5 difficult riddles the Seattle Seahawks must solve at 2024 training camp
By Lee Vowell
Seahawks running back usage
In the last two seasons, as opposed to how the national media normally thinks of Seattle, the offense has not had an aggressively heavy running attack. In fact, in 2023, Seattle threw the ball the fifth-most times per percentage of their offensive plays. The failure to use running backs Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet more limited the offensive efficiency. Thankfully, Ryan Grubb takes over as the offensive coordinator.
Grubb showed in college that he can develop wide receiver routes that makes it more difficult for defenses to figure out who is getting the ball and where, but Grubb also knows how to use the running game to set up the passing game and maximize the productivity of both aspects. Walker and Charbonnet are both talented, and Charbonnet has the size to be a perfect fit in Grubb's scheme.
The question likely won't be whether Seattle will run the ball a bit more in 2024 - they will because they can hardly run the ball less - but which back gets the most carries. That would seem to be Walker based on his experience. Charbonnet might be a close second, however.
Seahawks wide receiver hierarchy
Since 2019, when DK Metcalf entered the league, there has been little mystery over who Seattle's top two wide receivers would be. It was either Tyler Lockett or Metcalf and many times their numbers were similar. Lockett is getting closer to the end of his career while Metcalf is still only 26 years old and his best season might lie ahead of him.
Last year, of course, the Seahawks drafted Jaxon Smith-Njigba. He was solid, especially in the second half of the year, as a rookie, but he needs more targets this year. He is going to help the team for longer into the future than Lockett will simply based on age.
What Seattle needs to figure out is if this year JSN begins to steal much more of Lockett's targets than Metcalf's. If Smith-Njigba is going to be a star in the league that truly begins this season. If he fails to perform as well as hoped, Seattle might need to address their wide receiver group early in the 2025 NFL draft.