Seahawks 2020 position preview: Running back

Likely Seahawks backups

Carlos Hyde

Hyde joins the Seahawks on a one year deal that will count as 2.75 million against the salary cap and can be worth up to 4 million. For a breakdown of Hyde look no further than Lee Vowell’s blog from right after the signing was announced. It will be interesting to see what Hyde’s role ends up being, especially if Rashaad Penny is not healthy at the beginning of the year (I break this down in the next paragraph).

If Penny has to miss games than Hyde will certainly be a guy that a lot of people go after on their Fantasy waiver-wire, as he could see some full possessions worth of carries and occasional action to complement Carson’s drives.

Rashaad Penny

Penny has been disappointing in his two years in blue and green and is coming off of a season-ending ACL tear. He was the Seahawks 2018 first-round pick but has fallen in the pecking order in favor of the aforementioned seventh-round pick Chris Carson both of his NFL seasons. Now going into year three, Penny will most likely start the season on the P.U.P. list  (The cutest name in sports that sadly stands for “Physically Unable to Perform”).

This is likely as Pete Carroll said that the team won’t rush Rashaad back onto the field. If he is placed on the P.U.P. list for week 1 it will mean that Penny will not be able to be active until week 7. This means that Carlos Hyde will be the backup, and then Penny will have work to do to regain his backup role once he is healthy.