Seahawks Use Final First-Round Pick on Notre Dame Running Back Jadarian Price

The Seahawks skipped their usual draft-night maneuvering on Thursday and used the 32nd and final pick of the first round on Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price. The reigning Super Bowl champions again found their greatest need and the top player on their board lining up at the same spot.

Seattle had a similar result a year ago, when it took guard Grey Zabel 18th overall. Zabel became a starter at left guard right away, and the team went on to win the title. Price arrives a month after Kenneth Walker, the team's lead back and the Super Bowl's most valuable player, left for Kansas City on a lucrative free-agent contract. General manager John Schneider said replacing Walker mattered, though the team did not intend to force it. "We just lost a really good runner in Ken Walker, you know," he said.

Price was emotional when Schneider phoned him in Denison, Texas, where he was with friends, family and high-school teammates. "I feel GREAT!" he later told Seattle reporters by phone. He called the outside-zone running scheme the Seahawks rode to the championship his "bread and butter," adding: "One decisive move. And get vertical. There's nothing better than a smooth cutback."

The selection looks beyond this season. None of the six running backs on Seattle's 90-man offseason roster is under contract past 2026, and Zach Charbonnet, who scored 12 rushing touchdowns in 2025, is recovering from reconstructive knee surgery performed a few months ago. Price will sign a four-year deal. Schneider praised his "instant acceleration, vision, cut-back ability." Price is only the fourth running back Seattle has taken in the first round in the franchise's 51 years, following Curt Warner in 1983, Shaun Alexander in 2000 and Rashaad Penny in 2018.

Standing 5-foot-11 and 203 pounds, Price came back from a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2022. He played just 280 snaps over three years behind another back at Notre Dame, yet averaged more than 6 yards per carry and scored 18 rushing touchdowns across his last two seasons. He was also a standout kickoff returner and a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award, which goes to college football's most versatile player. He returned a kickoff for a touchdown against USC and led the nation at 47 yards per return early last season. Coach Mike Macdonald, who values loyalty, also liked that Price stayed at one school through the era of NIL deals and transfers. Both Macdonald and Schneider cited "the person" when explaining the choice.

Some have questioned whether Price's combine weight of 203 pounds is too light for the NFL. Macdonald said it was below the weight at which Seattle had scouted him. Price blamed nerves and draft preparation and said he plans to play for the Seahawks at no less than 210 pounds.

Schneider had traded Seattle's first-round pick 14 times in his first 16 drafts, and he expected to do so again. "I thought we were going back, for sure," he said. But eight first-round trades occurred, six of them between picks 20 and 31. San Francisco and Buffalo, picking at 30 and 31, both traded out of the round entirely, and the 49ers moved back twice just ahead of their division rival.

Seattle's prospects of finding a partner faded about 90 minutes into the night, when the Rams took Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson at No. 13, far earlier than most of the league projected. Many had expected Simpson to be available at 32 and to draw a quarterback-needy team such as Arizona, which released longtime starter Kyler Murray last month, into a trade up. The Jets, holding the 33rd pick, then moved up to 30th by acquiring San Francisco's selection. With few top running backs or cornerbacks leaving early, no suitors remained, and Seattle kept its spot.