3 Seahawks that could have career seasons in 2021

Chris Carson

Chris Carson re-signed this offseason for two seasons and only 2021 is a year where Carson definitely makes the team. His dead cap in 2022 goes down to $3 million so if Carson gets hurt this season and misses a bunch of games Seattle might simply move on from him. But I don’t expect this to happen.

In the Rams system, a talented running back both gets a lot of carries but also gets targeted in the pass game quite a bit. Carson proved in 2020 that he has very good hands and can catch passes out of the backfield. The odd thing was Carson was targeted with Russell Wilson passes 25 times (he caught 22 of them) in the first six games. This is when Seattle’s offense was humming. In the last six games, Carson was targeted 19 times in the final six games but just 8 in the last three.

As the season wore on, Schottenheimer decided to use Carson less as a versatile back and more as a pure running back. This meant opposing defenses didn’t have to think of him as much as a receiver but simply running out of the backfield. In the first six games last year, 25 percent of Carson’s touches were receptions. In the final six just 16 percent of Carson’s touches were catches.

Overall in 2020, and especially against the Rams in the playoffs, Carson was underused. Seattle threw too much overall and ran Carson not enough. This year will be different and Carson should get lots of looks and could have one of the Seahawks most productive running back seasons in franchise history.