Can Ryan Grubb unlock Kenneth Walker’s potential and move him up the leaderboards?
Alright let’s talk running backs. We’ll stay on offense one more time and look at any potential franchise records that are up for grabs next season. A quick glance shows only one current NFL player and no current Seattle Seahawks anywhere near the top-5 in total rushing yards.
Good grief, Shaun Alexander. For the record, Chris Carson is 8th overall, after retiring at the end of 2021. This is not to say that the 2024 Seahawks are out of this particular conversation. I am absolutely fascinated by what Ryan Grubb might do with these new guards. Just the other day I had a dream where Kenneth Walker didn’t get hit behind the line of scrimmage and let me tell you the pure joy that carried with me through the morning hours. Two statistics stand out as potential for Walker to make some noise this year. Kenneth Walker finds himself 11th in Seattle history with 17 touchdowns. If that feels odd to you it does to me as well. A three-touchdown season would move him up to 9th. An 11-TD season would tie him for 5th in team history with Sherman Smith from the 1970s. Does 11 feel attainable? He hit nine his rookie season. As a matter of fact, Seattle hasn’t had a double-digit touchdown season from a running back since Marshawn Lynch in 2014. That would also be a welcome first. Call it the changing of the game, call it the modern athlete, or call it Pete Carroll philosophy. I don’t know which, but the YPC of recent days stands out. The three best backs on a per-carry basis, in franchise history, are Carson, Walker, and Rashaad Penny.* Those numbers are 5.7 for Penny, 4.6 for Carson, and 4.4 for Walker. Honestly, 4.4 YPC isn’t even an elite mark for a single season. That puts you exactly in the middle of the NFL last season; 15th. This is one that particularly intrigues me. Can Ryan Grubb get the offensive line to the point where Walker might emerge as one of the most efficient backs in Seahawks history? Unlike Penny, who would seemingly run either 80 yards forwards or two yards backwards of his own volition, we watched several dozen carries last year that should have been for a loss, that Walker turned into two or three. This has always been the strength of his game and I for one would love to see his second missed tackle be forced at the five-yard mark instead of behind the line of scrimmage. I think his yards after contact potential is immense. A 1,000-yard season gets Walker into the top-10 and past Maurice Morris, but I’m particularly interested if we could get some consistency out of back for the first time in a long, long time.
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