A lot of fans seem to be pretty displeased with Seattle’s backfield, despite Emanuel Wilson’s excellent game in the 30-23 win over the Chargers.
It’s understandable, with Kenneth Walker III leading the NFL in rushing for Kansas City, Jadarian Price on injured reserve and Zach Charbonnet still a couple weeks away from his season debut. A backfield of Wilson, George Holani and Velus Jones Jr. is not that inspiring.
The Seahawks seem to agree. John Schneider made a couple moves this week to try to improve the RB room, adding former Pro Bowl back Joe Mixon to the practice squad and rookie UDFA Robert Henry Jr. to the 53 from Washington’s PS.
If Mixon can play anything like he did in 2024 for Houston, that would be pretty awesome. At the very least, it would be nice if he were an upgrade over Holani, who is averaging 3.2 yards per carry.
Running backs can jump in pretty quickly, so it will be interesting to see whether Mixon is used vs. the 49ers this week. Charbonnet will not be back this week, but he will be taking team reps in practice for the first time, Mike Macdonald said, and could debut in the Thursday night game in Denver.
One nice twist we were not surprised to see Brian Fleury unveil in Week 4 was using Rashid Shaheed out of the backfield. He scored on a well-blocked 28-yard outside run that Macdonald called “a friggin’ awesome play.”
Fleury should continue to utilize Shaheed. It is a good use of his speed.
On his 710 AM radio show, Macdonald said, “Rashid is such a great runner that there’s an element of creating an explosive that we need in our run game.”
Meanwhile, Wilson should remain the starter until Charbs is up to speed. Figure that might be two or three more games, with Charbs possibly rotating in vs. the Broncos in Week 6 and the Chiefs in Week 7.
Wilson has played well for Seattle, showing us why Schneider brought him in as cheap depth before drafting Price. Wilson has factored big in wins over Arizona (92 rushing yards) and Los Angeles (120 scrimmage yards, two touchdowns).
Henry was added to the 53 from Washington’s PS. Rob Rang had projected the 5-9, 196-pound back as a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft. He apparently is very shifty, but not overly fast, not a disciplined runner and not very good at protecting the ball (six fumbles in his last three years at Texas-San Antonio). But the Seahawks obviously want to see whether he fits into the offense.
Price has to miss the next three games, and then we will see whether he can come back from the rib/chest/shoulder problem that landed him on IR.
With any luck, the Hawks will be at full strength in their backfield again – Charbs starting, Wilson and Price rotating in — for the Monday night game against Chicago in Week 8.
Other thoughts
Take away two costly penalties and Nick Emmanwori was awesome against the Chargers. He rushed Justin Herbert eight times and got four pressures, two QB hits and a sack. He also had nine tackles (two for loss) and a pass knockdown.
“Nick did a lot good things,” Macdonald said, “and he’s only going to get better. We’ve got to do a great job as coaches to keep it in his wheelhouse and let him do things that he does really well, but he’s holding up his end of the bargain. There’s some room for growth, but a lot of good things as well.”
Terrion Arnold does not seem likely to play in 2026. He had a court hearing Monday and his next court date is scheduled for Dec. 15. If he doesn’t end up on the roster for six games, he would be an ERFA in 2027 and an RFA in 2028 – if he avoided prison.
Vinod Khosla made an error in answering “never say never” about potentially moving the Seahawks. He then clarified: “To all Seahawks fans and 12s, we have no plans to move the team, have never discussed it, haven’t even thought about it. End of story.” That’s what he should have said the first time.
