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Seattle Seahawks: 3 Early breakout candidates for 2019 season

By Samuel Teets

SEATTLE, WA - DECEMBER 30: Jarran Reed #90 of the Seattle Seahawks sacks Josh Rosen #3 of the Arizona Cardinals in the third quarter at CenturyLink Field on December 30, 2018 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
SEATTLE, WA - DECEMBER 30: Jarran Reed #90 of the Seattle Seahawks sacks Josh Rosen #3 of the Arizona Cardinals in the third quarter at CenturyLink Field on December 30, 2018 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /
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SEATTLE, WA – DECEMBER 02: Rashaad Penny #20 of the Seattle Seahawks scores a touchdown in the third quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at CenturyLink Field on December 2, 2018 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
SEATTLE, WA – DECEMBER 02: Rashaad Penny #20 of the Seattle Seahawks scores a touchdown in the third quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at CenturyLink Field on December 2, 2018 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

Rashaad Penny, RB

The 2018 first-round pick showed flashes of potential during his rookie season. Don’t get me wrong, barring injury, Rashaad Penny will be backing up Chris Carson all season long. However, Penny now has the opportunity to become a much larger contributor in the Seahawks system.

Penny’s role grew significantly when Mike Davis, who was the second back on the depth chart last year, left in free agency. Davis recorded 112 carries last season, and the majority of those will now go Penny. In the Seahawks heavy running system, Penny should get see roughly 200 attempts.

The team as a whole had 534 rushing attempts last season, second-most only to Baltimore. Carson was responsible for 247 of those attempts and Russell Wilson carried the ball 67 times. So, even if Penny gets 190-200 carries, the third-string back can still get 20-30 attempts. Even if Penny doesn’t get close to 200 attempts, he’ll still get far more than the 85 he got as a rookie.

It’s worth noting that Penny, not Carson or Davis, had the highest yards per carry on the Seahawks last season with 4.9. That’s an impressive total when you consider there were five games where he averaged under three yards per carry last season.

Those poor performances were largely the result of Penny only seeing a few touches and never being able to establish a flow. In the four games that Penny had six or fewer carries, he averaged 1.7 yards per attempt while in the eight games he had seven or more carries, he averaged 5.6 yards per attempt.

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We should also consider that Carson missed two games last season and that he has dealt with injuries throughout his career. In one of the games Carson missed last season, Penny ran for 108 yards on 12 attempts. I don’t think he’ll post those numbers consistently in 2019, but we’ll definitely see more prominent performances from Penny.

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