The Seahawks have been looking for consistency in the running game ever since Marshawn Lynch left the team. Most recently, they invested a second-round pick in Ken Walker III in an effort to make that happen.
Coach Pete Carroll had a glowing assessment of Walker after Friday’s rookie minicamp practice, held a week to the day after the team selected him.
“He took off now, he’s a rocket,” Carroll said. “He caught the ball really well today, too, which we are really excited about. Our offense, the terminology, and the concepts that we have run, he’s run before, and he was well prepared at Michigan State coming to us. He understood the terminology to some extent too, so it’s really going to facilitate him being comfortable with the transition. We will expect no issues there at all, he will be able to go. He was very bursty, very quick.”
So if can catch the ball well, will he be the third-down back?
“Let me wait and see on that one, as far as making him a third-down guy,” Carroll said. “He has a ways to go pass-protection wise, that’s a real challenge for him, so we will see. I know that his attitude will be in it, he’s a terrific competitive kid. That really needs to be a priority, which it is, and we’ve already talked to him about it. [Running backs coach] Chad [Morton] will take him through it, so we will see how it goes. He looked really good today catching the ball and running routes, so I was really pleased to see that.”
The Seahawks re-signed running back Rashaad Penny, a 2018 first-rounder who didn’t do much for Seattle until late in the final year of his rookie deal. Appearing in only 10 games, he nevertheless had the best year of his career.
Carroll said in late March that he’s “really pumped up” about the team’s running back depth. He presumably is even more than really pumped now, given the drafting of Walker.
