The Seahawks rebuild their backfield with a new runner, but is their expensive receiver deal a winning gamble or a looming regret?
Free agency has taken quite the toll on the Seattle Seahawks following their second Super Bowl win in franchise history. But that does not mean that the team has not made their own additions so far in the offseason.
And one of the moves they have made is at a position that they desperately needed to.
In a recent article by PFF's Zoltán Buday, he picks his favorite and least favorite free agency moves for every NFL team. And for the reigning Super Bowl champions, his favorite move is them picking up running back Emmanuel Wilson.
"While Wilson does not offer much in the passing game, he is among the better pure runners in the NFL, highlighted by his 73.9 PFF rushing grade in 2025," Buday writes. "He also earned an 82.9 PFF overall grade in 2024. In the absence of Charbonnet early in the season, Wilson might be the cheapest starting running back in the league."
The team's superstar running back, Kenneth Walker III, left the team to go to the AFC and sign with the Kansas City Chiefs. Additionally, Seattle's dependable backup, Zach Charbonnet, suffered a torn ACL in the divisional round of the playoffs.
So saying that the team needed some help in their backfield is quite the understatement.
Wilson racked up just under 500 rushing yards and three touchdowns in the 2025 season, and he did so while starting in just two games for the Green Bay Packers. He averaged a solid four yards per carry, which is a good indication that he might have been the ideal signing for the Seahawks.
But there is a move the Seahawks made the PFF isn't the biggest fan of, and it's them brining Rashid Shaheed back on a three-year, $51 million deal.
Most of their problem with this was the money that the team gave him, which is a decent point. But the team did not spend a ton of cash on anyone else, so they had a but to spend.
And Shaheed played a significant role in the Seahawks' success in 2025 with just under 500 yards and a pair of touchdowns. But it was his ability to return kicks and punts with consistency that really makes him a weapon for the defending champions.
Seattle might not have made any of the huge signings of the offseason, but the ones they did make were in effort to reload and stay on the top of the mountain.