The Seattle Seahawks are making one thing abundantly clear this offseason: the run game is not going anywhere. Even if the man who carried it might be.

Reports have emerged that Seattle has decided against using the franchise tag on Kenneth Walker III. Yet in the same breath, the Seahawks have quietly made a coaching decision this week that says everything about the direction this franchise is taking heading into 2026.

“The Seahawks have promoted assistant Justin Outten to run-game coordinator, per source. Outten, a former Denver OC, interviewed for Seattle’s coordinator job last week,” ESPN Senior NFL Reporter Jeremy Fowler broke the news on X on February 19.

What makes the promotion even more telling is how hard the Seahawks worked to keep Justin Outten in the building before it even happened.

“The Raiders requested Seahawks assistant Justin Outten for run-game coordinator, but Seattle blocked the request, per sources,” Fowler reported on February 14.

News served to you like never before!

Prefer us on Google, To get latest news on feed

Prefer Us on Google

The Raiders are now operating under head coach Klint Kubiak (who departed from Seattle after serving as the team’s offensive coordinator), who wanted Outten to run their ground game. Because it would have been a lateral move rather than a promotion, the Seahawks were fully within their rights to shut it down.

That decision to hold on to Outten turned out to be the first half of a larger plan. He was one of four internal candidates considered for Seattle’s open offensive coordinator position. But ultimately, the Seahawks went outside the organization and hired Brian Fleury for the role.

However, instead of letting Outten walk, Seattle gave him a promotion and a role that finally matches his impact on paper: run-game coordinator.

Outten joined the Seahawks in February last season as a run-game specialist and assistant offensive line coach, and what followed was a quiet but complete transformation. In his first season with the team, Seattle’s rushing offense climbed from 28th in the league all the way to 10th, and it all ended with a Lombardi Trophy.

None of it happened overnight. Before Outten ever worked a regular-season game as an NFL coach, he spent eight years at Westfield High School in Houston, Texas, growing from offensive line coach into the program’s offensive coordinator and assistant head coach. 

That grind earned him a foot in the door with the Atlanta Falcons in 2016 as a coaching intern, before elevating to offensive assistant for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. The Packers then hired him as their tight ends coach in 2019, a role he held for three seasons. 

By 2022, the Broncos trusted him enough to hand him the keys to their offense as offensive coordinator. Stints as run-game coordinator and running backs coach, then tight ends coach, with the Tennessee Titans, followed him before he arrived in Seattle in 2025 with nine years of NFL coaching experience.

And now he may be building it without the player who made it all possible. In Super Bowl LX, the Seahawks rushed for 141 total yards as a team, and Kenneth Walker III accounted for 135 of them on his own. Despite that, the franchise that just raised a championship banner on the back of its ground game is reportedly prepared to let its MVP walk into free agency.

The Kenneth Walker III problem Seattle didn’t expect to have

There is no reasonable argument against what Walker meant for Seattle’s 2025 campaign. He started all 17 regular-season games for the first time in his career, finishing with 1,027 rushing yards on 221 carries, five touchdowns, and 60.4 yards per game. 

He then capped it with that Super Bowl performance, becoming the first running back to win the Super Bowl MVP award since Broncos running back Terrell Davis claimed it after the 1997 season.

Despite all of that, the Seahawks are reportedly not planning to bring him back through the tag route. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Seattle is not expected to use either the franchise or transition tag on Kenneth Walker this offseason. 

The Seahawks have multiple key free agents they want to retain, and NFL rules allow teams to use the tag on only one player per offseason. On top of that, Seattle is carrying significant deferred cap charges from its postseason run as the Super Bowl tax.

The timing creates urgency. Walker’s four-year, $8.4-million rookie deal expired at the end of this season. The franchise tag window opened on Tuesday, February 17, and runs through March 3, giving Seattle a narrow two-week window to change course if it wants to. 

However, the financial reality is hard to ignore. Walker earned an average of $2.1 million per season on his rookie deal. His next contract is a different conversation entirely, with Spotrac projecting his market value at around $9 million per year. 

The tag numbers are far steeper than any long-term projection. According to ESPN, the franchise tag for a running back would cost the Seahawks approximately $14.5 million guaranteed for just one season, while the transition tag would carry a price of $11.7 million.