After rookie breakout, Seahawks’ Kenneth Walker owes departed Rashaad Penny ‘everything’

Though they are no longer Seahawks teammates, Kenneth Walker still talks to Rashaad Penny.

Often.

“Yeah. Yeah, yeah,” Walker said Thursday.

The mention of Penny’s name made Seattle’s lead running back smile.

“I FaceTimed him not too long ago,” Walker said. “So we talk.”

Without Penny, Walker wouldn’t be what he’s become. Walker wouldn’t have been Seattle’s 1,000-yard rusher as a rookie last season. He wouldn’t have been an NFL offensive rookie of the month, who most believe should have been NFL offensive rookie of the year for 2022.

That is, according to Walker.

He was asked Thursday what he learned most from Penny, the the veteran and former first-round pick who this time last year was what Walker was hoping to someday be: the Seahawks’ number-one back. What did Penny mean to him last year?

“Everything,” Walker said.

“He really helped me out with everything. Like on the field, things off the field, you know?”

Walker smiled again.

Penny was for Walker what Chris Carson was for Penny when Penny also was a rookie top draft choice for Seattle, in 2018: A big brother, and a close friend.

Penny did that while knowing last year could be his final season with the Seahawks. Years of injuries on top of major injuries, eight in all, made 2022 Penny’s last chance on a one-year contract.

Then, five starts into last season, Penny crumpled to the turf inside the Superdome with a broken tibia last Oct. 9. He cried. He knew his season and time in Seattle were over.

Yet Penny continued his message to his replacement through November and December. He became Walker’s biggest fan through the rookie’s dazzling final dozen games last regular season and the Seahawks’ playoff loss at San Francisco.

In that 11-start span replacing Penny as the team’s lead back, Walker joined legend Curt Warner in 1983 as the only Seahawks rookies to rush for more than 1,000 yards in their NFL debut seasons.

“He’s telling me what to expect and what the coaches expect out of me,” Walker said of Penny.

“So, he wanted to see me do great.”

Penny signed a one-year, $1.35 million contract with the defending NFC-champion Philadelphia Eagles in March.

In May, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider used two of their 10 selections in this year’s draft to add two more highly regarded running backs. Carroll and Schneider know the position is football’s most-injured one with the shortest NFL careers. They lived through their Seahawks needing 18 different ball carriers in the 2016 season.

Remember George Farmer? He was one of those 18 rushers for Seattle that year.

That’s why despite Walker coming off a 1,000-yard season and still 22 years old, Seattle drafted Zach Charbonnet from UCLA in the second round. It’s why they drafted Kenny McIntosh from national-champion Georgia in the seventh round.

Already, through five OTA practices and two months before training camp, Walker is being for Charbonnet and McIntosh what Penny was for him. Walker is stressing to the new rookies how vital pass blocking is to their Seahawks playing time at running back. He is telling them how important it is they change their college eating habits, how key proper sleep is to proper performance.

“It feels good,” Walker said. “I just hope I can be a mentor to the running backs that are younger than me — like ‘Shad was to me.

“So I just hope I can guide those guys in the right direction.

“I feel like when I came in, I knew my stuff, but at the same time I was kind of doubting myself, or whatever. But they seem really confident.”

‘Stole that rookie of the year!’

Walker is too soft spoken to declare he should have been the NFL’s 2022 offensive rookie of the year.

Chad Morton is not.

The running backs coach is the rabble rouser of the Seahawks’ already rousing practices. Even those in May and June.

Thursday, each time Walker, Charbonnet, McIntosh and other running backs caught a pass in drills, Morton roared. When DeeJay Dallas made a brilliant, twisting catch of a long throw over his shoulder, leaning back for the ball down the right sideline, Morton bellowed: “Shocker! A running back making another catch!”

After the two-hour practice in helmets and shorts, Morton yelled what many on the West Coast, especially those who watch the Seahawks — and the Chargers — have been thinking since last winter.

“They stole that rookie of the year!” Morton shouted at Walker as he passed by the player’s press conference.

“It should have been YOU!”

Walker grinned, bashfully.

In February, Garrett Wilson of the New York Jets was named the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year for the 2022 season. Thursday, Walker acknowledged that, yes, his 1,050 yards rushing, nine rushing touchdowns and 57 first downs produced while starting only 11 of 17 games last regular season for a playoff team should have earned him the award.

Wilson had 83 receptions for 1,103 yards and four touchdowns with 56 first downs produced for the Jets. New York lost to the Seahawks Jan. 1 when Walker romped for 82 yards in the first quarter and 133 yards for the game. Wilson had three catches for 18 yards that day. The Jets finished 7-10 and out of the postseason again.

“Yeah, I thought I was going to win it,” Walker said. “But Garrett Wilson is a great player though, so let’s not take it from him.

“But...,” Walker said Thursday, “...yeah.

“Kind of frustrated, but it happens. I can’t make those decisions so I’ve just got to come out here and do my best and get better.”

Walker said his haste to come back from hernia surgery last August that kept him out a month made the start of his rookie season a hurried blur. That, the game, and his season all slowed down for him the day the Seahawks won at the Los Angeles Chargers Oct. 23. Walker’s 74-yard touchdown run to a Chargers fan who angrily flipped him off beyond the end zone sealed that Seattle win — and sent Walker off on his 1,000-yard season two weeks to the day after Penny’s season-ending injury.

Walker got the picture of the angry Chargers lady giving him the bird framed, to keep.

“Probably the Chargers game really, (was) when everything slowed down. After the first start versus the Cardinals, it was fine,” he said of his first career start Oct. 16. “But then the Chargers game is when I felt really comfortable.”

The difference in Kenneth Walker

The always chatty, effusive Carroll got stuck when first trying to describe the difference in Walker now from 12 months ago, when he was only a few practices out of playing college football as Michigan State’s featured runner who was rarely asked to do anything else.

“Gosh, it’s hard really,” Carroll said. “It would be hard to elaborate on the offseason that he’s had.

“He’s worked so hard with the receivers. He’s worked full-speed day after day after day. His confidence, his explosiveness, his quickness, his ability to run the routes and catch the ball, he’s doing everything. He’s catching punts.”

Yes, Walker has been doing that, too, in these OTAs — though don’t expect Carroll to permit risking his 1,000-yard rusher in that role when the games get real beginning Sept. 10.

“He’s catching kickoffs. He’s doing everything he can possibly do,” Carroll said. “And he’s having a blast. His attitude and spirit is just such a great compliment, too, coming off the season that he had.

“I’m glad we’ve got a lot of guys at that spot. We’re not going to overuse him in the early part of preseason and all of that, but he’s ready to go.

“He’s had as good of an offseason as you could have, really.”

Walker agreed this spring has been a relief, part of what Carroll often cites as the natural, steep progression of a player from year one to year two.

“Yeah. Yeah. It’s much easier. You know, I know the plays,” Walker said. “I know what to expect on offense and in the defense.

“So it’s much easier. My head’s not spinning from when I first got here.”