Seahawks bring back Christine Michael

The Seattle Seahawks filled the empty spot on their roster with a familiar face. Christine Michael is now back with the team.

The Seattle Seahawks had an open roster spot after yesterday flurry of roster moves. They filled that today by bringing back running back Christine Michael.

With Marshawn Lynch still at least two weeks away form returning, and with rookie Thomas Rawls now on injured reserve, there’s a good chance that Michael will see a significant role on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns.

The Seahawks traded Michael to the Cowboys just before the season began. He wasn’t able to hold off Rawls for the backup job, and that made Michael expendable.

But Michael’s exit from Seattle was more than just him being passed on the depth chart. The team moving on from their former 2nd round pick was them deciding to give up on the talented athlete.

The quotes from coaches, especially offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell we fairly damning:

"“I felt like we gave it a great shot, we gave it a great effort. I think coach [Sherman] Smith did an outstanding job with him, worked with him each and every day. We articulated very clearly what we expected from him, from his position, and really from him. So I think we gave it a great effort, it just wasn’t able to work out for us.”"

That quote doesn’t need much in the way of translation. The coaches did everything to try and get Michael to where he needed to get to in order to contribute, and he just didn’t get there.

When the Seahawks traded him to Dallas, it was assumed that Michael would eventually take over the starting job there. All he needed was to learn the offense. It just never happened.

In the lead up to Week 8 game between Dallas and Seattle, the word around the league was that Michael should get significant carries. He ran the ball 5 times for 20 yards. There were more yard to be had, but he repeatedly ran into his own blockers.

Dallas cut Michael shortly after, and he landed on Washington’s practice squad. Washington released Michael off their practice squad earlier this week.

Now Michael is back with Seattle. This is a desperation move by the Seahawks, who are completely without a back they trust to carry the load for their run-first offense.

Michael will chance now. Hopefully for the Seahawks, he is finally ready for it.