Ted’s Talk: Predicting Kenny McIntosh’s rookie season

The Seattle Seahawks used their final pick – No. 237 in the seventh round – to double dip at one of their favorite positions by selecting running back Kenny McIntosh from the University of Georgia. Had he not performed poorly at the combine, it’s likely McIntosh would’ve been long gone by this point contributing over 1,300 total yards and 12 TDs to the Bulldogs’ 2022 National Championship season.

Athletic Profile/Comps

Relative Athletic Score (RAS)

Mockdraftable

Unsurprisingly, McIntosh’s RAS score is filled with a lot of red. The 4.62 second 40-yard dash is not ideal, but the very poor scores in the shuttle and three-cone drill might be even more disappointing. Those agility scores are somewhat shocking considering how productive McIntosh was both on the ground and through the air at the University of Georgia. The 10 and 20-yard splits do show encouraging explosiveness. We need to find a bright spot somewhere, right?

Neither the RAS nor Mockdraftable comparisons do McIntosh any favors unless you’re a fan of Bilal Powell and former Seahawks legend Spencer Ware.

Heading into the draft, Seattle had a shortage of running backs after both Rashaad Penny and Travis Homer left in free agency. Zach Charbonnet was added to the current stable of backs featuring Ken Walker III and DeeJay Dallas, but there’s a spot earmarked for McIntosh as a depth RB and special teams mainstay like the recently departed Travis Homer and 2024 free-agent-to-be DeeJay Dallas occupied in 2022.

And would you look at that?

Dallas is a better overall athlete, but McIntosh is still in the same vicinity. It’s not a perfect comparison, but it could be instructive about the role that Seattle sees McIntosh playing.

Gut reaction to the pick

Seattle drafted another running back? Sign me up! There was a vacancy on the roster and rather than try to entice an undrafted free agent running back to try their luck in Seattle, Schneider and co. drafted one in the final round. The cherry on the top is the fact that McIntosh was a productive player with back-to-back national championships on his resume who was considered by many as a mid-round prospect.

Looking ahead, McIntosh could be the DeeJay Dallas replacement since Dallas might take the same route as Travis Homer and leave for greener pastures in 2024 free agency. Both players have similar skillsets as well considering Dallas was originally a wide receiver at Miami before moving to running back. He’s proven to be a reliable receiver out of the backfield with 55 catches on 62 targets in his Seahawks career.

And McIntosh may be an even better receiving back.

This could be your future third-down back. Neither Walker nor Charbonnet are known for their pass protection which is critical on third down – something Homer was very good at. So, that begs the question…can McIntosh block?

Sure seems like it.

McIntosh is also a character, and I mean that in the best possible way. He was very emotional on both the draft call from the Seahawks and his following call to the media. I’m not going to link that here. Instead, I found this gem.

That’s the kind of guy I like having on the team. Look at the way he was running away from dudes on those clips too – his field speed looks much better than his testing would indicate and definitely worthy of the Seahawks final pick of the 2023 NFL Draft.

Rookie season prediction

Unless there’s a UDFA who surprises or an outside FA/waiver wire pickup, I really don’t see how McIntosh fails to make the roster – even as a seventh-round pick. He fills the vacant roster spot from Travis Homer and slots in behind Walker, Charbonnet, and Dallas in Seattle’s backfield and he might just be Seattle’s third-down back of the future.

However, McIntosh’s contributions this season will likely come on special teams. I can’t rule out the possibility of him being forced into action due to the Seahawks rotten luck when it comes to RB health, but I think a reasonable prediction is for McIntosh to be active for eight games for special teams duty where he’ll make the most impact and see less than 15 total touches on offense.