Seahawks meet with Adrian Peterson, may prefer Jamaal Charles

The Seattle Seahawks may have not landed the offensive lineman they wanted, but they seem destined to be signing a high-profile name at running back within the next few days. They just better be careful to not ask two girls to the prom what with all the meetings and rumors going around.

The Seahawks met with Adrian Peterson on Monday with some reports suggesting things went well. Seattle met with Eddie Lacy over the weekend when former teammate T.J. Lang was also talking to the Seahawks, while Latavius Murray is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday if the Jacksonville Jaguars don’t sign him before then, since that’s who he met with on Monday. Getting all of this yet?

But apparently, Ian Rapoport says that Seattle is most interested in Jamaal Charles, who is meeting with the team on Thursday.

This could make the most sense because the role Charles has played throughout his career would not threaten the already-under-contract backs Thomas Rawls and C.J. Prosise. In a best case scenario, Rawls is the back on first and second down, Prosise is the back on third down, and Charles comes in for a few series throughout the game to rest the two backs who have struggled with injuries in their young careers. The same could be set about Charles, who has carried the ball just 83 times in the last two seasons. He can’t be expected to carry the load for any team in 2017, but his dual-threat ability and variance in style to Rawls makes him a pretty good candidate to be the number three back on the Seahawks.

Peterson is a special player who could still rush for 1,200 yards next season, which is why he may be seeing himself as a starter when the team is looking for someone open to a competition. Lacy, to me, is a running back that I believe could still have a considerable career ahead of him and might be my preference for the Hawks. He’s older than Marshawn Lynch was when he was acquired by Seattle, but there are some similarities to be made and he could still have five or six seasons ahead of him. There’s just a question of durability and commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Murray fits a lot of what the Seahawks want in a running back but I feel like Jacksonville should offer him more money — though they did just waste a ton of that on Chris Ivory a year ago. (The Jags gave Ivory $32 million last year if you can believe that. Seems like ages ago that backs could make that much, let alone Chris Ivory.)

There are four options we know of and a decision should be made when Charles has his visit on Wednesday or Thursday. At that point, they’ll know all they need to know and it could go any of those directions.