Heading into the 2025 NFL draft, many Seattle Seahawks fans might have had two wishes. One wish was to take an interior offensive lineman early in the draft. Check! General manager John Schneider shockingly chose Grey Zabel in the first round.
Another wish was likely for the team not to choose a running back in the second round. The Seahawks did that in back-to-back drafts in 2022 and 2023. Those players were Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet. Both are fine players, but transformative? Not yet. Maybe not ever.
Plus, Seattle's running back room seemed full. Besides Walker and Charbonnet, the team had Kenny McIntosh and George Holani. Holani will probably end up on the practice squad again. Brady Russell is part of the group now, too, but only as a fullback.
Damien Martinez checks all the boxes the Seattle Seahawks need at running back
Seattle did not appear to need a running back. But maybe that position is exactly like quarterbacks. A team should choose one when they don't need one, but only when it is a luxury. The Seahawks did not need to take a running back in the 2025 NFL Draft, but took one in the seventh round who could turn out to be the team's next Chris Carson.
That would be Miami's Damien Martinez. He was one of two Hurricanes the team chose in the draft, the other being second-round choice, tight end Elijah Arroyo. Martinez is 6 feet and nearly 220 pounds, and has run a 4.51 40-yard dash. He is fast enough, but not a blazer. Neither was Carson.
Both can run over and through defenders, and that makes Martinez a good fit in new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak's offense. The narrative that the Seahawks ran the ball a lot under Pete Carroll is a falsehood, especially in the last seven years of his time with Seattle. The Seahawks need to run the ball more moving forward.
Martinez is not a great receiver, though he has decent hands. If he becomes more of an every-down back for Seattle, he will need to develop that part of his game.
But Walker is in the last season of his rookie deal, while Charbonnet has two seasons left. Martinez should be a training camp star and likely create "Wow!" plays in preseason games. Carson became an instant starter while Martinez won't.
That does not mean he won't be the starter in 2026, and be a good part of the rotation in 2025. Martinez could be Seattle's long-term starter at running back for most of the next five seasons. He would have become the player Seahawks fans did not think the team needed in the 2025 draft, but he could become invaluable over the next decade.