The Seahawks’ hunt for a spark on the ground has turned at least one eye toward Indianapolis, where Jonathan Taylor’s name is suddenly sitting in the middle of trade chatter. On paper, it makes sense. Seattle wants to run the ball, the offense hasn’t gotten where it wants to go with the rushing attack, and the Colts are coming off a week that saw principal owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon move on from Chris Ballard as general manager.
Indianapolis is already looking like a team that may be headed toward a reset. After looking like a surprise contender early last season with Daniel Jones at quarterback, the Colts went all-in with a blockbuster trade for CB Sauce Gardner.
Jones was lost for the season shortly after, and this year’s team has stumbled to a 2-4 start. That kind of sequence can leave a franchise deciding to clean house and move pieces.
Taylor would be one of the biggest pieces available if that happens. He’s tied for seventh in the league in rushing yards per game at 82 and is tied for the lead among running backs with seven rushing touchdowns. He’s also exactly the kind of player who can make fans imagine immediate fixes: a fast, powerful, durable runner who could keep Sam Darnold ahead of the sticks and make the offense look a lot more comfortable.
But Seattle may not be the team to do it.
The biggest reason is pretty simple: this doesn’t look like a John Schneider move. The Seahawks have championship-repeat aspirations, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to start tossing around future picks and young talent to chase a running back, even a great one.
The source of that resistance matters too. The idea of sending Jadarian Price and future draft capital for a soon-to-be 28-year-old back doesn’t line up with how Seattle has tended to operate, especially at that position.
Price, in this view, still has a future as a playmaker in Seattle.
There’s also the cost of Taylor’s current deal. He signed a three-year contract this past offseason and carries an average cap hit of about $20 million over the life of it.
If a team cut him next year, it would be staring at a $10 million dead cap hit. That’s more than Kenneth Walker III is getting paid.
That’s part of the larger Seahawks philosophy, too. Since Marshawn Lynch left, Seattle has leaned away from the old bell cow model and more toward a running-back-by-committee approach.
In Lynch’s four Seattle seasons where he played more than 12 games, he averaged more than 295 carries a year. Since then, Chris Carson is the only Seahawk back to top 230 carries in a season, doing it with 247 and 278 attempts in back-to-back years while clearing 1,100 rushing yards both times.
Ken Walker came next, with 228 carries as a rookie and 221 in his final season with the team. Otherwise, the Seahawks have rotated through players like Christine Michael, C.J.
Prosise, Thomas Rawls, Rashaad Penny, Zach Charbonnet, Carson, Walker and others.
That setup fits the offensive direction Seattle is taking under Mike Macdonald. The Seahawks have committed to a Shanahan-style run game built on outside zone concepts, play-action and, more recently, quarterback pocket movement. It’s a system designed to get production from the structure as much as from the backfield name on the jersey.
The Shanahan family tree has long shown how far that can go. Mike Shanahan helped pioneer the approach, and Denver got major mileage out of backs like Terrell Davis, Olandis Gary, Mike Anderson, Reuben Droughns and Tatum Bell without making the position the centerpiece of the financial plan. That’s the point: the system puts more emphasis on the line and other parts of the roster than on loading up at running back.
That logic may help explain why Seattle didn’t even make an offer to Walker. Schneider said back in March that running back is “a position that… you can find guys.” That mindset lines up cleanly with the current roster situation, especially with help on the way.
Seahawks team reporter John Boyle put it plainly: “how it will shake out with Zach Charbonnet expected back soon, possibly this week, and with first-round pick Jadarian Price not far behind. The Seahawks will always look at every option, but that position won’t seem like as much of a need in the next couple of weeks as it might at this very moment.”
Wilson has been serviceable as a third back, giving Seattle a bruiser, a closer and a change-of-pace option. Behind Charbonnet and Price, he could still have a role.
And if Charbonnet returns on a favorable deal, the pair could become the backfield Seattle actually wants to build around. That would also be a much cleaner path than the version that involved feeding rushing attempts to former Bears wide receiver Velus Jones Jr.
There’s at least one sign the group is doing some useful work already: Seahawks backs are forcing missed tackles at a strong rate, even while gaining yards before contact at a lower clip than the rest of the league.
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Seahawks Suddenly Have A Running Back Decision Fans Didnt Expect
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Emanuel Wilson, George Holani and Zach Charbonnet are all sitting in the middle of that uncertainty, and contract status only adds another layer to the decision. Charbonnets post-ACL return is still part of the evaluation, and if Seattle decides to swing for another back, it could create a surprisingly active market for a position group that was supposed to be stable. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Loss To Denver Now Comes With A Costly New Question
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For Seattle, the bigger issue is less the money itself than the reminder of how chippy the game turned. The penalties can still be appealed, and a successful challenge could erase them, but for now the Seahawks are left with another uncomfortable layer attached to a loss that already carried enough frustration on its own. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Trade Buzz Centers On A Star RB Philadelphia May Not Move
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Philadelphia, though, is not exactly operating from a position that invites easy trade talk, even with the team dealing with its own struggles and injuries. Barkleys recent production only adds to the intrigue, but the bigger question remains whether the Eagles would even consider moving a player of his caliber before the market gets any farther along. [Read more 🡒]