The 2024 Philadelphia Eagles started 3-2, just as the Seahawks have done this year. Nick Sirianni flipped off his own fans during a week five game against Cleveland. His team were playing badly and showed no signs of the 14-3 Super Bowl Champion they would later become. Trouble was brewing in Philly.
In the first five games Jalen Hurts had a 6/4 touchdown-to-interception ratio — very similar to Sam Darnold’s current 7/5 tally.
How did they fix things? They turned to their running game.
They won their next 10 games. During this run, Saquon Barkley ran for 1523 yards at an average of 138.5 yards per game. In the first five games of the season, he managed only 96.4 yards per game.
In comparison, they only threw for 1984 yards during this stretch — 180.4 yards per game. That was a marked difference to the first five games, where they thew more and averaged 238.8 passing yards.
Hurts’ touchdown-to-interception ratio during the 10 wins was 12/1.
Philadelphia finished the season leading the league in rushes per game (36.7). Only two other teams, Baltimore (33.4) and Washington (31.3) averaged more than 31 rushes per game. This was a significant commitment.
The Eagles completely leaned into Barkley to fix their team. Suddenly they were far more balanced, settled and explosive. The pressure was taken away from the quarterback who could comfortably play the role of a point guard.
This feels like a lesson the Seahawks could learn from. If they could get their running game going, they too might be able to settle things down on offense. At the moment they’re averaging 3.8 yards per carry — putting them in the bottom third of the league.
Here’s the problem though — who can they turn to?
There’s no Saquon Barkley on the roster — a true superstar player who is a safe bet to make things happen and carry the load. Barkley won offensive player of the year in 2024 for righting the Eagles.
Seattle’s current lack of talent at running back is a major issue. You simply cannot turn to Emmanuel Wilson and George Holani and say — ‘we are asking you to help level out this team’. It’s a preposterous thought.
Neither player is anywhere near explosive or dynamic enough. Neither is going to draw extra attention to the line to create better coverage opportunities for the quarterback — and neither is going to still be able to make things happen when game-plans are created to stop the run.
So what do you do?
The Seahawks are already throwing more (147 passes) than their running backs are running (129 carries). They’re already funnelling their passing attack through Jaxon Smith-Njigba, their best player. And they’re struggling to get anyone else involved.
They need to try something different.
Zach Charbonnet returning to the field and swiftly getting back to his best, complemented by a returning Jadarian Price, might be enough to give the running game a sufficient shot in the arm. Can you rely on that though? What’s to say Charbonnet can quickly produce coming off a serious knee injury? Price’s NFL career is off to a rocky start — fumbles in consecutive games and now a stint on IR.
It’s also unclear when both will even be available. Even though Charbonnet is back practising in a limited capacity, he’s been virtually ruled out for Thursday night.
There’s so much to fix on the offense. The quarterback is playing badly, the running backs aren’t good enough, the offensive line is playing poorly and they’re turning the ball over. If you try and fix every individual problem, I think you’ll fail.
This is why you need a ‘go-to’ plan. If they could just lean on the run, commit to it, work on run-blocking improvement to go with the run system, dedicate energy and effort into making that aspect a success, you might create a safe-zone and buy yourself time to make the whole offense function at a far higher level.
But again, how can you do that with Wilson, Holani, Velus Jones and Robert Henry as your backfield? With nothing certain down the line with Charbonnet or Price?
This is why Charbonnet might be the most important non-JSN player on Seattle’s offensive roster. He’s the one with the experience and the explosive testing traits (37-inch vertical) to possibly provide the foundation to run. If he’s available after the Denver game — he might be your solution. Hopefully he is.
It still feels like a tall order to expect him to return and lead from the front as he works back into game shape.
Social media is awash with fans talking about trades today. My timeline is full of people sharing an old tweet I posted in 2020 showing Jonathan Taylor giving a ‘come and get me plea’ to the Seahawks before the draft.
I’d love nothing more than to acquire Taylor, a big-time blog favourite six years ago. He’s still only 27, he’s very capable of leading a rushing attack and he’s a mass-production star back.
And there’s surely no way the Colts would trade him.
Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen are fighting for their jobs. The owner has already put them on notice and the fans want change. Trading their best offensive player would equate to both individuals sending in their resignation letters.
He is surely untouchable while ever Ballard and Steichen remain in post. Now, if they were both fired, it might change things. In that scenario the Colts could be in the market to acquire extra stock. It would be a clear signal towards a reset and it might be appealing for Indianapolis to add picks, given they don’t have a 2027 first rounder due to the ill-advised Sauce Gardner trade.
Taylor’s contact is move-able. He would create $8.6m in cap space this year for the Colts, with $7.6m in dead cap space for 2026 and $10m for 2027. You can easily eat that for the right price.
Yet the right price would likely be astronomical. What would it take? A first round pick? A second round pick? It’s hard to imagine it’d be any less than that.
Using a high pick to basically say, ‘we got this wrong’ at the running back position would be a tough pill to swallow.
