RENTON, Wash. — Rashaad Penny exited the backfield and lined up to the right of the offensive formation, then looked left toward Russell Wilson. The quarterback sent back instructions: Keep moving. Penny paused for a moment, then Wilson motioned a few more signals to get Penny in the proper position. The running back jogged outside the numbers, where linebacker Shaquem Griffin awaited just a few yards across from him, both feet planted in the end zone. With Penny correctly in position, Wilson was ready to run the play.
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Penny slanted inside, shielded Griffin off and caught a dart for a touchdown.
It was a simple play, perfectly executed once Penny was aligned properly. Yes, it came against the second-team defense during training camp practices that heavily favor the offense, but after the underwhelming rookie year Penny had, the Seahawks will take any sign of playmaking ability. That play was also emblematic of what these the next few weeks will be all about for Penny: improving his pre-snap knowledge to maximize his post-snap production.
There’s no denying Penny’s talent. Even in a disappointing rookie season, Penny flashed moments of excellence. He rushed for 108 yards in his hometown against the Rams in his first career start. Four days later, he reversed field on a dynamic 30-yard run against the Packers in a prime-time showdown. Two weeks later, he had a 20-yard touchdown run against San Francisco.
But Seattle drafted Penny 27th overall last spring to be a consistent contributor, not an occasional playmaker. Durability was an issue, but how he handled injuries was even more detrimental. Meanwhile, Chris Carson jumped into the scene and proved to be a complete running back capable of trudging through tacklers, protecting Wilson and catching passes. As Penny said Monday afternoon after training camp, “He does everything right.”
When you’re a rookie still learning the ropes, it’s tough to beat out someone like Carson, who seems to have no flaws in his game.
This time last year, he was expected to be the guy on a team whose top priority was to pound the ball down other teams’ throats. Then Carson, a 2017 seventh-round pick, proved to be the better back, rushing for far more yards (1,151) and touchdowns (nine) than Penny (419 yards, two TDs).
Now Penny is no longer fighting to be No. 1 on the depth chart; he’s simply battling for relevant carries, which should be easier considering his draft status and big-play potential. If Penny is merely as good as Carson, his season may be viewed as a success.
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“When you do everything right and the other back is doing everything right, they’re going to stick with the guy who is consistent, who is on it, who is faster,” said Penny, who said he was thrilled for Carson last year even if it meant he wasn’t seeing the field as often as he wanted. “This year, I think it’s going to be way different because now I’m starting to pick it up and I’m starting to play faster.”
To play faster, Penny needs to improve his understanding of what’s happening before the snap. The better he is at the mental part of the game, the more likely he is to execute properly, as he did on the touchdown catch against Griffin.
And even more important than making pre-snap reads as a runner or a receiver is knowing how to protect Wilson. Seattle has been clear about Penny’s need to improve in pass protection, making it both unfortunate and ironic that he suffered a broken finger during a pass-pro drill in camp last year. So much of pass-pro is simply knowing your assignment, which can change in an instant based on audibles, defensive alignments and whatever else Wilson sees at the line of scrimmage. This is why running backs coach Chad Morton teaches his unit to approach the game as a quarterback would. He challenges the players to make pre-snap calls like a QB so they can better anticipate what’s about to happen.
“All those things, the guys need to be in tune with that,” Morton said. “The other part is just getting it done.”
“It’s easy when I come out here and get it,” Penny said. “The part about striking, finishing with your guy, I think that’s the most consistent thing I have to get better at.”
There’s also the matter of dealing with adversity. As a rookie, Penny endured typical first-year-pro issues. His diet wasn’t the best. Neither were his sleep habits. He needed to learn what it took to be a professional and how to take care of his body, though he’s not alone in that department. Most every rookie tells a similar tale of their first season.
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Penny’s problem was handling the first significant injuries of his football career. In August, he suffered that broken index finger, which threw his development out of whack. As impressive as that run against the Packers was, it came at the cost of his ankle, which he tweaked while sticking a landing at the end of the play. Later in the season, Penny was listed as having an injured knee. Penny was ill-equipped to deal with that many setbacks, and his play suffered accordingly.
“It’s a major challenge, and it affected him,” Morton said. “He wasn’t used to that stuff. A guy has been durable for that long all of the sudden (it’s), ‘Oh, I’m hurt, I don’t even know how to deal with this. Do I ice? What do I do? Do I have to see the trainer?’
“It’s good that happened in his first year and now we’re expecting good things. He’s healthy right now. Hopefully he continues to stay healthy and produce for us because we’re expecting him to produce.”
The running back depth chart is mostly set. Carson is the top guy, and that’s not going to change as long as he’s healthy. Penny is the 1B to Carson’s 1A, though the exact rotation will supposedly vary week to week depending on who has the hot hand.
“If they’re both doing well, we’re going to try to share the load a little bit, keep them fresh and just rotate it,” Morton said. “They’ll determine that with how hard they work and the details of they’re assignments.”
It feels unlikely that Penny will catch fire in a way that relegates Carson to the bench, since we’ve seen Carson struggle only when the entire offense is bad. And because we know O-line play has a much greater impact on running-game success than the actual ballcarrier, if Carson struggles, chances are that Penny — or any back, really — won’t perform any better.
J.D. McKissic, the best route-runner in the position group, is next up as the third-down back. C.J. Prosise, healthy for the first time in a long time, sixth-round pick Travis Homer and second-year tailback Bo Scarbrough are battling for the final two spots, which will be decided by who plays well on special teams.
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“It’s competition every day,” Penny said. “Just the race up to the locker room is competition. I wouldn’t want to compete with any other guys because we’re all trying to get the spot.”
Through four days of training camp, Penny looks noticeably faster and more elusive, especially on screen passes. This is a product of “transferring weight,” as coach Pete Carroll phrased it, over the offseason. Penny was reportedly 236 pounds early last season, though he was officially listed at 220. Carroll said last season that Penny hovered around 226 pounds. He’s now listed 220, though it should be noted that, when asked about his weight loss during organized team activities, Penny would say only that he’s under 230 pounds.
Regardless of his weight, Penny’s chances of stealing carries from Carson are slim (no pun intended), so his focus needs to be on maximizing the snaps he gets by ripping big runs and making defenders miss in the open field. Penny forced just eight missed tackles and had only 148 yards after first contact last season, statistics that ranked not only behind Carson but also behind third-down back Mike Davis. And because of his inconsistency as a pass-blocker, Penny saw only 81 snaps on pass plays, far fewer than Davis (229) and Carson (168). Penny can be much more productive in this offense, and he knows it. One of the reasons Carroll remains so optimistic about Penny is that he feels the 23-year-old has the potential to be every bit the do-it-all back Carson is.
“He’s an every-down back — he just has to prove it now,” Morton said. “He’s got to get comfortable going out there and getting more pass-pro and hitting people, get hit and just be durable. Last the whole season, from Day 1 to the end of the season. He’ll determine what his playing time will be.”
(Photo: John McCoy / Getty Images)
