ESPN Ranks Hawks draft as most productive in the NFL

[Hollandhawk]

Nothing funny about it. Try watching him when he dances around instead of trying to hit the hole early. Yes, the guy is good. But if he starts to gel with what is available he'll be the great RB he's expected to be. It's been ONE SEASON.

Sounds like that scrub Barry Sanders.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

They didn't get cute. And it worked really well. Do that again

 

[JPatera76]

mean when the line is already blown up in the interior because it sucks? Gimme a break...

To an extent… there was a few times he didn’t even follow his FB where he would’ve had in one game an easy TD if he did, and a few others he wouldn’t have been stuffed. But ultimately he could’ve been a lot worse and the issues that we see now, are coachable so all in all he had a good yr.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

So he wasn't perfect as a Rookie behind an iffy at times O Line. Say it isn't so..........
Guy had a hell of a season and helped them close out games. The stuff people complain about. Kenneth Walker? Really? So now HE is an issue?

 

[HawkRiderFan]

They didn't get cute. And it worked really well. Do that again

This is just a theory but I think one thing that helped stop being cute was the change in situation where now they were rebuilding / new era vs chasing another championship in the Russ window. In the past it was like they were finding that one player to plug a hole that could put us over the top, whether it was draft pick or trading a high pick for that supposed key player (Richardson, Graham, Adams)

I always thought the Adams was partially in response to Russ's "we need more stars" which was the year before things really hit the fan on his media tour

 

[MD5eahawks]

My critique wasn't a complaint. I was merely pointing out what I have seen on more than one occasion. Was it an oline problem? Was it a missed block? I have no idea. I choose to be a bit more patient when it comes to crowning players as gods gift.

The funniest part of it all is that someone with 22000+ posts chose to go a childish direction rather than offer some kind of counter point or even ask what I could possibly see in someone that has performed so well. Sure seems a bit like the complaints about people not being able to accept critiques on Russ when he was here.

This place is sometimes it's own worst enemy.

 

[irfuben32]

Redraft this draft and Woolen is a top ten pick. Cross is still taken high, Lucas and probably Walker are first rounders

 

[Year of The Hawk]

Many people forget draft order has a lot to do with what you get. Otherwise everyone would not be so excited to have the 5 pick this year in the 1st and 2nd rounds. Here is the draft order of picks the last several years. It is a little more obvious that moving up helped yield better picks. IMHO for where we picked previously I don’t think we drafted as bad as everyone thinks we did.

 

[Fade]

Walker is Lightning, they need to find Thunder to compliment him.

Due to attrition he was asked to be both Thunder and Lightning. His game isn't tough runs up inside, but outside zone, and wide runs.

 

[Jville]

Outside zone .... wide zone .... that's what the NFC West runs.

...................................................................................................
"On offense, Huard pointed to rookie running back Kenneth Walker III.

“"No. 1, he did not fumble the football one time in 200-plus carries this year,”" Huard said. "“And you think back to (former starting running back) Chris Carson and the number of fumbles and issues that he had, and that’s one of those things that boy, once you start to get it, it can be hard to eliminate. And the fact that it was a big fat zero and his ball security ball catching it and running was tremendous. That’s good stuff. I mean, that doesn’t get talked about, but I guarantee you behind the scenes, the staff and crew notice.”" -- https://sports.mynorthwest.com/1727948/huard-3-impressive-underrated-seahawks-stats-from-22-season/

 

[Rat]

I'm a B1G guy living in Michigan and saw plenty of KW3 in college (I was raised on Buckeye football, went to MSU, and was married to a UM fan for 15 years), and the dude was a freakin' beast. He basically made Mel Tucker $95 million. I was calling for Sam Howell at the time, which is embarrassing because he didn't get selected until three rounds later, but from the second we made the pick, I knew we were getting an amazing player.

 

[olyfan63]

Walker is Lightning, they need to find Thunder to compliment him.

Due to attrition he was asked to be both Thunder and Lightning. His game isn't tough runs up inside, but outside zone, and wide runs.

