Injury Update: Chris Carson running, Pete Carroll says he could practice next week

Early after the season opened for the Seattle Seahawks, rookie seventh round draft choice Chris Carson took advantage of injuries to Thomas Rawls and poor performance by free agent acquisition Eddie Lacy to seize a few starts at running back, but then a nasty leg injury in week 4 landed Carson on injured reserve.

Now, just a couple of months later, the Seahawks anticipate a possible late season return for Carson. According to this tweet from Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times, Carson is back to running this week after an earlier setback in rehab, and he could return to practice next week.

Carson returning could prove a boon to the team, as Carson still leads the team in yards and yards per carry by running, in spite of poor blocking up front when he was active and the fact he hasn’t played in two and a half months. Even in September, as Rawls and Lacy failed to get anything going, Carson managed to be at least league average on the ground even when the team had Rees Odhiambo and Mark Glowinski as members of the starting line.

In week 2 against the San Francisco 49ers, Carson finished with 93 yards on 20 carries. If not for a holding penalty called on Luke Wilson on a seven yard run by Carson in the second quarter, it’s possible he might have recorded his first one hundred yard game that day.

In his other three games Carson ran for 115 yards on 29 carries before breaking his ankle against the Indianapolis Colts, which is still a more consistent rate than Lacy or Rawls have been in 2017. So a Carson return could prove helpful to the team as it gears up for a playoff push, especially if recent arrival Mike Davis’s ribs or groin injuries linger at all.