SEATTLE - The Seahawks got a real glimpse of what Jadarian Price can do when the ball finds him in space.
Early in Sunday’s 17-3 win over the Cardinals, Arizona linebacker Cody Simon thought he had the rookie bottled up on a checkdown in the left flat. Instead, Price slipped the tackle, danced past another defender and turned a short catch into a 17-yard gain. It was the kind of snap that shows why Seattle believes there’s more to him than just a change-of-pace runner.
Price finished with four receptions for a team-high 54 receiving yards, plus 24 rushing yards on nine carries. His biggest impact came as a receiver, where he looked far more dynamic than a simple dump-off option.
“He’s electric,” wide receiver Cooper Kupp said. “He is a slash runner.
He’s decisive. Obviously has great hands, and him being able to activate them in different parts of the field, I think all of our backs have shown an ability to do that.
“But Jadarian did a great job of that.”
For a player taken in the first round, this has been a stop-and-start rookie season. Price has appeared in only five of Seattle’s nine games, and after losing a fumble for the second straight game in the 33-31 loss to Washington on Sept. 27, he spent much of that contest on the bench. Then came the chest injury that kept him out all of October.
That absence mattered. Seattle’s rushing game was already struggling, and it didn’t help that Zach Charbonnet was unavailable for the first seven weeks while recovering from a torn ACL.
Both backs are back now, and since returning for last Monday’s 34-17 loss to Chicago, Price and Charbonnet have handled 41 of Seattle’s 42 running back carries. They’ve totaled 153 yards on those attempts, a 3.73-yard average.
The numbers still don’t put Seattle anywhere near the league’s best ground attacks. The Seahawks remain last in the NFL in rushing expected points added at minus-57.4, according to TruMedia, though a lot of that damage came early when the ball security issues piled up.
Over the last two weeks, they’ve moved up to 23rd in rushing EPA at minus-7.6. That’s not where they want to be, but it’s a step.
The return of Price and Charbonnet has at least restored some life to a unit that had been missing it for much of Seattle’s 5-4 start.
“Shout out to those guys, man,” tight end AJ Barner said after scoring the team’s only rushing touchdown on a 1-yard “Barnyard” sneak. “Charbs running incredibly tough.
JD, just the spark that he provided, and the O-line, too, just getting back to what we were doing. Again, there is a whole other level that we can get to.
But I felt like we took a lot of strides.”
Price’s day wasn’t limited to quick hitters out of the backfield. He also hauled in a 15-yard over-the-shoulder catch on third-and-8 during Seattle’s first touchdown drive, showing the kind of hands and body control that had been questioned coming out of Notre Dame. Former Fighting Irish teammate and current Cardinals back Jeremiyah Love often handled the obvious passing situations there, but Price has started to answer those doubts.
“That’s something that I’ve worked on,” he said. “I’ve built the trust from the coaches and the players. It’s really just the coaches giving me more opportunities and me being able to show what I can do in games.”
His teammates have noticed, too, including Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the NFL’s leading receiver.
“We want to play complementary football in the run and the pass game,” Smith-Njigba said, “and him being able to catch a few passes out of the backfield makes us more dangerous as a unit. We’re going to need that throughout the season.”
Seattle still has a bigger issue to solve on offense: finding another weapon to pair with Smith-Njigba. Sam Darnold is out with a quad injury, and Drew Lock is dealing with elbow and oblique issues.
Coach Mike Macdonald said Monday that Darnold will miss Week 10 against the Raiders but should be back in Week 12 after the bye. Lock is expected to start in Las Vegas.
The Seahawks have other options, but none have fully seized the moment. Rashid Shaheed has been out since injuring his knee against Kansas City in Week 7 and hadn’t made much of a mark as a receiver even before that.
Kupp has been targeted more than five times in a game only once, in the 17-14 overtime loss to Denver. Tory Horton has flashed with his size and speed, but consistency has been an issue.
Barner just posted his second career two-touchdown game, though his overall production has dipped in his third season.
That leaves Price’s performance as one of the more intriguing developments on Seattle’s offense. It could be a one-game spike, like Barner’s Week 9 outing or Kupp’s five-catch, 50-yard game against Denver. Or it could be the start of something bigger.
“I felt him out there,” Macdonald said Sunday. “I thought he was decisive with his runs.
Sometimes he’s the primary in some of those pass concepts. Sometimes he’s kind of at the end of the progression, and when the ball finds him, if you can make a guy miss, it’s a great example: It doesn’t have to be some extraordinary play to create explosives.
“I think he’s just going to continue to get better. Now that he’s kind of stacking weeks and keeps getting healthier, that will help us.”
With Charbonnet running through contact and Price bringing juice as both a runner and receiver, Seattle suddenly has a backfield that looks dangerous. If the offensive line can get back to full strength with Quenton Nelson and Charles Cross, the Seahawks may have a chance to turn that into something more. For now, though, the clearest takeaway is simple: Price is starting to show why Seattle believes he can do more than just carry the ball.
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