Jadarian Price Camp Update — August 31: The Job Opened Before the First Carry
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 31
Zach Charbonnet went to reserve status on the physically-unable-to-perform list, per Pro Football Talk — a designation that costs him at least the season's first four games — and Athlon's post-cut chart lists Price first in the backfield. He has never carried a football in a live NFL game, and the first professional touches our last episode expected never came.
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The backfield job opened this week, and Jadarian Price walks into it without ever having carried a football in a live NFL game. Zach Charbonnet was placed on reserve/physically-unable-to-perform on Sunday, per Charean Williams at Pro Football Talk — a designation that costs a player at least the season's first four games, which is what Bob Condotta at The Seattle Times had written on Saturday that he expected. Price is on the initial 53 among three running backs, per Kole Musgrove at Seahawks Wire, and Athlon's post-cut depth chart lists him first, per Bryce Lazenby — one outlet's projection, though the Seattle Sports staff roster piece frames the room the same way, with Emanuel Wilson "rounding out the backfield behind Price and Holani."
First, a correction we owe. A week ago this episode said the Titans game or the finale should finally produce Price's first professional touches to grade. They didn't. No carry for him appears in Cameron Van Til's accounts of either the Nashville loss or the Kansas City tie at Seattle Sports, and he enters the season with zero live carries. So the week's real story is a tension, not a coronation. On one side: a lead chair, a four-game window with the veteran on reserve, and a camp that included full-speed first-team reps and Sam Darnold calling him "a really special player," per Ari Horton and John Boyle at the team's website. On the other: a rookie who missed roughly two weeks of camp with soreness and who took no August game action at all — "he's on his return plan," as Mike Macdonald put it back on Monday the seventeenth, per Van Til. Both of those are true at once, and neither cancels the other.
The room behind him: George Holani, whom Bob Condotta at The Seattle Times characterizes as the third-down back to start the season, and Emanuel Wilson, who made the roster after not playing in the preseason because of a hamstring injury, per Condotta. Jacardia Wright, who ripped a 69-yard touchdown in Nashville on the 20-third, per Van Til, was waived anyway, per the Seattle Sports staff roster piece.
Back in June the preview abstained on Price on purpose — nobody can grade a rookie who hasn't played — and the August file added practice evidence, an endorsement, and still no game column. The empty column is now the season's to fill. What our last episode watched for — first carries, then the post-cutdown backfield — came back half answered: the carries never happened; the backfield for at least the season's first four games is Price, Holani and Wilson. We'll check back as the opener comes into focus.
_Data via nflverse._
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