Seattle Seahawks: Christine Michael played better than you think against Denver

Following the Seattle Seahawks’ preseason game last Friday, many fan had soured on running back Christine Michael. It has suddenly become the popular opinion that the Seahawks should move on and give up on the former second round pick.

Looking at the stat sheet, it is easy to see why. There isn’t much to find encouraging about seven carries for 15 yards and a fumble.

The game tape tells a completely different story though. Michael played well, and made a positive impact on 13 of his 15 snaps. The fumble in inexcusable, but even that had mitigating circumstances that were out of his control.

If you remove the fumble play from his stat line, Michael’s stat line becomes 6 carries for 28 yards. That’s 4.7 yards per carry, which is phenomenal considering how poor the blocking was four of those six carries.

Check out how poorly this play is blocked, and then realize that it still went for 5 yards.

Another positive development from that game would be his ability to pick up and block blitzing linebackers. This was a serious weakness for him when he was drafted, but it didn’t look like it on Friday.

Michael had to pick up the blitz twice by himself, and both times be completely stonewalled the linebacker.

Other than a play in which Michael stayed in to block and wasn’t needed, the only truly negative play he had in Friday’s game was his fumble.

The fumble is inexcusable and extremely frustrating. It also happened in part because Gary Gilliam  completely whiffed on his block. Michael was left trying to stiff arm the defender before he had secured the ball completely.

It should also be noted that Shane Ray simply made a great play. Lets give credit where it is due. Here’s the fumble in slo-mo:

Overall this was a good game for Christine Michael. He turned nothing into something multiple times, he handled his responsibilities in the passing game, and he even showed that he could carry the ball in his left hand.

Lets not let one fumble cloud our judgement on a very gifted player. We don’e need another Ahman Green situation.

Next: Seahawks shuffle offensive line starters

More from 12th Man Rising

• 4 prospects Seahawks could reach for at No. 20 in 2023 NFL Draft
• Seattle Seahawks Mock Draft: Post-first wave of free agency 
• Seahawks podcast: A review of the first week of free agency
• 4 experiments the Seattle Seahawks could cut short in 2023
• 3 pros and cons of Seattle Seahawks drafting Anthony Richardson