Once again, the Seattle Seahawks drafted a player at their original slot in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, selecting Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price at No. 32 overall. Price will attempt to step into the explosive shoes of reigning Super Bowl 60 MVP Kenneth Walker III, who departed in free agency to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Athletic Profile/Comps
Relative Athletic Score (RAS)
Mockdraftable
Right off the bat, let’s address that one red block in Price’s RAS: his weight at 203 lbs. He admitted in one of his post-draft interviews that it was lighter than
he played at, and is planning to be around 210 this season, which while lighter than many of Seattle’s former RBs, is still perfectly acceptable especially considering K9 was listed just one pound heavier at 211 lbs. If you’ve seen pictures of Price, he looks well built and powerful. Messing around with the RAS calculator allows you to input other values. Just for reference, Price’s RAS at 210 lbs would be 8.71 assuming the testing numbers would stay the same.
As it stands, Price has a good athletic profile despite only being in the “green” for his 40-yard dash of 4.49 seconds and broad jump. His Mockdraftable spider chart is also mostly above average except for his 10-yard split and aforementioned height. We’ll get back to that low 10-yard split because Price plays much faster than his testing numbers would indicate.
There aren’t any RAS comps listed that I want to call out, but I have a few of my own. The first one actually shows up in the Mockdraftable comp list.
You can choose to believe me or not, but I actually had this one in mind before gathering the research to do this article. I like to comb through my increasingly aging brain and try to figure out who a newly drafted player reminds me of, and Jones came to mind as an explosive back with kick return ability who was on the lighter side. Jones never really broke out as he was sharing a backfield with Marion Barber III and then DeMarco Murray while in Dallas before a final poor season as a 26-year-old with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Price’s kick return ability is a skill that sets him apart from other backs, which sent me down the research rabbit hole after the most successful kick returners in college football history. Take a look at this screenshot of the college career kickoff return leaders.
Notice anything?
If we remove the two WRs Carrier and Scarver, we’re left with three RBs – two of which are former first-round picks and Seahawks Legends!
Price is basically right in the middle of Penny and Spiller in terms of overall RAS and falls between them in weight. Both Penny and Spiller had their share of explosive plays in the NFL despite their underwhelming careers.
Just for fun, I looked up some other size comps for Price.
A few of these are very interesting…
Before we move on, how about some comps with Price and other former Seahawks RBs with a wildcard snuck in at the end?
Before you shoot the messenger here, I’m just presenting these comps to gauge the overall athleticism that Price brings, not saying that he’s a similar runner stylistically to any of these players although he does display the explosive potential that a lot of these players also have. More on that in a bit.
I ended the comps with Percy Harvin on purpose because I thought it was interesting to see their testing numbers side by side as a RB even though Harvin wasn’t full-time at that position. In case you forgot or didn’t follow college football back then, Harvin was ridiculous.
There’s a reason JS wanted to bring Harvin to Seattle. Price is a different body type than Harvin, but displays some of the same one-cut-and-go breakaway potential. He could be a very fun addition to the offense.
Gut reaction to the pick
Heading into the draft, I believed John Schneider when he said he wanted to trade back from No. 32. I also believed that there were a few players that would cause him to stay at that spot and make a selection. Once Chris Johnson was off the board, I pivoted to wanting a slight trade back. In my mind, it was down to Jadarian Price, Kayden McDonald, or Colton Hood. We all know what happened next as a flurry of trades dried up any chance for JS to make his own move. When I saw the “Pick Is In” graphic come up for the Seahawks, my first thought was that Price would be the most fun pick of those three that I mentioned. He was rumored heavily to Seattle, so it wasn’t a surprise to hear his name announced, and I was excited about it.
Clearly, Schneider wanted to trade down and still get Price while picking up extra draft capital. He admitted as much in the press conference after the first round. One of JS’ superpowers in the draft is the ability to gauge where a player will get drafted and maneuver himself around the board just enough to accumulate capital while not missing out on many of “his guys.” See the Grey Zabel and Nick Emmanwori picks from the 2025 NFL Draft. JS was not going to take a bad trade just for the sake of moving back and risk losing out on Price, which is why they just stayed put and chose him. I thought the Tennessee Titans moved up ahead of the Seahawks to snipe him, but that didn’t happen. Maybe that scared JS a little bit with the San Francisco 49ers sitting at No. 33 who may have chosen Price considering they drafted Kaelon Black in the third round.
Either way, Schneider still ended up with a player he really likes who fills a huge need at RB – particularly the need for an explosive, big-play weapon to replace Kenneth Walker III. If there’s one thing Jadarian Price can list as his calling card, it’s exactly that.
Cool Shit Percentage should be a new official stat!
Seattle will be without Zach Charbonnet for likely a good chunk of the 2026 regular season, and none of the other running backs on the roster bring the type of juice that Jadarian Price has.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, Price plays much faster than his testing suggests. He has good vision and lateral quickness, allowing him to be very effective on cutbacks. Maybe part of that comes from his experience as a kick returner?
You would think that USC would’ve learned their lesson and not kicked the ball to Price the second year in a row! Nevertheless, Price could be a weapon in the return game if they put him back there with Rashid Shaheed. You might as well just kick it through the back of the end zone each time.
Jadarian Price rookie season prediction
I’m really trying to separate my hopes from my actual predictions here and I’ve had a hard time deciding if I actually think Price will have a great rookie season or if it’s the fact that I want him to have a great rookie season if for no other reason than to stick it to everyone who says you shouldn’t draft a RB in the first round. I hated that whole “running backs don’t matter” BS because I truly think they do. The Seahawks run game hit its stride late last season partially due to K9’s talent. Yet, I believe the improvement in run blocking contributed to that as well.
Jadarian Price should get the lion’s share of the carries particularly early in the season as Charbonnet recovers from his ACL injury. I think Price will prove up to the task of replacing K9, matching his rookie total of 1,050 yards while adding an additional 200 yards receiving. He won’t quite hit the TD total of Walker though, as he’ll finish with 8. Since I’m feeling my oats a bit, two of those TDs will come on plays of 50+ yards. Seattle will scale back Price’s workload later in the season when Charbonnet comes back, leading to a healthy and dangerous two-headed monster when the playoffs start.
To get yourself in the mood, here’s a little highlight reel of our newest first-rounder!
