Coming into Week 8 of the 2026 NFL season, and even after they rushed for 153 yards in their 20-3 Sunday night demolition of the Kansas City Chiefs, the Seattle Seahawks’ run game was still hurting in a competitive and comparative sense.

Through the first seven weeks of the new season, Seattle ranks 30th in EPA per rush at -0.19 — only the Las Vegas Raiders and the Green Bay Packers have been worse. Per Next Gen Stats, Seattle has faced light boxes (six or fewer defenders in the box) on 30.6% of their run plays this season, the 10th-highest rate in the league, but they’ve averaged just 3.9 yards per carry and an overall rushing EPA of -41.6 — only the Raiders have been less impressive in that particular department.

The loss of Kenneth Walker III in free agency to those same Chiefs hurt a lot, especially with backs Zach Charbonnet and 2026 first-round pick Jadarian Price out with various injuries. The ground game has been about George Holani, Emanuel Wilson, and as much schematic help as new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury can dial up. 

Quenton Nelson trade was made to fix the Seahawks run game (and help Sam Darnold)

General manager John Schneider knew what he wanted to do to improve things, and with the 2-5 Indianapolis Colts in full fire sale mode, Schneider shot his shot on Tuesday. The Seahawks traded a 2027 third-round pick and a 2028 fifth-round pick for the services of left guard Quenton Nelson, the eight-time Pro Bowler and three-time First-Team All-Pro who has been one of the best blockers of his era. 

With four backs on their current depth chart, and a lot of hope riding on Price’s future once he’s healthy and can stop fumbling (two fumbles on 28 carries this season before a chest injury put him on injured reserve), the Seahawks were probably not going all in on potential trades at that position, like Jonathan Taylor of the Colts, or Tony Pollard of the 1-6 Tennessee Titans. Instead, Schneider and the Seahawks decided to improve their offensive line — and in Nelson’s case, this deal does as much for quarterback Sam Darnold as it does for the run game. 

Darnold is a streaky quarterback whose efficiency takes a big nose dive under pressure (the graphic below explains it all), and in 275 pass-blocking reps this season, Nelson has allowed no sacks and just six total pressures. 

another reason quenton nelson will be important in seattle pic.twitter.com/pcs73Y5KRj

— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) October 28, 2026

But it’s in the run game where Nelson can make the biggest impact for his new team. Not that any Seattle back is in the same league as Taylor at this point (Price has the best chance to be that someday), but the disparity between what the Colts have done on the ground this season to Nelson’s primary gaps, and what the Seahawks have done to those same gaps is quite something. 

NFL Stat of the Week: Quenton Nelson’s presence could turn the Seahawks’ ground game all the way around

The Stat: The Colts have averaged 1.88 more yards per carry to Quenton Nelson’s primary gaps than the Seahawks have this season.

Per SumerSports, when running the ball to Nelson’s primary gaps (the A-gap between the center and the guard, and the B-gap between the guard and the tackle), the Colts have averaged 4.86 yards per run, while the Seahawks to those gaps have averaged 2.98 yards per run. The EPA per run behind Nelson is even more of a split — +0.076 for the Colts, as opposed to -0.175 for the Seahawks. Grey Zabel has been the Seahawks’ left guard since he was selected in the first round of the 2025 draft out of North Dakota State, and he’s a good player, but he’s not Quenton Nelson. 

Very few guards are. Because Nelson has a unique ability to get nasty in the run game in ways that are quite embarrassing to opposing defenders. 

No matter who's toting the rock, the @Seahawks' run game just got a LOT nastier. pic.twitter.com/AyP2dTu6CJ

— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) October 27, 2026

The likely move is to shift Zabel over to right guard, and he has some experience there — 1,064 combined snaps for North Dakota State in 2022 and 2023. Zabel has never played a snap of right guard in his NFL career, but he has the talent and versatility to get that done, and this gives Seattle perhaps the most impressive guard duo in the league. Before this, Seattle had cycled through three right guards this season — Anthony Bradford, Christian Haynes, and Beau Stephens — with 3.06 yards per carry and an EPA per run of -0.300 to the primary gaps on that side..

Now, the 4-3 Seahawks can imagine themselves back in (or at least close to) the NFC’s catbird seat with a revamped run game, and more comprehensive protection for Darnold. They have the NFL’s best defense by DVOA — just ask the Chiefs about that — and if the offense can see an uptick from its current rank of 22nd in DVOA, who’s to say that head coach Mike Macdonald’s team can’t run the table down the stretch as it did in the 2025 season, with a 7-3 start, and no losses after that all the way through Super Bowl LX?