After a Week 3 in which Jadarian Price and Beau Stephens were the only Seattle Seahawks rookies seeing meaningful playing time, the situation changed considerably against the Chargers. Price was already on injured reserve with a chest injury, and with Avery Smith inactive again, only two Seattle rookies took the field on Sunday.
Stephens played 25 of Seattle’s 60 offensive snaps, continuing to rotate with Christian Haynes at right guard. Neal, meanwhile, did not play a single defensive snap but logged
23 special teams snaps. In total, Seattle’s rookies accounted for just 25 snaps (offense/defense) in a game in which the Seahawks ran 60 offensive plays and played 59 defensive snaps.
The state of Seattle’s 2026 rookie class is becoming increasingly unusual. Price, the team’s best chance at immediate impact, is on injured reserve. Clark is still sidelined as well. Neal has yet to find a role on defense, while Stephens remains the only rookie consistently seeing offensive snaps.
Jadarian Price, Running Back — 0 snaps, Injured Reserve
Price missed the game against the Chargers after being placed on injured reserve with a chest injury. After opening the season as Seattle’s primary rookie running back and carving out a meaningful role during the first three weeks, he now has to watch from the sideline while Emanuel Wilson and George Holani handle most of the backfield workload.
The timing of the injury is particularly frustrating for Price.
The rookie was coming off a difficult Week 3 against Washington, when his second lost fumble in three games drastically reduced his playing time. Now, just when Seattle could have used a response from the rookie, he is sidelined.
The good news is that Price showed enough explosiveness early in the season to justify the expectations surrounding him. The problem is that he will have to earn his role back when he returns.
Price remains an important piece of Seattle’s future on offense, but he will have to find his place again in a backfield rotation that could look very different by the time he is healthy.
Bud Clark, Safety — 0 snaps, Injured Reserve
Still on injured reserve.
Julian Neal, Cornerback — 0 defensive snaps, 23 special teams snaps
The third-round pick did not play a single defensive snap against the Chargers, repeating what happened against Washington.
Neal did see 23 special teams snaps, nine more than he played in the loss to the Commanders, but he was also flagged for illegal use of the hands.
For now, special teams remains his only avenue onto the field. The next step is finding a way to turn those opportunities into defensive playing time.
Beau Stephens, Guard — 25 snaps
For the third consecutive game, the fifth-round pick rotated with Christian Haynes at right guard. This time, Stephens played 25 of Seattle’s 60 offensive snaps, while Haynes played 35.
This was easily Stephens’ roughest performance of the season so far.
Stephens tries to execute the pull here, but the EDGE completely blows up the block.
Raw strength — or the lack thereof — continues to be one of the biggest factors in evaluating Stephens. Defensive linemen have been able to move him backward relatively easily, and that shows up both in pass protection and in the run game.
That happens here. Stephens is driven backward and forces the running back to bounce the run outside.
There are still some technical issues as well. Stephens gets out of position early and gives the defensive lineman access to the outside gap. He does not have the arm length to recover once he loses the initial leverage, but it is worth highlighting that he keeps fighting through the end of the rep.
The first step is poorly placed, allowing the defender to penetrate immediately. Once that happens, there isn’t much the running back can do on this play.
Stephens cannot sustain the block, forcing the running back to cut outside, but he eventually manages to recover. One thing that consistently stands out about him is his willingness to keep fighting until the whistle.
This is a much better rep. Stephens gets good leverage and uses it to move the defender. As mentioned earlier, Stephens does not have overwhelming raw power, so he needs to win with technique and leverage. That’s exactly what he does here.
At some point, I expect this rotation to end, much like the rotation ended during Haynes’ rookie season, with Anthony Bradford eventually taking over the position. Haynes has generally played better than Stephens, but this was his worst performance of the three games, which could delay that decision.
On his first offensive snap, Haynes cannot get to the defender in time. The pressure gets home and eventually contributes to Darnold’s bizarre interception.
Haynes does not have the best base or initial contact here, leaving him vulnerable to a good move by the defender. He is unable to prevent the defensive tackle from getting to the quarterback.
The issue here isn’t strength or athleticism. It’s technique. The initial contact is poor, and the result is another bad rep from the offensive line. The running back is left with nowhere to go.
This is a very good rep. Christian Haynes attempts a snatch-and-trap but doesn’t quite finish the block, so he follows it with a second move while Haynes maintains position in front of him.
And here, Haynes finally gets to execute his beloved snatch-and-trap move of the week.
Avery Smith, Cornerback — 0 snaps, Inactive
Avery Smith was inactive again against the Chargers.
I liked what I saw from his special teams work during the first few weeks, and with Seattle having some issues with its depth at cornerback, I thought he might eventually find a role. That does not necessarily mean his inclusion would have changed the outcome of any of these games, but the lack of opportunities is still notable.
For now, however, he remains outside the active rotation.
Final thoughts
Week 4 was probably the least productive week of the season so far for Seattle’s rookie class. Only Beau Stephens saw snaps outside of special teams, while Price and Clark remain on injured reserve and Avery Smith was inactive again.
The rookie class remains a peculiar situation. Seattle is getting very little immediate production from its draft class, but that does not necessarily mean the group is a failure. Price showed flashes before his injury, Stephens is getting legitimate opportunities, Neal still has plenty of time to find his role, and I still expect Clark to become an important piece for the team once he is healthy.
The problem is that, four weeks into the season, the number of rookies actually involved in Seattle’s plans remains very small.
And with the schedule about to get significantly tougher, it will be interesting to see whether Seattle continues developing Stephens within the rotation — or whether the Seahawks eventually decide that it is time to hand the right guard job to one player full-time.
