Kenneth Walker back full go. Geno Smith and the Seahawks need him to go farther in 2023
Kenneth Walker is back.
Back from a groin injury that kept him out of fully practicing from the first day of training camp a month ago until now. Back this summer as the Seahawks’ undisputed lead rusher.
He’s already smiling more than he did all last season — when he had a rookie year only Curt Warner can relate to in Seattle’s NFL history.
“Yeah, I’m comfortable. I’m comfortable with everything now,” Walker said Wednesday, following his first practice in shoulder pads since January. “Yeah, I feel good. It’s a big difference between year one and year two.
“I know they say that a lot, but I kind of didn’t believe it. But I’m real comfortable now. I don’t have to think as much. It’s coming easier to me now.
“Now, I know everything.”
Including that he’s the centerpiece to the offense coach Pete Carroll wants play caller Shane Waldron to run this season.
And we mean RUN.
Geno Smith needs Kenneth Walker
For all the talk of whether Geno Smith can possibly duplicate his Pro Bowl season of 2022 in which he broke four franchise passing records for a season — including three of the man he replaced, traded Russell Wilson — the key to Smith’s and the offense’s success is Walker. He had 1,050 yards in 2020 as a rookie second-round draft choice from Michigan State, despite not taking over the role of Seattle’s featured rusher until the season-ending injury to his mentor Rashaad Penny in October.
In that 11-start span replacing Penny, Walker joined legend Warner in 1983 as the only Seahawks rookies to rush for more than 1,000 yards in their NFL debut seasons.
How vital was Walker to Smith’s and the Seahawks’ success last season?
When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers stacked the line to take away Walker, who had 10 carries for 17 yards that November day in Munich, Smith and the Seahawks fell behind 14-0 and 21-3 before losing 21-16 in Germany.
The first game Smith didn’t have Walker running behind him after Walker became the starter was week 14 against Carolina. Walker was inactive with an injured ankle. Smith had his worst game of his season that December Sunday. The NFL’s leader in completion rate at close to 70% last year connected on just 21 of 36 throws (a season-low 58.3%). His two interceptions without Walker cemented playoff-bound Seattle’s loss at home to the going-nowhere Panthers.
Walker played hurt the following week. He gained just 47 yards on 12 carries against San Francisco. One of Walker’s replacements, Travis Homer, fumbled late. Smith and the Seahawks lost at home again, to the 49ers.
Smith has since made the Pro Bowl and his first postseason start, both for the first times in his 10-year career.
He knows his and the Seahawks’ ways back to the playoffs this season is with Walker back galloping Seattle’s way to a balanced offense that is more difficult to defend than just Smith winging it.
“Ken has really stepped into his own,” Smith said of 2023.
The Seahawks took the long road on Walker after he got a groin injury he arrived with at training camp July 25. He practiced once, the first day of camp July 27, then shut it down for weeks. Wednesday was his first time in shoulder pads this preseason. He doesn’t need to play Saturday in Seattle’s final preseason game at Green Bay, and almost assuredly won’t.
Walker running fully healthy behind his 2022 rookie classmates Charles Cross and Abe Lucas at left and right tackle is that important to the offense and the Seahawks’ season.
“I have put a lot of expectations on our guys to come back with Abe, Charles, Kenny,” Carroll said this week.
“I’m counting on those guys to get better. That’s the expectation, and they have to live up to it.
“So far all of those guys have made a really good move forward. We’re going to benefit from that.”
Walker’s new mentoring role
Penny has moved on, to Philadelphia on a free-agent contract after Seattle let the contract expire on its former first-round pick.
Now it’s Walker — at age 22 — and DeeJay Dallas who are the veteran leaders with the most in-house experience in the Seahawks’ backfield. It will have rookie draft picks Zach Charbonnet and Kenny McIntosh this season, and perhaps undrafted rookie SaRodorick Thompson if the team can get him through waivers on its practice squad.
Asked if he feels like the leader of the running backs, Walker said: “Yeah, I do.
“I kinda of feel now how Penny felt about me. He always wanted to see me do good. So (when) Zach got here and ‘K-Mac’ got here, I always want to see them do good, the best way I can.”
He’s particularly impressed with Charbonnet. The former UCLA Bruin has been impressive as a different, less-patient runner than Walker.
Walker tended to wait for blocks and lanes to develop on his carries last season. So far, Charbonnet doesn’t wait for anything or anybody. He makes one cut a step or two after he gets the ball — and he just goes — as he did for 29 yards off right tackle Saturday night in Seattle’s preseason game against Dallas.
“Yeah, he’s great,” Walker said. “He came in and he seemed like he was on top of everything. He knows his plays. He knows what to do. And he runs hard. It’s exciting.
“He runs mad.”
Exactly what the Seahawks need more of, from Walker and Charbonnet, to balance Smith’s passing to DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba this season.
That is, if they want to beat San Francisco and win the NFC West.
“I expect us to go far,” Walker said. “We’ve got the team and the players to do it.
“We’ve just got to execute.”
Extra points
- Starting right tackle Abe Lucas missed his second consecutive day. Carroll said Tuesday Lucas had a “camp knee.”
- Undrafted rookie Matt Landers was back to practice for the first time since injuring his groin six days earlier. He made a sharp catch in front of cornerback Riq Woolen. With all the team’s injuries at wide receiver, Landers needs to play well Saturday at Green Bay to have a chance to make the team Tuesday.
- Veteran move by fifth-year wide receiver DK Metcalf to catch a touchdown pass from Smith in a seven-on-seven drill. Woolen challenged Metcalf in press coverage off the snap. Metcalf grabbed the Pro Bowl cornerback’s shoulders with both hands, yanked them toward the ground and ran by the off-balance defender into the clear.
This story was originally published August 23, 2023 at 5:33 PM.
