Seahawks running game is a huge problem with no easy solutions

There's no doubt the Seattle Seahawks need to commit to the run more. Coming into Week 8, the Hawks had attempted more passes than any other team in the league. That's okay if you're such a high-powered offensive machine, you're also running the ball a lot. Unfortunately, that's not the case with the Hawks.

Despite having one of the league's best backs in Kenneth Walker III, they ranked 30th in rushing attempts. Only the Cowboys, who have senior citizens at the position, and the Jets, who are criminally incompetent, had fewer attempts. That's odd since New York's Breece Hall is actually a good back. Then again, so is Walker.

In Sunday's game, Seattle added a less-than-robust 17 carries versus the Bills. Five of those were by Geno Smith. The Jets ran the ball 28 times in their loss to the Patriots, while the Cowboys ran the ball 19 times in their loss to the Niners. That dropped the Hawks to 31st in the league, trailing only the team that thinks Ezekiel Elliot can still play.

There's no easy fix for the Seahawks run game woes

Here's where it gets interesting. Seattle CBS Sports play-by-play broadcaster Kevin Burkhardt made this comment during the game about the Hawks' pass/run balance. "They're gonna throw this football, the highest in team history, with Geno Smith leading the league in passing. And I think they'd like to run the ball a little bit more, Ryan Grubb admitted that to us, hasn't been there yet. But Geno's throwing it great, and that's what Grubb did at Washington with Michael Penix and Rome Dunze and those guys, throwing it all over the yard."

Except that's not what Ryan Grubb did with the Huskies at all. In 2023, UDub ran the ball an average of 27.4 times per game compared to 38.3 passes. That amounts to 41.7 percent of their plays. In 2022, the Huskies averaged 30.8 runs versus 44.2 passes. That's 41.1 percent of their plays.

So far this season, the Seahawks are averaging 38.6 passes and just 21.0 runs. They're running on only 35.2 percent of all plays. That counts Smith's runs. Dropping his attempts cuts the run percent to just 26.8 percent. No, that's not a Ryan Grubb offense at all.

The CBS broadcast also showed a pretty disingenuous graphic comparing the Seahawks' pass/run balance this year to Pete Carroll's. Macdonald's team ranks first in passing yards and 27th in rushing. Carroll's teams ranked 24th in passing versus fifth in rushing. While it was clearly labeled 2010-2013 for Carroll's stats, a lot of 12s might not have noticed. Last year Carroll's Hawks just 38.4 percent of the time. In 2022, they ran on 40.7 percent of their plays. In 2012, Seattle ran the ball on 55.0 percent of their plays, then 52.3 percent in 2013.

So Carroll's later teams abandoned the run nearly as much as this incarnation has. I'd say the biggest problem isn't the play-calling but the execution. This offensive line simply isn't opening holes. Walker was averaging 4.7 yards per carry, now down to 4.3 after his struggles against the Bills. Zach Charbonnet is a fine straight-ahead runner, but if he doesn't have a hole, he's not going very far. He was averaging 3.6 yards and is now 3.5 after four yards on three carries.

Maybe, just maybe, the issue is that John Schneider undervalues guards. Overdrafted, overpaid? Maybe so, maybe so. When the Seahawks were ramming the ball down the opposition's throat, they had guards like James Carpenter and J.R. Sweezy on the line. Neither is a Hall of Famer, but they were both miles ahead of Laken Tomlinson and Anthony Bradford.

Astute 12s will remember that Carpenter was a first-round pick. The really sharp 12s know that Sweezy was taken in the seventh round. And, of course, he was drafted as a defensive tackle and didn't even move to the other side of the ball until his second season in Seattle. Sweezy's success may have convinced Schneider that you could always find a solid guard on Day Three of the draft.

So far, it turns out that's very far from the truth. According to the rankings of Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Laken Tomlinson is the top Hawks guard. He's ranked 39th in blocking overall, with a grade of 65.1. His run-blocking grade is better at 68.4, which places him 32nd in the NFL. If you're curious, Damien Lewis, the guy Seattle decided not to pay, ranks 19th overall. Nice, huh?

Christian Haynes is next. That's not good for two reasons. First, he's only played 93 snaps. That's a pretty small sample size. The more important issue is that he ranks 79th in the league, with a grade of 53.6. His run-blocking grade of 54.0 places him 87th. The sad thing is that the guy playing ahead of him is worse.

Anthony Bradford ranks 88th overall and has four times as many snaps as Haynes (394 to 93). His overall grade is 49.3. There are only two guards in the entire league with a lower rating than Bradford. He's 84th in run-blocking, so I guess that's a plus. You don't need to see the grades to know that the Seahawks aren't opening any holes for the running backs. But it is instructive to see just how poorly they rank against everyone else.

After all these complaints, do I have a solution? Not at all. But then, I'm a fan, not the general manager. While the Seahawks haven't released the compensation details, John Schneider is reportedly earning between $3.75 million and $4 million per year. I think he's a terrific GM, but this is one glaring issue that he needs to resolve.

More Seahawks news and analysis: