Seahawks’ need for running-back depth has them talking to Devonta Freeman, Carlos Hyde
Pete Carroll’s stated quest for depth at running back now has numbers to go with the names they’ve been thought to be pursuing for a while.
The Seahawks have offered former Atlanta lead rusher Devonta Freeman a one-year contract that could be worth up to $4 million with incentives, according to SiriusXM radio’s Adam Caplan and Mike Silver of NFL Network.
Silver reported Seattle is also talking to veteran free agent Carlos Hyde. The 28-year-old former lead back for San Francisco has been with four teams since leaving the 49ers following the 2017 season.
“We have to make sure that we have enough depth” at running back, Carroll said in late February at the NFL scouting combine.
The Philadelphia Eagles are also believed to be trying to sign either Freeman, who would likely be more expensive, or Hyde.
Seattle has lead back Chris Carson coming off a season-ending cracked hip, though he did not need surgery for it.
He and the Seahawks expect him back for the start of the coming season, the final one of his rookie contract.
Number-two back Rashaad Penny had reconstructive knee surgery in December. Seattle’s first-round draft choice in 2018 is likely to start the 2020 season on the physically-unable-to-perform list. That would sideline him for at least the first six games.
Carroll said in February Penny is a candidate to begin training camp on the PUP list. Only players on PUP to begin camp can be on it to begin the regular season.
This offseason Penny has been incrementally increasing his rehabilitation work, including on an exercise bike and footwork agility drills. But his return to play remains an unknown on a horizon more distant than Carson’s.
Travis Homer is the only fully healthy running back who has started a pro game on the Seahawks’ 90-man roster. The sixth-round pick from last year has one more NFL start than you do, in late December. That was after Carson and Penny went out for the 2019 season, and days after Seattle signed Marshawn Lynch as an emergency, three-game replacement.
The Seahawks have not ruled out Lynch playing for them again in 2020. But their interest in Freeman and Hyde show Lynch is unlikely to sign on again to anything but another special, partial-season deal with Seattle, to fill in if injuries happen again during the season as they do so often at running back in the NFL.
Freeman turned 28 in March. The two-time Pro Bowl selection had consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons for the Falcons in 2015 and ‘16, with 22 of his 32 career rushing touchdowns in those years. After an 865-yard season with seven more touchdowns in 2017, Freeman missed all but two games of 2018 and needed groin surgery. He rushed for 656 yards in 14 games last season for Atlanta.
In March the Falcons terminated his five-year, $41 million contract with two years still remaining on it. Then they signed former Rams franchise leader Todd Gurley to a free-agent contract to replace Freeman as Atlanta’s lead back.
Hyde was a second-round pick by the 49ers in 2014 out of Ohio State. He ran for a career-high eight touchdowns with 940 yards for San Francisco in 2017.
He signed a three-year, $15.25 million contract with Cleveland before the 2018 season. One month into his first season with the Browns, they traded him to Jacksonville for a fifth-round pick. He ran for 541 yards in his only season with the Jaguars, sharing backfield duties with Leonard Fournette and others.
Kansas City signed him to a one-year contract before the 2019 season. He didn’t play a game for the Chiefs. Kansas City traded Hyde to Houston at the end of training camp last summer. Playing on a one-year, $2.8 million contract, Hyde flourished for the Texans. He rushed for a career-high 1,070 yards and played in his first playoff game.
He reportedly turned down a new contract offer from Houston in late February and decided to enter free agency. Then the coronavirus pandemic limited his ability to travel to other teams and shop as fully as he wanted in the market. It opened in mid-March, just as much of the country’s and NFL’s businesses were getting limited by the COVID-19 virus.
Last month, the Seahawks drafted DeeJay Dallas out of the University of Miami in the fourth round. He is a former college wide receiver who could take departed C.J. Prosise’s role as a pass-catching, third-down back.
That still leaves the Seahawks with a need for experienced rushers while Penny tries to get back on the field.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 3:58 PM.
