The Seattle Seahawks running back room has a ball security issue that opponents will attack for the rest of the season. We’ve only made it five weeks, and all three backs who’ve carried the football — Emanuel Wilson, George Holani, and Jadarian Price — have fumbled multiple times. That’s a clear sign of a problem beyond personnel. It’s up to the team’s new running backs coach, Thomas Hammock, to fix it. He has no choice but to make it his top coaching point now.
Let’s start by defining correct ball security. Scottie Montgomery, the Detroit Lions assistant head coach and former running backs coach, explained it impeccably when he interviewed the league’s best running back, Jahmyr Gibbs, at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine.
As a former running backs
coach myself, this is my favorite combine interview of all time. Here’s their full exchange, spelled out:
Montgomery: “Coach me on how you carry the football.”
Gibbs [explaining as he does it]: “Eagle claw.”
Montgomery: “Yep.”
Gibbs: “Bicep.”
Montgomery: “Yep.”
Gibbs: “Right up to your chin and across the plate.”
Montgomery: “OK. Is there anything else you can do?”
Gibbs: [covers wrist with free hand]
Montgomery: “Alright, oooh! What did you do with that hand?”
Gibbs: “I put it across my wrist.”
Montgomery: “You’re the first guy that came in here and [slaps wrist] did that, and I’m proud of you, alright.
“That clasp right there is important because when you do look at chains, we don’t want a $200,000 chain with a middle-of-the-mall clasp. We don’t want a $25 clasp, ’cause somebody will snatch it, right?”
You’ll never forget how to hold a football after watching Gibbs ace the test and hearing Montgomery’s analogy. It’s not that the $25 clasp — or the Seahawks’ low, loose, one-handed ball-carrying technique — will fall off when you’re just running with it (except maybe in Holani’s case).
The problem is that once word gets out that you can snatch it, vicious NFL linebackers like Fred Warner, Nate Landman, and Alex Singleton (whose team, the Denver Broncos, face the Seahawks on Thursday) will be chomping at the bit to test it. This is the biggest weakness the Seahawks have shown in their title defense thus far. Other teams are already starving to find a crack in the defending Super Bowl champions’ armor.
Hammock is living through a running backs coach’s worst nightmare. Weathering this would show diligence, build trust with his players, and bring the room closer together.
He should show his position group this video. Their individual drills on Tuesday need to teach this exact technique. Forget the new-age agility drills popularized by Instagram trainers. Pass protection can wait. If the running backs coach doesn’t set and uphold this standard, no one will.
This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: This Jahmyr Gibbs video can fix the Seahawks’ fumbling problem.
