Rashaad Penny finally gets his chance. He wants his former Seahawk best friend to be there
Rashaad Penny has a goal for his first game as the Seahawks’ full-time lead running back.
Sure, he’d love to rush for 150 yards behind a remade offensive line that is likely to start rookies Charles Cross and Abe Lucas at offensive tackles plus new (to Seattle) center Austin Blythe.
He’d love to control possession to keep the ball away from Russell Wilson and Denver’s offense.
He’d love to beat Wilson’s Denver Broncos at Lumen Field Monday night in an opener that Penny says “I couldn’t be more excited” to play — especially after he finished last season with the four best rushing games of his NFL career (137, 135, 170 and 190 yards).
But the 26-year-old Penny’s true goal is to get his best friend Chris Carson to come to the game.
“He’s great. He’s great. It’s the next part of his life now,” Penny said Tuesday of Seattle’s bruising runner who was forced to retire this spring. “And you just wish the best for him, really. I know he misses it a little bit.
“But me and him just still have small talk. And I’m trying to get him to come out here, to come to the game on Monday night.
“So that would be cool.”
The 27-year-old Carson was more than Penny’s locker neighbor and the Seahawks’ powerful rusher for five, fleeting seasons. To Penny, Carson was what Marshawn Lynch was before him: the team’s soul who set the mentality to not just win but punish.
That is, until Carson had to have his neck fused in surgery last year. Doctors tried to clear him numerous times this past winter into spring. They couldn’t. Carson had no choice but to side with his quality of life after football. He retired in June.
“I was pretty much heartbroken,” Penny said.
He will be thinking of Carson when he takes the field Monday night to begin his first season as Seattle’s new lead back.
He will be thinking of Carson when he takes every field this season. When he comes off those fields. When he’s preparing for the next game.
“A lot,” Penny said.
“He still means a lot to us as running backs. Again, he really set the standard. When you have Shaun Alexander, and then you have Marshawn Lynch and then all the other good running backs, Thomas Rawls, that came through. Chris really set the standard of that old way, of the running backs being hard-nosed, and wanting to get the drive going, get the game flowing. And that’s just who he was.
“So we really miss him.”
Carson has been gone from the locker room, but not the Seahawks’ meeting rooms. He’s a staple of the film running backs coach Chad Morton, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and coach Pete Carroll have their backs study to set the tone of how they want the Seahawks to run the ball this season.
“When I watch highlights of him, it brings back memories. When everybody’s sitting in the team offensive meeting room, and we get to watch highlights of him, it just gives us a motivational spark,” Penny said. “Like, ‘That’s how we’ve got to start off a game!’ Get these guys excited. Get the defense to feel how we play and get the game rolling.
“Because his style was just like no other. It made defenses really fear our offense.”
Rashaad Penny finally gets to play
No wonder Penny is pumped to play Monday night.
It’s his first game since January.
Carroll, Waldron and Morton held Penny out of all three preseason games. That was partly to give rookie second-round draft choice Ken Walker experience with the offensive line and Seattle’s system.
It was mostly to preserve Penny.
It’s as well-known around Seattle as rain: In his NFL career the Seahawks’ first-round pick from 2018 has yet to stay injury free for more than a few games, let alone an entire season as Seattle’s lead back. He’s had eight different injuries, including a reconstructive knee after he “tore everything” in it, he says.
When Penny tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago you could almost hear eyes roll across the Pacific Northwest.
Penny spent five days in quarantine. He returned last week.
“I really wasn’t sick,” he said. “I was exhausted, more than anything.”
Penny said he wished he’d played last month. But he understood why coaches gave him the bubble-wrap treatment this preseason, a treatment that is over now.
“As a back, you want to get a feel. Running back, you want to get a feel and get your foot in and everything,” he said. “But I feel like, just doing what’s best. I don’t have the best health (history).”
He motioned over his shoulder. He’s figuratively, and truly, leaving those injuries in his past.
“I’m in the best shape of my life right now. I lost weight. I’ve been doing extra running. Just trying to stay prepped, just to get ready to play on Monday,” he said.
He said he’s lost five pounds from the start of training camp. He’s 12 pounds above the 220 pounds the Seahawks list him to be.
“Last time I weighed like 232. And it’s the best and the most fit I ever felt. Fast,” Penny said.
“I’m just ready to cut it loose.”
Chris Carson motivates Penny
Penny knows you’ve heard this before. He knows many have written him off as a first-round bust, even after his breakout last December.
“I think that was a problem for me earlier in my career: I always cared about what other people said,” Penny said. “But I feel like I really didn’t prove much because I always knew what I could do. My problem was just making it to Sundays. And I’m thankful.
“But I didn’t want to get the carries and everything that way (replacing Carson). Because Chris is still human. And that’s my best friend. And it was unfortunate what happened.
“But I’m blessed. I’m definitely thankful, giving me the second chance to run the ball, to show what I can actually do. And that’s how I’m thinking this year, just keep going.”
His lengthy history of injuries is why he only got a one-year contract to return to Seattle after a brief look into free agency for the first time.
Now he’s like his 2022, post-Wilson, post-Bobby Wagner Seahawks: not expected to achieve any sustained success.
“It’s fine with me. I’ve been like that my whole life,” Penny said.
“But being a part of a program that’s being written off, that’s been to the playoffs forever, is insane.”
This story was originally published September 7, 2022 at 6:54 AM.
