Mixon Deal Dead After Physical, and Seattle Is Back to Square One

The Joe Mixon signing lasted about 48 hours on paper before it didn't. The deal fell apart after Mixon failed his physical, which means the backfield solution I wrote up two days ago is already off the board.

The situation Seattle is left with is the same one that existed before the Mixon news broke, just with less time to fix it. Jadarian Price is on injured reserve. Zach Charbonnet remains sidelined. The depth chart at running back currently lists Brady Russell, Emanuel Wilson, and George Holani — a group that was never meant to carry a championship defense's complementary ground game on its own.

Kenneth Walker III was the anchor of last year's backfield, and the team built around his 1,340 rushing yards and nine touchdowns. The plan coming into this season was always to have Walker supported by Charbonnet and Price as a rotation. One is on IR. One is still out. And now the veteran insurance policy they tried to add just walked back out the door.

My read is that Seattle has to go back to the market quickly. The options will be thinner now — the names worth signing at this point in the year are limited — but sitting with Russell and Wilson as the primary alternatives behind Walker is not a workable plan for a team trying to defend a title.