Jadarian Price’s first NFL game made a strong case for more work, even if the Seattle Seahawks didn’t seem eager to give it to him.
The former Notre Dame running back wasted little time flashing the burst that made him a first-round pick by Seattle. He finished the Seahawks’ 13-10 season-opening win with 10 carries for 52 yards and 2 catches for 6 yards, and the numbers backed up what the eye test said: when Price touched the ball, he looked dangerous.
That made the second-half usage even harder to understand. After halftime, he got only 4 carries.
Seattle had already hinted that it would divide the backfield workload, but the way the touches were spread left plenty of people scratching their heads. George Holani kept getting work despite being far less effective, and the Seahawks never really leaned into the hot hand in a tight, low-scoring game.
“Jadarian Price: averaging 7 YPC, Seattle coaches: let’s keep running Holani,” one fan wrote in the first half, before the rookie running back’s touches dropped nearly off the table after halftime.
“Seahawks know they can use Price at some point inside the 20, right?” wrote another.
By the end of the night, Price had logged 24 snaps. Holani was right behind him at 23, while Emmanuel Wilson played 3.
The production gap told the bigger story. Pro Football Focus gave Price a 66.7 overall grade, while Holani checked in at 46.6 and Wilson at 50.2.
Holani and Wilson were two of the three lowest-graded offensive players on Wednesday night.
What stood out most was not just how well Price ran, but how little the Seahawks used him in the spots where a back like that usually matters most. Holani handled all of the third-down work, and Price never got a short-yardage carry. Holani is in his third year in the NFL, and Wilson is in his fourth, and the distribution made it look like experience was carrying more weight than performance.
Price, though, has spent the last two years proving he can thrive without being the featured name in the room. At Notre Dame, he lived in the shadow of Heisman finalist Jeremiyah Love and still made his opportunities count.
In 2025, he averaged 6.0 yards per carry and ran for 674 yards with 11 touchdowns. In 2024, he averaged 6.2 yards per carry and finished with 742 yards and 7 touchdowns.
That kind of efficiency followed him into Seattle’s opener. The Seahawks just didn’t treat it like it mattered enough.
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