Seahawks should say hello to J.D. McKissic and goodbye to C.J. Prosise

The Seahawks will have some roster decisions to make after their bye week. One needs to be to activate J.D. McKissic and release C.J. Prosise.

The Seahawks will get back two starters after their week seven bye. Linebacker K.J. Wright and tight end Ed Dickson will return. Running back J.D. McKissic might not be ready week eight (or he could be), but he will definitely return from IR soon. And he needs to replace C.J. Prosise on the roster.

I know it sounds a bit odd to prefer McKissic over Prosise based on the assumption that McKissic will stay healthier than Prosise. McKissic has missed all of 2018 with an injury. But Prosise has never stayed consistently healthy over his three year career.

But sticking with McKissic and deleting Prosise goes beyond just health. Except for a couple of games (notably the Seahawks win over the Patriots in 2016) for Prosise, McKissic has been the more explosive player.

In five games in 2017 (again because he couldn’t stay healthy for any more than that), Prosise ran the ball 11 times for 23 yards and caught six passes for 87 yards. In 2018, he has only played three games and has no rushes and has caught just three passes.

Behind the same porous offensive line that Prosise had in 2017, McKissic ran the ball 46 and averaged 4.1 yards a carry. That is almost a miracle when thinking about how bad the line was last year. McKissic also had the Seahawks lone rushing touchdown from a running back last season.  But McKissic also caught 34 passes and two for touchdowns.

And while he hasn’t had to do it in a regular season game, McKissic has shown the ability to return kicks and punts in preseason games. If Tyler Lockett were to be injured (please no!), McKissic could step in. His ability to be a solid special teams player is just another reason for him to replace Prosise.

Fullback Tre Madden could also be a choice to take off the roster rather than Prosise. But like McKissic, Madden is valuable on special teams. Madden has played on 60 percent of special teams plays in 2018. So even Seattle’s fullback seems to be more versatile than Prosise.

And versatility is one reason Prosise is with Seattle. He was drafted because he could run the ball and also bounce out wide as a receiver. But 12s haven’t gotten to see much of this because Prosise can’t stay on the field.

The Seahawks have a really solid running back group right now. Chris Carson is a long-term starter. Mike Davis filled in excellently as the starter against the Cardinals in week four rushing for over 100 yards. Rashaad Penny hasn’t gotten a lot of reps but showed promise against the Raiders. And Penny was Seattle’s first-round draft pick so he isn’t going anywhere.

What the Seahawks really need is a versatile fourth back who can provide explosiveness and give defenses something to think about when that back is on the field. McKissic can do that. Seattle hopes Prosise could do that, too, but he hasn’t consistently been able to. Oh, and there’s the fact he has been a healthy scratch the last two weeks. Prosise needs to be released and McKissic needs to be activated.