3 Seattle Seahawks who will take a huge leap under OC Ryan Grubb
Kenneth Walker III will run run run to daylight in 2024
When Mike Macdonald talked about the offensive side of the ball in his press conference, he didn't overlook the running game. To quote (thanks to John Boyle), "The percentage of when you run the ball and how much and all that, that's all adjustable," Macdonald said. "To me, it's going to mirror our football team. We're going to be a physical football team..." Now let me think - we've heard something before about the Seahawks' need to run the football, right? The difference I see with Macdonald is that he won't just talk about it, he'll do it.
In Kenneth Walker III, he inherits a slashing runner that can more than do the job, as long as he's allowed to succeed. As we saw all too often in the past few years, the Hawks would abandon the run, then after the game talk about how they had to run more. As a rookie, K9 had six games with at least 20 carries. He had over 100 yards in five of those, with 97 in the sixth. More importantly, the Hawks won five of those six games.
Now let's jump to 2023. Walker had only one game with 20 carries. He had over 100 yards, and the Seahawks won that contest, too. You might think that Walker's carries simply went to Zach Charbonnet. And you'd be wrong. Charbonnet had 108 carries, exactly double the number Deejay Dallas and Travis Homer had in 2022 subbing for Walker. But 48 of those attempts came when Walker was knocked with an injury. I wasn't the bruising Charbonnet that cut into Walker's reps. It was the grossly inept play-calling of the Seahawks coaching staff. That won't happen this year, no matter who Macdonald installs as his OC.
Many more players than these three will step up their game with Seattle's new coaching staff. I picture we'll see improvement all along the offensive line. I mean, please, can we? We can expect more consistency from the quarterback position as well, no matter who's under center. The new head coach isn't going to allow the offense to wander aimlessly through the playbook and depend on his QBs to work more last-minute magic. This team will be better and these players will be better under the direction of Mike Macdonald and Ryan Grubb.