The Seattle Seahawks wasted no time in improving their running back situation after selecting former Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Jadarian Price at No. 32 on April 23.
Seattle’s pick of Price came after Kenneth Walker III departed in free agency to join the Kansas City Chiefs. At the same time, Zach Charbonnet continues recovering from the torn ACL he suffered during the Seahawks’ playoff run in January.
With uncertainty at the position, the Seahawks made running back a priority and addressed it immediately with their first selection. Nonetheless, Price will get a heavy workload to see if he can establish himself as RB1 until Charbonnet returns at some point during the 2026 NFL season.
When looking at potential comparisons for the Notre Dame product, a couple of running backs continue to come up. Seattle Sports’ Brock Huard highlighted two names during the May 4 edition of Monday’s “Brock and Salk,“ with a former New York Giants running back being an underrated comparison.
“The popular name has been Nick Chubb,“ said Huard (h/t Seattle Sports). Just watching him move, I kind of felt some Tiki Barber. … The feet, the movement, the power.
“You see where that drive and the breaking tackles and the short area movement and quickness, (Price, Barber and Chubb) are all similar in that way. Tiki had some fumbling issues, and this kid’s had some fumbling issues.
“I was watching and they were already working, man – that ball is high and tight, right? And remember, Tiki almost over-exaggerated it. It was like almost like locked in across his body. He had to because he had that turnover issue.”
Marcus Freeman Gets Blunt About Jadarian Price
During an April 30 appearance on Seattle Sports, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman let Seahawks fans know what they are getting in Price.
“[Price is] a complete running back, and what I love about him is his ability to make explosive plays,“ Freeman said. “His ability to get east and west and then vertical is as fast as anybody I’ve ever seen.
“He can truly outrun a defense horizontally and then get vertical at the drop of a dime, and then he brings so much special teams value. He’s had multiple kickoff returns for touchdowns, and at any moment, he’s a home run threat. That’s in multiple phases of the game.
The other thing he’s doing is improving out of the backfield, catching the football. He’s becoming a guy you can depend on to throw the ball to out of the backfield. He’s getting better at pass protection. I still think he has a ceiling that’s higher than what he’s even hit yet, and his best is yet to come.”
Seahawks GM on Reason for Selecting Jadarian Price
Last season at Notre Dame, Price earned a 78.6 overall PFF grade. Moreover, his PFF rushing grade of 79.9 ranked 157th among 406 qualified running backs. He carried the ball 113 times for 674 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns. Price averaged 6.0 yards per attempt on the ground.
Price forced 32 missed tackles as a runner and averaged 3.9 yards after contact per attempt. As a receiver, he caught six passes on seven targets for 87 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
After making the Price pick, Seahawks general manager John Schneider spoke with the media and shared his thoughts on the player and why the decision made sense for the team.
“Great player, great person,“ Schneider said on April 23. “We thought we had some opportunities for a minute. It fell apart. There’s a lot of trading going on there right ahead of us. But he kind of stood alone. Great player.
“The person’s outstanding, the competitor. He’s a Seahawk. It’s really cool. And we were actually concerned that people were going to come ahead of us because it felt like it was just so out there in terms of mock drafts and what have you.”
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