Here’s what we need for the 2026 NFL season regarding the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award: Former Notre Dame tailbacks vs. the field. Jeremiyah Love was the first running back off the board in April’s draft as the No. 3 overall pick to Arizona, and the 2025 Doak Walker Award winner is the +300 favorite for OROY at BetMGM. And he should be favored walking into a likely featured role.
But I’m here to talk about the crazy amount of action that his former Irish backfield-mate Jadarian Price is getting at that book priced +750. He was the final pick of Round 1 by the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks and the only other running back chosen before the 90th overall pick.
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Despite obviously playing second fiddle to Love last year for the Fighting Irish, Price was still named a third-team All-American by the Associated Press and a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award. Price had 113 carries for 674 yards and 11 scores, added two receiving scores and had 12 kick returns for 450 yards and two return touchdowns. He became only the ninth player in FBS history with at least 10 rushing scores and 10 kick-return scores in the same season and led the FBS in kickoff-return average at 37.5 yards per (minimum 10 returns).
Seattle actually tried to trade out of Round 1 back in late April but couldn’t find a taker, so it selected Price as the potential co-replacement for departed tailback and reigning Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker Jr., who signed a big free-agent deal with Kansas City. Walker, just the fourth player to change teams the offseason after winning Super Bowl MVP, had career highs of 1,309 scrimmage yards and 5.2 yards per touch in 2025.
The Seahawks weren’t about to pay Walker to a deal averaging $15 million per season when they had other holes to address. And with a good running back already on the roster in Zach Charbonnet. Well, when healthy. What likely added some urgency to selecting Price is that Charbonnet tore his ACL during the Divisional Round of the playoffs. Charbonnet is not likely to be ready for Week 1, so that could mean a ton of touches out of the box for Price over the likes of George Holani and Emanuel Wilson.
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Perhaps that explains why Price has taken the most tickets (10.3%) of any player at BetMGM to win OROY and is second in handle (12.8%) – Seattle also ran the ball at the third-highest rate of any team in 2025. The only player on the entire board the sportsbook is more exposed on is Cardinals third-round QB Carson Beck only because he’s a +3000 longer-shot and is taking a fair amount of action but not top three in either tickets or handle.
DraftKings offers some rookie totals, and Price to rush for at least 750 yards is -110, while 1,000 is +225. Remember, the Seahawks are featured on this summer’s version of HBO’s “Hard Knocks” so we will all get a good glimpse of Price. Seattle rookies have been in camp since last Friday and veterans report this Friday.
It may surprise you to know that no Seahawks player has won Offensive Rookie of the Year. NFL teams rarely make their top running back a kick returner as well, but that might be the case to open 2026 with Price.
“We’re going to run wide zone and he’s going to run wide zone,” Coach Mike Macdonald mentioned recently to the team site regarding the rookie. “We’re going to run some gap scheme. He’s going to run some of that too and then the pass game he can come alive, too. I think that’s part of our offense in general, that we can take another step in including our halfbacks in the pass game. Then, he’s a great special teams player as well. The kick return stuff, we’ll see how it shakes out in other phases, but he’s going to come in and compete with the rest of the guys.”
