Recovery contest: Greg Olsen and Rashaad Penny both might practice this week

The Seattle Seahawks keep getting their guys back. On Monday afternoon, Pete Carroll indicated that Rashaad Penny will practice as if he’s playing. Not a huge surprise as Penny returned to practice last week, but the next one was unexpected: Greg Olsen is “challenging” to practice right now.

Early reports largely feared that Olsen would be out the entire season, or at least two months. It hasn’t even been one.

This is an interesting development for the once-elite-gone-sour-but-recently-rejuvenated Seattle offense. Penny and Olsen are in easily two of the most crowded position groups on this team. Olsen’s case is particularly complicated, as tight ends Will Dissly and Jacob Hollister have each played in 50% or more of the team’s snaps since Olsen was injured. Dissly secured his second touchdown of the season on Sunday and set season-highs in targets and receptions the past two weeks. Even celebrated rookie Colby Parkinson entered the game against the New York Jets and was out there converting first downs.

Penny, meanwhile, has taken much longer than his initial indications that he was right around the corner from playing. Additionally, Chris Carson is quickly returning to full strength and is excited as ever to jump over enemies and get himself killed.

Carlos Hyde is everything you’d want in a backup running back, if the backup backup running backs are say Travis Homer or DeeJay Dallas.

Ideally, Penny would be able to eke his way into the slot behind Carson, but time is running out. There’s just three games left against two good defenses and Carroll did not even confirm Penny would be ready for this coming Sunday.

Intriguing options ahead for the coaches as they now hope this offense can keep pace with this defense. A bizarre sentence to write, but hey it’s 2020.