Seahawks Run Game, Rookie Ken Walker III Learn The Hard Way
The Seahawks' second half run game against the Chiefs popped in a way that looked impossible after the first 30 minutes. A big reason was the change in running style from rookie RB Ken Walker III:
Another week, another article on the Seahawks’ run game struggles on offense. This, though, is a look at the ups and downs of rookie running back Kenneth Walker III—rather than a piece identifying the prevalence of a certain formation and the absence of others.
In Week 16 at Kansas City, Seattle went 2 for 14 on 3rd down, a 14.3% conversion rate not close to the 50% and above number that the offense looks to clear each week. A large reason for this was the distance of most of these 3rd downs.
“Our 3rd down numbers have been, you know, top 10 or something like that for the season,” Pete Carroll told Seattle Sports December 26th. “We didn’t get it done yesterday. We really wanted to be in 3rd and mediums, you know, the 5 6, and 7s at worst. And we weren’t able to control that by our early down play and that’s, that was just unfortunate.”
Of the 14 3rd downs Seattle faced, 11 were 3rd and 8+ and 7 were 3rd and 10+. The 1st and 2nd down play which Carroll mentioned was a symptom of horror-show execution from most of the Seahawks offensive players, especially in the first half.
Post-game comments placed one of the brightest spotlights on Walker—along with the fact he was the man handed the football. Even the Running Backs Don’t Matter truthers started to realize that running backs do matter:
In the first half, Walker carried the rock 9 times for just 16 yards, a dismal 1.8 yards per carry average. 3 of these runs went for a loss or no gain. None of them were over 3 yards until his 6 yard, 2nd and long run in a two-minute drill.
2 yards 2nd down
3 yards 1st down
-3 yards 2nd down
3 yards 1st down
1 yard 2nd down
0 yards 1st down
2 yards 3rd down
-1 yard 2nd down
6 yards 2nd down
In the second half, Seattle—and Walker—started to run the ball more effectively. So much so, in fact, that they even finished with above average efficiency in early down run EPA (-0.02, 67th percentile per RBSDM.com).
“There was a change in the production for sure,” Carroll acknowledged on Wednesday. “It was obvious, and it couldn’t have been more obvious. The connection between Kenneth hitting it and the guys coming off the rock and all was decidedly different. We tried to take advantage of that. The running game was flipped from what it was in the first half.”
The blocking, from the offensive line and tight ends, did improve. Yet the major factor was Walker’s individual tweak.
“I believe I was just more decisive,” Walker highlighted post-game of what changed in his own play. “The o-line did a great job in the whole game. It was just up to me to be decisive, what hole to hit. You know, in the second half, everything started to open up.”
The tape from Kansas City showed the significance of Walker’s personal adjustment. In the latest Seattle Overload podcast, we looked at some of the All 22 to explain this:
“I’ll go back to the Giants game when we’re running an outside zone to the right and next thing you know, Ken is scoring on the left pylon,” offensive coordinator Shane Waldron illustrated of the positives to Walker’s boom style on Thursday.
“I don’t want to eliminate those, and it’s just more of the runs in the course of the game where there are runs that we can level off and take those 4-to-5-yard gains and stay efficient. Then one of the times, we can try to take those homerun shots with that extra cut where he can make someone miss in space.”
Like the Week 8 Giants game, Walker was looking for the big play against the Chiefs. However, his Kansas City performance—first half in particular—suffered from this approach. The back ran himself into limited or negative gains, declining available yardage via less promising creases. In the second half, Walker started playing in that more efficient style. This change-up was coached into the rookie.
“Everybody was telling me just run straight and be more decisive,” Walker elaborated. “And I took that in. Because a lot of times I was trying to make something happen. But I really just needed to go straight and be decisive. And things start to open up.”
“Ken had something, I said I talked to Ken, too, about that,” Carroll described Monday of his coaching. “Give us a little different rhythm hitting the line of scrimmage, and he totally did it. I think the combination, everybody just started clicking.”
This is an important part of Walker’s development, something we have seen out of past great running backs adjusting to the league. For instance: Adrian Peterson.
“He's just growing, he’s growing,” Carroll later added on Walker. “He's an incredible player, and we have to allow him to be instinctive or you're going to make him like everybody else. So, we have to find the fine line, and then we have to coach him, too. We have to help him. We felt like it was worth, let's see if we can get a little bit more direct approach to hitting the line of scrimmage and see what happens. We felt like that's the change we needed, like he might be looking a bit, and he is that kind of player. He's looking for a big play.”
Carroll finished with the coaching staff’s thoughts on Walker’s running approach impact: “we felt like that it would be important for him to hit it, and let's knock that line of scrimmage in another direction. Then, we'll take what we get. It seemed a little bit like it had a little bit of a factor.”
It speaks to Walker’s level of talent, despite the struggles that have arrived with adapting to the NFL, that he is still a leading Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate. In 9 starts, the second round pick has 803 rushing yards at 4.6 yards per carry and 9 rushing touchdowns. His Kansas City box score, 107 rushing yards for 4.1 yards per carry, is fine reading.
For the Seahawks coaching staff, they are keen not to overcoach Walker and remove his special abilities.
“Look at the toss that he takes off to the right, comes all the way back out the back door,” Carroll said on Monday of Walker’s special 20-yard carry in the third quarter. “That's an extraordinary play, and vision and instinct and savvy and all that stuff comes into play on that. I don't want to take that away from him.”
“Ken’s natural ability is phenomenal,” agreed Waldron on Thursday. “I think the more carries he gets in our system, the more he’s really understanding all the different cuts that can happen off of our angles in our run game. I think the better he will become. It’s also that fine line of taking away one of his superpowers with his ability to make guys miss in the hole, and extend the play outside the framework of maybe where the play was designed.”
In the eyes of offensive coordinator Waldron, the key is those repetitions between running back and offensive line. “I think with those guys, the more reps they get together, the better and better they will get,” Waldron said. “Obviously, the season is getting down to the end here and the better we can improve and the more that we can improve, like we did in the second half of that Kansas City game, that will obviously be helpful as we close this thing out.”
This does suggest an element of these struggles may be inevitable rookie growing pains. Carroll on Wednesday, however, was hopeful that Seattle has grown past this learning period. “We’re hoping there’s a couple of things that took place there that we can carry on over this week,” he said of the run game. “And we plan on playing like we did in the second half.”
Thank you for being a paid subscriber to Seahawks On Tape. Please do comment with questions and also suggestions on what content you would like to see each week. Here is a link to the resources used for this article. Thanks, Matty: