Marshawn Lynch has already run the ball 285 times in a single season.
Then he ran the ball over 300 times in one season, twice. In a row.
Then he really relaxed (280 carries) but gained more yards and had more receptions than the year before.
The point is this: The Seattle Seahawks have never run the ball the same way since the first Marshawn Lynch. Throw talent out the window, they’ve never had a single runner carrying as many teammates on his back as Lynch. Chris Carson has yet to reach 280 races, and he definitely won’t be doing so this year. Carson only passed 250 as Rashaad Penny unfortunately came out mid-season last season.
In 2017, when they didn’t know what they were doing, all of the eligible guys on the team besides CJ Prosise had between 50 and 70 races. Even in Carson’s sophomore year, they threw 112 rushes at Mike Davis.
Enter the importance of Carlos Hyde and the $ 4 million contract that no one wanted. Hyde is experienced, available and better than Mike Davis.
It has been one of the more unique offseason as the Seahawks have spent questionable amounts of money on old hurdles with injuries to both the tight end and the running back.
Carson comes from a 16 week hip fracture last year, but has not needed surgery and is recovering very well. However, he was badly injured two years in a row, has yet to play a full season, and has yet to strike this year, being out for much of camp.
Chris Carson was back in the pads but did not participate in the scrum. Carroll has said he will be on the field when the Seahawks practice again on Friday.
– Bob Condotta (@bcondotta) Aug 26, 2020
Even as a leader – which Hyde knows – Carson is probably a safer bet to see fewer carries than last season, not more. It will be up to coaches and coaches to find Carson’s hitherto unknown sweet spot that will bring him into the playoffs for a change. Especially with the ridiculously limited preseason work he’ll have, I’d say 260 continuing the year would be a high mark.
Next is Rashaad Penny, who looks like he’s missing an important moment this year.
Those not suitable for today’s simulated game for Seahawks:
CB Gavin Heslop
CB DJ Reed
BY Eli Mencer
BY Darrell Taylor (NFI)
BY Fires Jackson
RB Rashaad Penny (PUP)
RB Patrick Carr
TE Colby Parkinson (NFI)
WR Phillip Dorsett
WR John Ursua
WR Cody Thompson– Curtis Crabtree (@Curtis_Crabtree) Aug 26, 2020
It’s not yet a guarantee that he will miss the first six weeks of the season, but he hasn’t participated and Seattle is in no rush to bring back the only first-round selection on the roster above. For the first half of the year, Penny won’t do much, if anything.
So Carlos Hyde got tons of quality reps and made the most of them. He performed well in Wednesday’s mock game, including the lone touchdown.
No rush stats, but Carlos Hyde probably had nearly 100 yards, if not more. Carroll said he would be “a big factor for us”.
– Bob Condotta (@bcondotta) Aug 26, 2020
As we saw earlier this year, Carlos Hyde has actually performed better than expected given his offensive line play in previous years. That’s a great sentence to write when it comes to the Seattle Seahawks.
He’s really in a good position to prove that the Seahawks haven’t paid too much. We should expect to see him with the ball in hand at the start of this year. It’ll be quite a spectacle as fans begin to compare this year’s Carson / Hyde to last year’s Carson / Penny.
