Seahawks should not start worrying about Rashaad Penny, yet

The Seahawks took Rashaad Penny in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft and he hasn’t been very good. But there might be a reason for that.

The world is a short-sighted place. What have you done for me lately? is a common way of thinking. Seahawks running back Rashaad Penny hasn’t done much in his short career. Some people already want to write him off as the proverbial draft bust. Maybe he will be, but we aren’t there yet.

In his rookie season of 2018, Penny was injured a bit and then basically the third-string back behind starter Chris Carson and backup Mike Davis. Davis is gone via free agency. Penny will move up to second-string. He needs to be good. Some even thought last year he should be the starter. I am still confused by that because I am not sure how anyone saw Carson play and then watched Penny play and thought Penny was the better option.

The fact is, though, Penny wasn’t taken in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft to be a backup. No player is chosen in the first round to not be a starter. Penny gets paid more than Carson but Carson is better. Carson is better in the regular season and better so far this preseason. It isn’t a close competition between Carson and Penny.

But Penny also should be given a bit of a break. He was pretty raw coming into his rookie season and then his injuries limited his reps. Penny may have played in 14 games last year, but he got only 85 carries and 94 total touches. What Penny really needs is to play a lot of preseason snaps behind the presumed first team offensive line and then see what he does.

Penny did average 4.9 yards-per-carry in 2018 and that cannot be forgotten. Last preseason Penny averaged 2 yards per rush on 8 carries. So far this year he has averaged 1.1 yards per carry on 12 attempts. Both numbers are terrible. You know what they really mean? They mean preseason stats do not matter.

My point is that Penny might be really good in his career. Or he might not. Either way, we are not going to learn that much by what he does this preseason. If he still averaging less than 2 yards a carry by midway through the regular season, we can talk then.