In Week 3 the Seattle Seahawks hosted the New Orleans Saints in what would turn out to be a rain soaked debacle which the Hawks dropped, in large part due to their own mistakes. Between poor special teams play, yet another fumble returned for a touchdown by the opponent and an inability to tackle Alvin Kamara, Seattle finds itself 2-1 heading into the Week 4 division game against the Arizona Cardinals.
However, against the Saints the Seahawks did get to see 2016 third round draft pick C.J. Prosise carry the ball more times than he has in any other game in almost two years. While he had just four carries against the Saints, the last time he had four carries was in Week 3 of 2017 behind an offensive line that featured Rees Odhiambo, Luke Joeckel and Oday Aboushi. In that loss to the Tennessee Titans Prosise carried for times for nine yards, and in the year, eleven months and twenty-nine days since then he has totaled six rushes for seven yards.
So, while the production was not what was desired, between Chris Carson’s continued fumbling issues and Rashaad Penny’s not-quite-healthy-yet hamstring, Prosise could see some more carries this weekend against the Arizona Cardinals. As of right now, the Cardinals sport the number 19 run defense by DVOA, which is right behind the 18th ranked Pittsburgh Steelers, but well ahead of the Saints and Cincinnati Bengals, who come in at 29th and 28th respectively. (Author’s note: While Football Outsiders has the run defense rankings listed as DVOA on their website, technically they’re simply VOA at this point because the Defense-adjusted portions of the Defense-adjusted Value Over Average have not been calculated in yet.)
In any case, getting right to the film, this is how it looked for the Seahawks when Prosise carried the ball against the Saints.
With Penny again listed as questionable for Week 4 and Carson still averaging a fumble a game, it will certainly be interesting to see how the snaps are divied up for the running backs this weekend. Further, with a quick turnaround before the Seahawks host the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday Night Football in Week 5, it won’t be a surprise if the Hawks coaching staff looks to keep both Carson and Penny somewhat rested for the Thursday game by giving Prosise a few extra carries against the Cards.