Saquon Barkley is the other name to be mentioned. Again, it would be a very attractive addition. He remains one of the best backs in the league with a rare physical skill-set. Yet unless people haven’t noticed — he’s currently injured. In fact he’s already suffered a stinger and a hamstring injury this season.
Howie Roseman isn’t going to give away a player like Barkley. He just managed to finagle a 2028 second rounder out of the Ravens for Cam Jurgens. I think that’d probably be the least you’d have to pay for Barkley too. Roseman is not a GM to mess with when it comes to trades.
Ultimately I think it’s most likely the Seahawks just persevere at the position and hope Charbonnet will respond to the bat signal being sent out post-Denver.
I’m not convinced, however, that’ll be enough. As I said — so much is wrong with the offense. It’s not like last year where the running game stuttered early on and the passing attack was electric, varied and exciting. Right now everything is struggling — quarterback, running backs, O-line, getting the non-JSN receivers and tight ends involved. It feels like a fractured unit and I don’t think they have a coordinator with the experience to ride the storm.
If they do make a bold, aggressive trade — I fear it’d be a repeat of the Jamal Adams desperation play with the possibility of it being a similar ‘bad move to compound previous bad moves’.
I’m not precious about draft picks, even as someone who spends an absurd amount of time studying the draft, and really rates the depth of the upcoming draft class. I love a value trade — and the Seahawks have found value aplenty in the trade market in recent years.
I just think it’s easy to forget that while we talk about Seattle having a treasure-trove of picks for 2027, they don’t have any additional first or second round picks. Most of their stock is set for day three. If you start being aggressive now, you run the risk of missing out on some good young players — in a class where we could see an unusually high number of first round grades.
It’s not even like running back is the only possible trade target. Seattle’s EDGE rushers currently have combined for three sacks in five games. Derick Hall has two, Uchenna Nwosu one and DeMarcus Lawrence zero. Dante Fowler barely features and he also has zero.
This is a key need for me. You need people who can make big plays off the edge. You can’t just rely on the interior pass rush — especially later in games when you’ve gone to battle for four quarters.
I reserve the right to review my opinion in a month’s time — but I also want to be honest about where I think things are with the Seahawks and what the outlook is for this year.
Right now, I think the 49ers virtually have one hand on the NFC West title. With a 5-0 record and an extremely favourable schedule, plus the fact they’re already winning every week with a lot of injuries, just as they did last season, they can basically go 7-5 the rest of the way and still have a great chance to win the division at 12-5. If they win two thirds of their remaining games — again, without a murderers row of opponents upcoming — you’d be looking at needing at least 13 wins, plus some tiebreaker fortune, to stop them.
Yesterday wasn’t just a significant symbolic win for the 49ers to get over the two pastings at the end of last season — they’ve also gained great control of the division.
I think the Seahawks have too much to do on offense to feel confident they can rapidly reach their peak level, in order to repeat last year’s long winning run. Therefore, for now at least, I am not in favour of chasing ‘jam today’ by being aggressive on the trade market.
We might have to just face facts — this might not be a Championship season. If it’s going to become one, it might have to be in an unconventional way (at least for this franchise). By that I mean a Wildcard run, becoming road warriors.
The only way I think you achieve that is for Brian Fleury to use all of his experience with Kyle Shanahan to make the running game a success — and that likely only happens if/when Charbonnet returns and is eventually supported by Price.
This might mean things get worse before they get better, especially with the Broncos, Chiefs and Bears up next. I think we’re going to end up in a situation where you try and use the Bears and/or Cardinals home games as a get-right moment — to try and build some momentum for the Raiders, 49ers and Cowboys run — where winning those games could breathe life into your season.
If there was a low-level trade available for a pass-rusher (I think, for example, it might be a lot cheaper to acquire a Khalil Mack or YaYa Diaby rather than a top runner) I would consider that — but not throwing high picks at a veteran running back. I would love to add a Taylor or Barkley but the price isn’t going to be reasonable.
I suspect there will be some blowback to what I’m saying here about the season outlook, with people feeling it’s too premature to call. When I spoke to Jason Puckett earlier today, he was very much in the ‘it’ll be fine’ camp. I think a season can reveal itself quicker than you think sometimes. I hope I’m wrong — but I don’t think a rookie playcaller, faced with the list of offensive issues in basically every facet, is going to be able to find quick solutions.
I expect a slow burn, with some further difficult moments to come in the short term, followed by an eventual recovery. This could make Seattle a dangerous looking Wildcard, with the usual cliches of the Seahawks being described as ‘a team nobody wants to face’ and reminders that ‘they know what it takes to win’. We’ll see if they can get to a Championship level when the time comes. It’s very possible.
For it to happen though, I genuinely believe it’ll have to be down to Charbonnet returning, providing solidity to the running game and helping calm things down — just as the Eagles were able to do two years ago.
We might have to wait a while for that to happen though.
