The Seattle Seahawks were dealt a big blow on Sunday night, not only in the win-loss column but also at running back, with the news that Rashaad Penny has a sprained ACL and could miss the rest of the season.
“He got an ACL sprain,” coach Pete Carroll said in his postgame press conference. “We don’t know how serious it is but it’s significant.”
If Penny is out, the Seahawks will continue to rely heavily on Chris Carson to lead the charge out of the backfield. Behind him will be veteran C.J. Prosise and rookie Travis Homer, both whom coach Carroll expects to pick up the slack going forward.
“Both those guys will be part of it,” Carroll commented on 710 ESPN’s Pete Carroll show Monday morning. “Thankfully we have C.J. coming in ready to play. He was able to be active in this game to get him started. But he’s been sitting for awhile. He needs to get going. He’s very capable of helping us, he has a lot of assets that we like in the offense. Numbers-wise we just haven’t been able to get him up. So he’s ready to go.”
Prosise appeared on 11 offensive snaps on Sunday, carrying the ball once for two yards. In seven games this season, Prosise has 14 rushes for 43 yards and a touchdown, along with nine receptions (on 11 targets) for 66 yards out of the backfield.
It is pretty clear based on Carroll’s response that Prosise will be the first man up behind Carson, but he did say Homer will get a chance to carry the ball.
“Homer will be ready,” Carroll continued. “He’s been kind of sitting on the back burner for us. It may mean that he gets the ball a little bit more, we’ll wait and see. [But] I’m really glad that C.J. is available to us.”
More information about Penny’s injury should be available on Monday afternoon, but expect Prosise to take over as Seattle’s number two running back for the rest of the season.
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