This is a story about the Seattle Seahawks’ running back position, but I want to start with a different team and a different position. In March of 2022, the Kansas City Chiefs traded their star wide receiver Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins for a boatload of draft picks.
Hill had played his entire six-year career with the Chiefs and made the Pro Bowl every season. He was a three-time first-team All-Pro. He had just turned 28 years old.
League reaction was mixed. Brett Veach had clearly gotten a good return on Hill, but why would any team walk away from an elite talent at a game-changing position? Receivers like Tyreek Hill did not grow on trees.
And it wasn’t as if KC was beginning a rebuild and needed to dump high-priced vets for future assets. They had won the Super Bowl in 2019 and been runner-up in ’20. The core was intact. They were obviously very close to another title. Did they really stand a better chance of achieving their goals without a player of the caliber of Tyreek Hill?
Seattle Seahawks have options in replacing Kenneth Walker III
We’ll return to the Chiefs soon, but first, let’s talk about Seattle and their running backs. Kenneth Walker, MVP of Super Bowl LX, is now, of all things, a Kansas City Chief. He may not have the Pro Bowls of Tyreek Hill, but make no mistake, Walker was an integral part of the Chiefs' offense in 2025.
A lot of fans and analysts alike considered Walker as part of an RB1 timeshare with Zach Charbonnet when the season began, but it soon became clear that Walker was the lead back.
His speed made him a more dangerous runner than Charbonnet. But speed only scratches the surface. Plenty of backs are fast. Walker has a rare combination of skills. The power to break tackles in the hole. The vision to see lanes to the outside. The burst to reach those lanes.
And, yes, the raw speed to outrun defenders once he presses the hole. He can score from anywhere on the field. He can score on any play call.
That affects the way the defense plays, which is why he was so integral to the Seahawks’ entire offensive structure in 2025. Of course, Charbonnet was a valuable component. But Seattle won the Super Bowl without Charbonnet. I doubt they get past Los Angeles in the conference championship without Walker.
These skills put Walker in rare company, but let’s not exaggerate this. There are other backs – around a dozen by my count – who can do this in the NFL right now. Walker was very important to Seattle’s success, but without a good run-blocking line, an elite pass catcher, a very solid quarterback, a dominant defense, and a creative play-caller, he would not have been as successful as he was.
The running back with the greatest combination of abilities I just described for Walker – Barry Sanders – never had team success because the Detroit Lions provided him with very little of what Seattle gave to Kenneth Walker last season.
OK – so Walker is important, but not irreplaceable. The question is – how? How do you replace him?
Back to Kansas City and Tyreek Hill.
The first and perhaps most important thing Brett Veach and Andy Reid did in Kansas City back in 2022 was that they did not simply look for a plug & play stand-in. That was always going to be unlikely. There are not many players like Tyreek Hill, just as there are not many like Kenneth Walker.
The odds of finding one at the exact moment you need him – pretty dim. Perhaps if Breece Hall had genuinely been available, he might have been that player for Seattle this year. But he was never truly an option.
Instead of finding one player to replace Hill, Kansas City brought in a new squad. None could do what Hill did, but together they matched his production.
JuJu Smith-Schuster could make tough catches at key moments. Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Justin Watson could run deep. Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore could use their quickness over the middle and out of the backfield. None of them was Hill’s equal. Together, they may have been ever better.
One thing is certain. After parting with Tyreek Hill, the Kansas City Chiefs passed for more yards in 2022 then they had in 2021 and they won the Super Bowl. Then they won another in 2023.
Seattle is hoping that Charbonnet is 100 percent for the upcoming season. But he may not be. (The Chiefs also faced an injury issue in 2022 when their only holdover receiver, Mecole Hardman, missed the second half of the season, prompting the midseason acquisition of Toney.)
Kansas City has now brought in two new running backs to pick up the slack. Emanuel Wilson is a solid young vet who can provide a lot of what Charbonnet has given the club in recent years.
First-round draft pick Jadarian Price is faster and more dangerous and will take over the type of role that Walker played. But the gap between last year’s duo and the new pair could be significant. We won’t really know until Price gets on the field with NFL competition.
Even if he performs well – and Wilson does too – Seattle is going to need more. Fortunately, they have more.
They have it in two 2025 newcomers who were barely utilized out of the backfield last year. Between them, Rashid Shaheed and Jalen Milroe ran the ball 10 times for 68 yards last season. Three first downs. Zero touchdowns. Almost half of the total yards came on a single Shaheed carry.
Both are dangerous runners, and if Brian Fleury is able to utilize their skills, that could go a long way to making fans forget about Kenneth Walker. Neither will get a lot of carries. Price, Wilson, and Charbonnet, when healthy, will still be sharing primary running back duties. But Shaheed and Milroe should have played in every game.
Imagine, instead of ten combined carries, that they get 50 this season. That’s only three per game, but given their speed and athleticism, that could easily add 400 yards to the team’s rushing total. And it could scare the hell out of opposing defenses.
Kansas City didn’t upgrade its talent level by getting rid of Tyreek Hill, just like Seattle didn’t suddenly get better without Kenneth Walker.
But creative offensive design, which takes advantage of the formidable talent they do have, can yield excellent returns. There’s obviously no guarantee, but Seattle has the firepower to equal, and maybe even exceed, what they accomplished last season on offense.
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