Seahawks shop with tryouts at running back after Rashaad Penny’s season-ending injury
With no time to wait in their playoff chase, the Seahawks are already shopping for depth replace Rashaad Penny at running back.
The team that will win the NFC West if it wins its final three games of the regular season hosted three backs for tryouts on Tuesday: Nick Brossette, Matthew Dayes, Xavier Turner.
That is according to a report by Howard Balzer, a national NFL writer and co-host on SiriusXM radio.
Tuesday was the team’s off day of the week before Sunday’s game at Carolina (5-8). Tuesday is a popular day in the NFL for tryouts of free agents, most of whom don’t get signed.
Seattle’s latest tryouts came a day affter coach Pete Carroll said Penny, Seattle’s number-two back behind Chris Carson, would miss the rest of the season. The team’s first-round draft choice last year got what Carroll called a “significant” injury to the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on his only play of the loss at the Los Angeles Rams Sunday night.
The most intriguing of the three runners Seattle reportedly tried out Tuesday is Turner.
The Seahawks signed him Aug. 7 as an undrafted rookie out of Tarleton State in Texas. Turner, 5 feet 10 and 226 pounds, looked good at times while playing in all four preseason games for the Seahawks this summer. He impressed coaches by rushing for a team-high 42 yards on 13 carries in the preseason opener against Denver. That was one day after he signed with Seattle.
Carroll first introduced Turner to the rest of the Seahawks in the locker room after he gained those yards for them against the Broncos.
Turner averaged 4.5 yards per carry (76 yards on 17 rushes) for Seattle this preseason. He gained 16 yards on his only carry in the exhibition finale against Oakland.
The 6-foot, 212-pound Brossette was a 1,000-yard rusher with 14 touchdowns last season at Louisiana State. He signed with New England in May as a rookie free agent. He had three touchdowns in four preseason games with the Patriots. They released him among their final preseason cuts Sept. 1. He joined the Detroit Lions’ practice squad 11 days later. Detroit released him Sept. 24.
Dayes has the only NFL regular-season game experience among the three tryout backs. He entered the league in 2017 as a seventh-round draft choice by Cleveland out of North Carolina State. He played in all 16 games of his rookie year as the Browns’ kickoff returner. Cleveland released him after that season. The 5-9, 205-pound Dayes played in seven games in 2018 for San Francisco on special teams.
He was in training camp this summer with New Orleans. The Saints waived him Aug. 8 with an injury designation. He went on IR the next day after clearing waivers, then reached an injury settlement to become a free agent.
Dayes tried out with the Denver Broncos last week.
The Seahawks have often-injured third-down back C.J. Prosise and rookie draft pick Travis Homer as the in-house options to replace Penny behind Carson for the final three regular-season games and, they expect, the playoffs.
Homer was Seattle’s sixth-round pick from the University of Miami this spring. He’s been a special-teams player and lately the replacement for ailing Tyler Lockett as the Seahawks’ kickoff returner.
Homer has had just one rush this season. That was on a fake punt last week in the win over Minnesota, for 29 yards.
Carroll has yet to give an update to the exact nature of Penny’s injury, nothing else beyond the “significant” sprain of the ACL Carroll mentioned Sunday night following the Seahawks’ first loss in six games.
“We had really been excited about him turning a corner and really taking hold of this thing and contributing in a big way,” Carroll said.
Penny had been emerging in the last month in more of a 1 and 1A arrangement at running back with Carson as Seattle has had since drafting Penny in the spring of 2018. Three games ago, Penny rushed for a career-high 122 yards in the team’s win at Philadelphia. The week after that, Carson had 39 snaps and Penny had 35 as Seattle beat Minnesota.
Without Penny, Seahawks running backs had just 16 carries at Los Angeles. Carson ran 15 times for 76 yards. Seattle fell behind 21-3 then abandoned the run to try and throw its way back into the game. Russell Wilson got bludgeoned by the Rams’ blitzes and edge rushers. L.A. sacked him five times and hit him 11 more.
The night to nowhere underscored, yet again, how important running effectively is for the Seahawks offensive line to adequately protect Wilson long enough to throw so he can throw the ball down the field.
Now the Seahawks are 10-3, one game behind San Francisco for the division lead. They need answers for that running game, beginning Sunday against the in-disarray Panthers in Charlotte, N.C.
Carolina has lost five games in a row, has fired coach Ron Rivera and has quarterback Cam Newton on injured reserve.
