The Seahawks are so thin at running back that they handed the ball to a wide receiver last week, and Rashid Shaheed made it look like something they'd planned all along.
ProFootballTalk flagged the reason Seattle could even try it: Shaheed has a history of playing running back. Against the Chargers, he lined up at tailback and finished with two carries for 33 yards, including a 28-yard run, per game reports. One snap of a receiver taking a handoff is a trick. A receiver taking a handoff and ripping off a run that long is a depth chart problem with a solution attached.
The problem is real. Jadarian Price is on injured reserve. Zach Charbonnet is still working back from the torn ACL he suffered in January. Seattle added Joe Mixon to the practice squad and signed Robert Henry Jr. off the Commanders' practice squad, per Yahoo Sports. That's a team patching a position with bodies rather than choosing between them.
Shaheed was already a receiver and a returner. Every backfield snap he takes is another hit on a player the Seahawks need on the outside and in the kicking game, and that is the cost of this arrangement, not a footnote to it. The benefit is that it forces a defense to declare itself. A linebacker who has to respect Shaheed as a runner can't drift to the passing lane as quickly. A safety who cheats down leaves the middle open behind him. Seattle gets that for free because Shaheed doesn't have to learn the position, he's returning to it.
Mixon's arrival is the tell. The Seahawks didn't add a veteran to the practice squad because they love their options. They added him because they needed an adult in the room for the weeks when Shaheed's two carries won't be enough. My read: this doesn't fade when the room gets healthy. It becomes a change-up Seattle keeps in the file, maybe three or four snaps a game, because the threat of Shaheed in the backfield is worth more than the yards he actually gains there. If I'm wrong, it's because the Seahawks land two healthy backs and never need the wrinkle again. If I'm right, Shaheed's next contract conversation starts with a number nobody expected in August.
The compliment here belongs to Shaheed. The concern belongs to Seattle, which spent October borrowing a receiver to do a running back's job and got a better result than the men whose job it is.
