Rashid Shaheed turns a corner role for the Seahawks, scoring a backfield touchdown in Week 4

The Seahawks found a new wrinkle in Week 4, and it paid off quickly. In Seattle’s game against the Chargers, the club used receiver Rashid Shaheed as a ball carrier, running him out of the backfield on a toss sweep. Shaheed broke through and scored, turning what had been a novelty idea into a touchdown play.

Seattle’s own framing of the moment was that Shaheed is more than a specialist. The team called him a “weapon,” and the emphasis was on what the alignment could unlock. By adding ball-carrying action to Shaheed’s typical space-and-change-of-direction profile, the Seahawks are indicating that they want defensive coordinators to account for him in multiple phases of the offense, not only as a route runner and return man.

The touchdown also represented a first for Shaheed in an offensive role with the Seahawks. As Seattle noted, it was his first offensive touchdown as a Seahawk. That distinction matters because Shaheed’s past highlight reel in 2025 came in special teams, where he scored on returns, including a punt return touchdown and two kick return touchdowns. One of those kick return scores came during the opening kickoff of the divisional round against the San Francisco 49ers.

For the Seahawks, the appeal of deploying Shaheed as a carrier is fairly straightforward. A toss sweep does not just put points on the board, it stresses the edge and complicates assignment football. If a receiver can take handoffs with speed and the ability to finish, Seattle can force defenses to decide whether to treat him like a perimeter threat, a back, or both at once. That is the kind of multi-dimensional stress that can make later play-action, intermediate routes, and run fits harder to read.

This is also a positional evolution moment rather than a one-off trick. Seattle indicated it is looking forward to seeing “a lot of possibilities” with Shaheed in this capacity. That suggests the Seahawks are weighing more than a single scripted look. Even if the exact frequency changes, the core idea is now on tape: Shaheed can be featured as a ball carrier, and defenses may have to keep a dedicated eye on how Seattle uses him behind the line.

In the bigger picture, Seattle’s ability to expand the offensive toolkit will be tested as opponents respond. Once a player like Shaheed is associated with end-around and sweep concepts, the next wave of defensive adjustments often comes quickly, including tighter run leverage and more disciplined tracking of moving targets. The next question becomes whether the Seahawks can pair this backfield usage with complementary route concepts, so that defenses cannot solve the equation by keying on the run and treating Shaheed like a one-dimensional threat.