With so much new for Seahawks opener, Sunday may not be indicative of how season will go
C.J. Prosise enters this season refreshed.
Most of all, he’s thankful.
Thankful that when the Seahawks take the field Sunday to play the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2019 opener at CenturyLink Field, he will still be wearing his blue Seattle uniform. Still jersey number 22.
After 10 surgeries in three-plus years since the Seahawks drafted him in 2016, perhaps no other player appreciates just being in a Seattle uniform again for the start of this season.
“It means a lot to me. Going through so much, and they really sticking with me means so much,” Prosise said this past week, days after the team’s final cuts of the preseason included now-former third-down running back J.D. McKissic and not him.
“To have the opportunity to still be here is really a blessing. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate everybody who has helped me along the way.
“And I’m just going to keep working. I mean, I’m not done here. It’s just a start.”
A re-start, really.
Prosise is still a Seahawk because he showed in the final two preseason games over a five-day stretch late last month that: 1. He still has unique slashing ability as a runner and receiver, and 2. He can actually play two games in five days without getting hurt.
Prosise is also still a Seahawk because of two games his rookie season: his 158 combined yards rushing and receiving in a Sunday-night upset win at New England in 2016 then a 72-yard touchdown run, a team record for longest rushing TD, early in the following game against Philadelphia.
Of course he broke his shoulder blade in the second quarter of that Eagles game.
“It has been frustrating, really, thinking of him first; who cares what I’m thinking?” Carroll said. “I could handle frustration. But for the young guy trying to play the game and you only have so many years you can play and all that, it’s been really hard on him. His mentality and his stick to it has been there all along.
“Really, he has resurfaced into the mix of it all. It’s an exciting opportunity for him. ...It has been frustrating because I love what he brings to the team. He’s so versatile and so explosive and I felt so thrilled just to see him finally get a chance to shoot it again.
“OK, C.J.’s back. And now we’ll figure out how to mix him in.”
How they are likely to mix him in is in the role of third-down running back, to catch passes and make slashing runs like he did as a Notre Dame wide receiver and for those brilliant flashes as a rookie in 2016.
His two standout preseason games in five days late last month revived his career. Prosise took McKissic’s roster spot with those games, which reminded Carroll why he loves Prosise so much. Why he hadn’t cut Prosise after 10 injuries in three-plus years.
Prosise has played in 16 of a possible 48 games for Seattle in his NFL career.
“They let me know, ‘Just get back, get healthy.’ That was always just the main goal, to get back to healthy and just to get back on the field,” Prosise said of coaches with him this summer.
“There weren’t any conversations like, ‘We are going to stick with you.’
“But I knew the confidence they had in me.”
So what’s different now? For the third time in three offseasons, Prosise has changed his training workouts.
He says this one finally works.
“I’ve figured out a routine that really works for me. We’ve seen a lot of progress,” he said.
In past offseasons Prosise has gone back to places such as Tennessee to work on a training plan. This most recent winter into spring he stayed in the Seattle area—he’s made our area his main offseason home. He had a personal trainer work on core-muscle exercises following his abdominal surgery last year. He now trains more on “little muscles,” core and hip exercises, “a lot of ankle-mobility stuff.”
“Just a lot more little muscle groups than I used to do,” Prosise said.
His renewal isn’t Seattle’s only refreshing aspect to this opener.
The pass-rush is new—as in, this-week new. Jadeveon Clowney arrived in a trade from Houston to be the bookend edge rusher with Ziggy Ansah, who signed in May. They replace traded Frank Clark as Seattle’s lead sack threat.
This past week was Ansah’s first full one of practice since early December, when a shoulder injury forced the 2015 Pro Bowl defensive end into surgery that ended his 2018 season and time with the Detroit Lions.
Ansah was not on the initial injury report the team issued and sent to the NFL on Friday. Later in the afternoon the team changed him to questionable. Carroll said the team’s medical staff wants to see how Ansah will respond Saturday and Sunday to his first practices this week in nine months.
“There’s still a bit of a question mark,” Carroll said. “We just got to make sure on game day that everything worked out OK because they’re still responding to the workload. There’s still a little bit of question for Ziggy.”
But all signs are he will play.
Ansah didn’t practice from early December until last week because of the shoulder surgery then groin strain trying to get into condition for his Seahawks debut. Clowney has practiced just four times in the last 8 1/2 months because he was in a contract holdout with Houston before Seattle traded for him.
Clowney and (apparently) Ansah are going to be limited in their playing time in their first game back. Carroll refused to say how much.
Ansah has not averaged as many as 31 snaps per game since 2015 with the Lions. About 20 snaps may be a reasonable expectation for him on Sunday.
Rookie wide receiver DK Metcalf is playing 19 days after knee surgery, ready to start as the starting split end for Russell Wilson. The second-round pick has his parents flying across the country to see him play in his first pro game. They haven’t been to an NFL game since his father Terrence was in the final year as an offensive tackle for the Chicago Bears. That was in 2008.
Mike Iupati practiced Friday for the first time since late July. The starting left guard is questionable to play. Whether Iupati, the 32-year-old veteran who hasn’t completed a full season since 2012, or fill-in Ethan Pocic starts, the Seahawks’ offensive line will have a new guy at that position from last season. J.R. Sweezy, the left guard in 2018, signed this offseason with Arizona.
Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer wants a new, expanded role for Chris Carson in the passing game. The play caller has said his goal is for the 1,152-yard rusher from last season to have 50 receptions this season. He had 20 last season, in 24 targets, and has just 27 catches through his first two seasons.
There is also new on defense. In the secondary nickel defensive back Justin Coleman is gone, signed by Detroit. With newly acquired Parry Nickerson still learning the playbook, Akeem King or rookie fourth-round draft choice Ugo Amadi will be the new nickel back in passing situations.
Veteran Al Woods arrived this offseason to be a new, run-stopping defensive tackle for a line that will be missing suspended Jarran Reed for the first six games. The Seahawks must improve its run defense from allowing 4.9 yards per rush in 2018, the worst of the Carroll era. His defensive plan starts and ends with run defense.
Plus, the Seahawks are preparing for a new foe to begin the season. The Bengals have an all-new coaching staff led by Zac Taylor. Last season’s quarterbacks coach for the Rams is intending to install Los Angeles’ tailback-based offense in Cincinnati—though he sounded tried of hired that this week.
“Yep, just cut and paste,” Taylor said, facetiously, on a conference call with Seattle media.
As Carroll said: “The opponent’s new and we don’t know what they’re doing.”
With all this new, Carroll knows the Seahawks are likely to take a while to get going Sunday.
“Yeah, I don’t know if the start of this game will tell us much. I don’t know that,” Carroll said on the eve of his 10th opener leading the Seahawks.
“What will tell us something is how we adapt, how they adapt also. We’ve got to see if we can keep the lid on it for a while while we’re figuring out what’s going on and then we’ll try to zero in and go after it.”
In many ways, this Seahawks season may be much like this first game. They aren’t sure the start of it will tell them much related to how they will be in November and December. By then, Clowney and Ansah should be up to whatever their full roles will be this season, Carson could be on his way to those 50 catches, and the Seahawks could be headed where they expect all the changes to lead them.
But Sunday may not show that.
“Sure. I mean, look at last year. Last year was a great example of it,” Carroll said of Seattle beginning 0-2 then making the playoffs for the sixth time in seven seasons. “A bad example of it, really, the way that I look at it.
“Sometimes, it takes you awhile. You have to make the adaptations.”
This story was originally published September 7, 2019 at 3:04 PM with the headline "With so much new for Seahawks opener, Sunday may not be indicative of how season will go."