Walker can run inside, but he's not quite big enough to be a true move-the-pile guy. I think he way overperforms on inside runs for his size. It's just that so often the OL allowed early penetration by the opposing D-Line, stuffing the run in the backfield. All of which points out the need for a true "Thunder" complementary back as Fade mentions, a Christian Okoye or Earl Campbell. OK, so that's a bit of wishful thinking, just a good 220+ pounder would do, a James Conner or Najee Harris type. Oh yes, and a road-grader RG would be nice too, as well as an upgrade at center.

It was unbelievable how many .NET posters dogged the Walker pick in the 2nd. Not that he sucked, but that it was "a reach" a "bad value" and he "coulda been had in the 4th round" or similar delusional schitt. Or things like why were we drafting a 3rd string back, behind Penny and Carson. Walker was a great pick on all levels, including character and work habits. Clearly the posters dogging Walker didn't watch his college tape vs. Harbaugh's Michigan Wolverines. Linked below, it's a great watch, enjoy.

 

[Fade]

Walker can run inside, but he's not quite big enough to be a true move-the-pile guy. I think he way overperforms on inside runs for his size. It's just that so often the OL allowed early penetration by the opposing D-Line, stuffing the run in the backfield. All of which points out the need for a true "Thunder" complementary back as Fade mentions, a Christian Okoye or Earl Campbell. OK, so that's a bit of wishful thinking, just a good 220+ pounder would do, a James Conner or Najee Harris type. Oh yes, and a road-grader RG would be nice too, as well as an upgrade at center.

It was unbelievable how many .NET posters dogged the Walker pick in the 2nd. Not that he sucked, but that it was "a reach" a "bad value" and he "coulda been had in the 4th round" or similar delusional schitt. Or things like why were we drafting a 3rd string back, behind Penny and Carson. Walker was a great pick on all levels, including character and work habits. Clearly the posters dogging Walker didn't watch his college tape vs. Harbaugh's Michigan Wolverines. Linked below, it's a great watch, enjoy.

So could Warrick Dunn.

But he was much better with a Mike Alstott or a TJ Duckett.

 

[olyfan63]

So could Warrick Dunn.

But he was much better with a Mike Alstott or a TJ Duckett.

Nice comps! Walker and Dunn do have a lot of similarities. FWIW, Dunn was drafted in the 1st round, #12, by the Bucs. Dunn was a more-utilized receiver, so Walker has that skillset still to further develop, which I believe he will. Agreed about the Alstott and Duckett pile-moving complementary back being a big help.

I was trying to understand why Walker has roughly double the number of TDs per carry that Dunn had. Also, Walker has a 4.6 YPC average to Dunn's 4.1 YPC. I believe it's because Walker has a much higher ratio of long, breakaway, he-takes-it-to-the-house TD runs compared to Dunn. (Walker's rookie year sample size is adequate, IMO)

So first hypothesis was, Dunn had Barry Sanders' limiting factor, world-class at being able to make guys miss but not having breakaway speed to outrun all the DBs to the end zone. (Chris Carson also had similar issue) However, when I researched it, Dunn was a 4.26 40 guy and a 10.3 100M guy, with near-world-class speed. And I saw videos of Dunn outrunning DBs over 60 yards. Next hypothesis is that Walker is 20+ lbs bigger, more muscular, stronger than Dunn, which allows him to breaks a lot of LOS and 2nd level tackles that would have brought Dunn down, thus Walker creates more breakaway opportunities for himself to turn on the warp drive and outrun DBs to the end zone. After rewatching Walker's highlights, that's only partially true... on his 50+ yard long runs, Walker was usually untouched; it was the 10-15 yard TD runs where Walker broke multiple tackles that probably make the difference here.

If somebody changed the offense's uniforms to Seahawk unis in this video and put Walker's #9 on Dunn, it would sure look just like the long Kenneth Walker TD runs we saw this year.



It's still a great comp though, Kenneth Walker and Warrick Dunn. If Walker can stay healthy, the Hawks will likely get Dunn-comparable production, which would be pretty damn good. Dunn, despite his "small body" played 11 years, nearly all of them at Pro Bowl or near Pro-Bowl level, including his final season where he still had a 4.2 YPC average.