This--the lateral speed, Rashaad Penny out again--is why Seahawks drafted Kenneth Walker

The moment Kenneth Walker truly arrived as the Seahawks’ lead back, as the guy they drafted so highly this spring?

It was the moment he bounced an inside run into an improvisational score, then showed his Michigan State swagger.

Ninety seconds into the fourth quarter Sunday a game Seattle and its defense had controlled for 45 minutes against Arizona was in doubt. The Seahawks’ lead was down to 12-9. A second botched Michael Dickson punt in as many weeks created a Cardinals touchdown.

Then Walker showed the lateral speed, decisiveness and swagger he had starring last season for Michigan State. The second-round draft choice many questioned the Seahawks for taking so high among many other needs took a delayed hand-off from quarterback Geno Smith. He cut inside past penetrating J.J. Watt. He saw Cardinals linebacker Zaven Collins coming off a block by Seattle tight end Colby Parkinson. Walker cut with vertical speed but horizontally, right to left. Collins became a traffic cone.

Walker then put his right foot into the ground at the 8-yard line. That froze Arizona and former Washington Huskies cornerback Byron Murphy. He thought Walker was cutting inside. Walker cut outside.

When he saw he had Murphy beaten to the goal line, Walker stylishly skipped and hopped a step. He even faked a stiff arm repel of Murphy he didn’t need.

Game over. Seahawks win 19-9.

“Man, he’s explosive,” Smith said.

After Walker was in the end zone with his second career touchdown and second in as many weeks, 11 yards, Walker did a silly hands-twirl, hopping, New Edition-like fist-pull move. His Seahawks teammates just stood around him and watched his goofy act before celebrating with him. He later called a TikTok dance.

“The touchdown run looked easy,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said.

Teammates and coaches may get a lot of mileage out of the touchdown celebration. Carroll joked Monday on his weekly radio show with Seattle’s KIRO AM he’s not going to say Walker is a good dancer.

That wasn’t even the best run from Walker Sunday. He romped for 97 yards on 21 carries. His best was his 34-yard bounce outside right in the first quarter.

He again showed lateral speed few Seahawks have. He planted his left foot in the middle of the field than zoomed about 90 degrees to the right, leaving two Cardinals spinning. The third defender Walker shook on that run was along the sideline, when the defense thought he was going out of bounds.

“I was just running hard,” he said. “I never like the first guy to tackle me.

“That’s my play style.”

That set up Seattle’s first score, Jason Myers’ field goal midway through the first quarter.

“That was a spectacular run,” Carroll said.

“It was right in front of us and we saw the way he made guys fall off and drip off and miss him. He almost scored on the play. There’s just more of it. ...”

Such as the previous week. In the third quarter of Seattle’s loss at New Orleans, Walker ran outside left, made one cut right in the middle of the field and outran the Saints defense to the end zone for a 69-yard score. That was his first NFL touchdown.

Carroll is counting on many more.

“He was this special in college, you know. He had great numbers after contact, big plays, exciting, spectacular runs and all of that,” Carroll said. “He’s hard to tackle. And, again, he’s got so much power in his lateral movement. When he gets in and out of breaks on the run...

“He’s the real deal, in our eyes.”

Ken Walker’s rapid rise

It’s been a sudden transformation from last month.

It’s had to be.

Walker had missed almost a month after a hernia and a procedure to fix it. Then he went the wrong way in the backfield multiple times in multiple games, resulting in wasted plays and coaches losing confidence in playing him.

Now, he has to play.

Rashaad Penny was the starter until the previous game, when he broke his fibula and got a high-ankle sprain in the Seahawks’ loss at New Orleans. Penny had season-ending surgery last week.

Carroll’s and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s plan to have Penny and Walker be the 1 and 1A rushing tandem was over.

Walker is now RB1. There is no 1A.

Heading into Sunday’s Seahawks game at the Los Angeles Chargers, their coaches now have confidence in Walker with the play load and the ball, because they have to. Penny is out for the year. Veteran third-down back Travis Homer remains on injured reserve following a rib injury last month.

Walker had 21 carries against Arizona to fellow running back DeeJay Dallas’ two. Walker played 47 of Seattle’s 68 offensive snaps against the Cardinals. Dallas played 23, mostly on third downs and obvious passing situations.

“I’m starting to feel much more comfortable in the backfield, or just in the game in general,” Walker said. “Just feel more comfortable.”

Every chance he gets, ever time he thinks of him, Walker thanks the man he’s replaced as Seattle’s lead rusher.

“First off, I wanted to play for Rashaad because that’s somebody that always supported me. Behind closed doors, he always supported me,” Walker said. “He was like my biggest fan, and he wanted to see me do well. Nowadays, you don’t get that a lot of the time, so I’m very thankful for ‘Shaad. I hate that he is going through that, but I was just coming out here and was playing for him.

“Everything that he taught me about reading my keys and everything about running here in the league, made my job a lot easier. He helped me a lot.”