. Schneider has said that’s why Seattle has only four picks this year, and why he traded two third-day choices in this year’s draft to get Pro Bowl kick returner and wide receiver Rashid Shaheed from New Orleans in the middle of last season.
Owning a first-round pick at a slot lower than the number of first-round grades he has on his board explains why Schneider has made a trade involving a first-round pick 14 times over 16 Seahawks drafts. Ten of those trades were down, to acquire more picks later in that draft. The four other trades of first-round picks have involved veteran players such as Percy Harvin, Jimmy Graham, Jamal Adams and Russell Wilson.
In a weaker draft this year, while owning the 32nd pick among only four choices, it’s lining up for Schneider to trade down again, into the second round. That could net Seattle up to five or six total picks in this draft. The Seahawks own only one choice over the final four rounds, in round six. It’s difficult to envision Schneider being content with sitting around watching almost all the final day of the draft April 25.
The Seahawks could, perhaps likely will, trade back yet still draft a running back with their first pick.
Many say that first pick could Love’s partner back at Notre Dame, Jadarian Price.
The Seahawks have shown interest in Price in this pre-draft process. The team had people at Notre Dame’s Pro Day last month, including staffers that talked to Fighting Irish running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider. That’s according to a report from Jack Soble of Notre Dame’s Blue & Gold outlet in South Bend, Indiana.
The 5-foot-11, 203-pound Price has rebounded from rupturing his Achilles tendon in 2022. He had only 280 college snaps playing behind Love at Notre Dame for three years. Yet Price averaged more than 6 yards per carry with 18 rushing touchdowns combined in his final two seasons for the Irish. Price was also an elite kickoff returner at Notre Dame. The finalist for the Paul Hornung Award as college football’s most versatile player) returned a kickoff for a touchdown against USC. Price was leading the nation, averaging 47 yards per return early last season. The fact he stayed his entire college career at Notre Dame in this era of NIL and transfers galore also would likely make Macdonald, a huge proponent of loyalty and intangibles, happy.
Scouts view Price as a smoother, more natural runner than Love, though not as gifted as a receiver and total player. Price is known as an instinctive ball carrier. He reads blocks well. That’s a requirement for Seattle’s outside-zone running schemes that are the basis of its entire offense.
Peter Schrager of ESPN and NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah predict Seattle will select Price.
“How do they not take him?” Jeremiah said this week while discussing running backs in this year’s draft with Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt.
But they project that happening at 32 in round one.
The News Tribune sees a trade down to acquire more picks and still draft Price as more likely.
Arkansas’ Mike Washington Jr.
The Seahawks have shown particular pre-draft interest in another running back from the elite level of college football.
Mike Washington from Arkansas reportedly has been scheduled for a top-30 prospect visit with Seattle.
Each NFL team gets up to 30 visits with prospects from the time of the league’s annual scouting combine in early March up until the week before the draft.
The 6-foot-1, 223-pound Washington got attention at the combine with running the 40-yard dash in 4.33 seconds. That’s elite speed for his big size. The league’s rankings for overall athleticism had Washington second among all running backs at the combine. After three seasons at the University of Buffalo and one for New Mexico State, Washington led Arkansas in 2025 with 1,070 yards rushing. His average of 6.4 yards per carry was ninth-best in the nation, just ahead of Price. Washington had 16 rushing touchdowns over his final two college seasons.
Many see Washington’s 10 fumbles in college as a warning sign. Ball security and turnovers are a key area Macdonald wants his Seahawks to improve upon. The Super Bowl champions committed the second-most turnovers in the NFL last season, 28, including 13 lost fumbles.
The only other running back reportedly taking a top-30 visit with the Seahawks is Coleman Bennett from Kennesaw State of Conference USA. He also played at Rice and Bucknell. Most analysts see the 5-foot-11, 203-pound Bennett as a late-round prospect.
Trading back into round two, whether to draft Price or to select Washington or another running back with their original second-round pick at 64th overall to end the second round would continue a recent trend for Schneider. It would be the third time in five drafts the Seahawks would have selected a running back in the second round.
Schneider and Seattle drafted Walker in the second round in 2022. The next year, they drafted Charbonnet in round two.
Charbonnet’s rookie contract is set to expire at the end of the 2026 season. The former UCLA back who had 12 touchdowns last season for the Seahawks, their most rushing since Marshawn Lynch in 2014, may not be ready to return from his torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee until after the 2026 season begins.
