Seahawks make Carlos Hyde signing official, waive surplus offensive lineman
The Seahawks made the arrival of their new running back official.
They announced Thursday they signed veteran Carlos Hyde to a one-year contract.
The deal, which first became known last week, is believed to be worth up to $4 million, including incentive bonuses such as yards rushing and being on the active roster for each game.
Seattle waived guard Demetrius Knox to make room on its 90-man offseason roster for Hyde, who had his first 1,000-yard rushing season last year in his only one with the Houston Texans.
Knox signed with the Seahawks in 2019 as an undrafted rookie out of Ohio State. He missed all of last season on injured reserve. He injured his quadriceps in a preseason game at Minnesota last August. He was one of the 19 offensive linemen the Seahawks had, in surplus, coming out of last month’s draft.
Hyde’s contract with Seattle is likely full of roster and yardage-milestone money he would become more likely to earn if Rashaad Penny remains sidelined well into the 2020 season. Penny, the team’s first-round draft choice in 2018, had reconstructive knee surgery in December.
Up to $4 million was what Seattle was thought to have offered former Atlanta back Devonta Freeman. He turned it down.
Approaching $4 million for the much-traveled Hyde isn’t exactly cheap. But if Penny doesn’t come back to anywhere near full health—or if Chris Carson (26 in September) continues his trend back to junior college of not being able to complete an entire season injury-free—the Seahawks will gladly pay up to $4 million to have the powerful Hyde as an option for coach Pete Carroll’s run-based offense.
Hyde, 28, is former lead back for San Francisco who has been with four teams since leaving the 49ers following the 2017 season. He rushed for a career-high 1,070 yards and played in his first playoff game last season for the Texans.
“We have to make sure that we have enough depth” at running back, Carroll said in late February at the NFL scouting combine.
Seattle has Carson coming off a season-ending cracked hip, though he did not need surgery for it. He and the Seahawks believe their lead back, who’s gained more than 2,300 yards the last two years combined, will be ready for the start of the 2020 season. It’s the final year of Carson’s rookie contract.
Penny tore multiple ligaments in his knee in December. He 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.
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.
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 last season.
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.
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 signing Hyde shows that 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.
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 2:41 PM.
