Rashaad Penny had an incredible Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles. The second-year running back finished the game with 129 yards, one touchdown, and averaged 9.2 yards per carry on 14 attempts. This was his best game by far as a Seattle Seahawk — with his production having been incredibly disappointing until now. With Chris Carson‘s struggles to hang onto the ball, Penny deserves his shot at the starting job.
Penny’s in the best shape to take on this opportunity right now. Joe Fann, Seahawks insider for NBC Sports Northwest, reported on Twitter that Penny was working with a nutritionist to lose weight and is already down several pounds.
Rashaad Penny Proves He’s Ready to Start
Tough Expectations
In his senior season at San Diego State, Penny rushed for over 3,600 yards and 38 touchdowns, averaging 7.5 yards per carry. Coming into the draft process, Penny looked very similar in size to Lynch and had the short-area quickness and burst that leveraged him into the second-level of the field. This was the type of player Pete Carroll and John Schneider wanted on their team. But it wasn’t the type of player they got.
Going into 2018, Seattle’s biggest question mark was at running back following failed attempts to anchor Marshawn Lynch‘s replacement within the few seasons since his (initial) retirement. Seattle then drafted Penny with the 27th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft — to everyone’s surprise — a player they could have easily taken in the second or third rounds of the draft.
Before Sunday’s game at Philadelphia, the media was quick to label Penny as a bust, and until now, they were right in doing so. He only appeared in one game his rookie preseason (eight attempts for 16 yards) and was quickly and surprisingly outplayed by Carson, who was coming off a season-ending injury the year before. Even then, Penny managed to finish with 419 yards and two touchdowns in his rookie year.
The failure to live up to his first-round draft value caused trade rumors to swirl in the weeks surrounding the trade deadline.
Finally Stepping Up
Chris Carson came into the first 11 games as the starting running back for Seattle but that could all change next week against the Minnesota Vikings. He’s fumbled eight times in 11 games this season and after Penny’s big performance, the Seahawks should be looking at a change in the backfield, and they won’t be looking far.
But according to Pete Carroll, Carson is still their number one guy in the backfield because of how well he does when he’s not turning the ball over. We’ll likely see a tough competition battle between the two backs as the rest of the season carries out, but at this point, Seattle cannot afford to be turning the ball on offense sitting one game behind in the NFC West.
A Look Forward
If Penny isn’t given the starting job in the backfield, he can expect to see an increase in carries in the final five games of the season. With how creative offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer has become with the Seahawks offense this season, I’m sure he’ll have no problem coming up with the best ways to utilize both Carson and Penny.
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