Chris Carson, Rashaad Penny have solid debut as Seahawks 2-headed rushing attack

Chris Carson is all the way back and he may even be ahead of where he was last season as a seventh round rookie out of Oklahoma State. While the Seattle Seahawks did use a first round pick on running back Rashaad Penny this year, there’s no reason to think that the team wouldn’t benefit from having both on the field in 2018 and that was evident in Thursday’s preseason premiere against the Indianapolis Colts.

Carson got the start and the majority of snaps at running back on a very successful opening drive. He ended the day with four carries for 26 yards, with a long of 12.

He looked strong, fast, and difficult to bring down by opposing would-be tacklers.

It’s unfortunate that the Colts defense is likely very bad, even when looking at the first string players on the opening drive, but Carson still didn’t do anything to make fans concerned like they were last year when Eddie Lacy and Thomas Rawls became the go-to options following Carson’s broken leg in Week 4. In addition to his 12-yard run, he also had two key first down runs.

Meanwhile, Penny’s final stats were not impressive — eight carries for 16 yards — but he still had moments where he looked very good and ProFootballFocus had him at three missed tackles forced on his eight attempts. His shake on this play to get Seattle closer to the end zone was something they were in dire need of last season, because backs just have to make something out of nothing for the most part behind this offensive line:

All told, things went as good as can be expected for the Seahawks new duo in the backfield. C.J. Prosise was injured and did not play, which was also to be expected.