Is John Schneider’s offseason already being stamped a failure? Not yet.
That’s the loudest reaction around the Seahawks after a 3-2 start that has already knocked the top three draft picks onto IR, featured backup running backs struggling to get much going, and left Rashid Shaheed looking nowhere near the player Seattle expected when it paid him.
The frustration is easy to understand. A lot of what has gone wrong has been visible, and some of it was probably easy to fear from the start.
Still, five games is a small enough sample that it’s hard to hand out a final verdict. The clearest problem so far is that turnovers have buried Seattle in both of its losses, and the offense is clearly out of sync.
A big chunk of the anger centers on Schneider paying Shaheed rather than Kenneth Walker III - $17 million a year over $14.3 million. Those were separate decisions made for separate reasons, but fans aren’t splitting hairs. They see the contract, they see the usage, and they call it a miss.
Walker, meanwhile, has been the more productive player by a mile. He leads the NFL in rushing yards per game at 134, while Shaheed has barely left a mark in Seattle’s offense. His rushing touchdown against the Chargers is his only real highlight so far, and on 22 touches he has produced just 133 scrimmage yards.
The return game hasn’t offered much relief either. Seattle and Shaheed are tied for 10th on kickoffs, but he ranks 23rd in punt return average and leads the NFL with 15 fair catches. That last number says plenty about how often opposing coverage teams are getting to him.
Even with that, it’s still far too soon to write off the Shaheed signing. The expectation is that he’ll help win more games once the coaching staff finds a better way to get him involved, the way Schneider and Mike Macdonald envisioned it.
And as good as Walker has been, the idea that he’ll keep pacing the league at more than 2,200 yards is a stretch. Over a full season, there’s going to be some regression there too.
The bigger disappointment has been the group replacing Walker behind him. Jadarian Price - the first-round pick the piece says it wasn’t overly keen on - lost two fumbles before landing on IR. Emanuel Wilson and George Holani haven’t offered much efficiency either, and the entire backfield has coughed up four fumbles, a huge reason Seattle has been beaten in both losses.
The numbers back up the eye test. The Seahawks rank 20th in yards per rush at 3.8 and 17th in yards per game at 106.
That said, the running game hasn’t been operating in a vacuum. Seattle has run into three of the top 11 rush defenses, and the offense has also been without Anthony Bradford for the past couple of games, which may have mattered.
There’s also been some help for opposing defenses in the way plays have been telegraphed. Brian Fleury’s calls have apparently offered some clues, including a tight end motion into the backfield against the 49ers that made the run easy to spot. In the two games before that, the attack leaned right heavily and didn’t get much done.
More help is on the way. Zach Charbonnet is expected to make his debut soon, likely in Week 7 against the Chiefs.
Whether he gives Seattle immediate relief remains to be seen. Price is also expected back from IR in a few weeks, perhaps against Chicago in Week 8, and the hope is that he stays healthy long enough to provide the explosive plays he flashed before the injury.
For all the current grumbling, the offseason as a whole is not being dismissed here. Outside of taking Price over a pass rusher, the moves were largely viewed as reasonable. No one should have projected Walker to be the league’s rushing leader, Price’s rough start has been unlucky, and Shaheed’s slow beginning wasn’t on the forecast.
So the verdict, at least for now, stays the same: disappointing in spots, sure. A failure? Too early for that.
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Seahawks Suddenly Have A Josh Jobe Problem They Can't Ignore
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The cornerback room already looks different after the offseason shuffle and the addition of Trevon Diggs, which only raises the pressure on Jobe to hold his spot. If Seattle decides the competition needs another jolt, more changes are possible, and the next few decisions around the position will say plenty about how much faith the team really has in Jobe's long-term fit. [Read more 🡒]