Seahawks RB: New OC Grubb ‘opening it up’ on offense

Under former longtime head coach Pete Carroll, running backs were an underutilized part of the Seattle Seahawks’ passing game.

Will Seahawks’ offense add this facet under Ryan Grubb?

As ESPN Seahawks insider Brady Henderson broke down recently, Seattle ranked near the bottom of the NFL in running-back targets for most of Carroll’s 14-year tenure in the Pacific Northwest.

With a new coaching staff, will that change this season? During OTAs last month, new Seahawks offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb was asked about his philosophy of getting running backs involved in the passing attack.

“Oh, I love doing that,” Grubb said. “I love doing that. Yeah, we want to make every guy on the field, all five (eligible pass-catchers), as dangerous as possible from any position on the field.”

If the Seahawks do throw more often to their running backs, one beneficiary would be second-year backup Zach Charbonnet. The 2023 second-round pick out of UCLA had 33 catches for 209 yards as a rookie last season, which was just 40 yards fewer than starting running back Kenneth Walker III.

When Charbonnet joined Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Wednesday, he was asked about Grubb’s offensively philosophy and seemed to hint an uptick in running-back targets could be possible.

“It’s definitely unique,” Charbonnet said of Grubb’s offense. “Definitely a lot different than last year, that’s for sure, so it’ll be exciting. There’s a lot of new things coming in that we didn’t have last year, so we’re kind of all getting up to speed on that. But kind of just opening it up, I think that’s gonna be a great thing for the running backs.”

Second-year growth

Charbonnet had a productive rookie campaign last fall, rushing for 462 yards and one TD while averaging 4.3 yards per carry as Walker’s backup. His biggest performance came in Seattle’s 41-35 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 13, when he ran for 60 yards and a TD and set up another score with a 39-yard reception on a screen pass.

“I think it was definitely decent, but still got a lot of room to improve,” Charbonnet said of his rookie year. “I think it was a good year to just kind of get my toes wet and get a good amount of snaps, so I’m just looking to improve on my weaknesses. … I’m always working on my speed, and then just catching out of the backfield and stuff like that.”

Listen to the full conversation with Zach Charbonnet at this link or in the audio player near the middle of this story. Tune in to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

More Seattle Seahawks coverage

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