Seahawks coach Amanda Ruller could be great for Rashaad Penny

Football is about overcoming obstacles, just like in life. Seahawks coach Amanda Ruller is constantly doing that and Rashaad Penny could learn from her.

Ruller is currently with the team as an assistant running backs coach as part of the NFL’s Bill Walsh Diversity Fellowship Program. But Ruller isn’t simply with the Seahawks because she is a novelty. She can coach and has proved herself by coaching football in Canada.

Ruller will intern this summer for Seattle and maybe she will get a chance to stick around in the NFL after the season starts. But what she is doing right now matters because she can definitely have an influence on Rashaad Penny.

Ruller has had to earn everything she has done in football because she happens to be female. But she can outcoach most human beings. Penny has so much physical ability that he sometimes hasn’t known how to fight through adversity.

Seahawks coach Amanda Ruller could be great influence on Rashaad Penny

I mean no disrespect to Penny. He seems like a good guy and can be a great football player. But he has let injuries keep him from playing at times and has missed 43 percent of the games he could have played in the NFL since his career began in 2018.

There is no possibility that Ruller would pass up any chance she has to coach (or heck, even play) and would let likely nothing stand in her way. For Penny, it seemed as if he has had problems knowing how to play while hurt because he never had to do that before coming into the league.

In 2021, veteran Adrian Peterson joined the Seahawks for a short time but appeared to have a great influence on how Penny approached each game and especially with how Penny didn’t stop playing even when he got a little nicked up.

There were times in games at the end of the season when Penny appeared to come out of a scrum with a bit of a limp. In years past, he would likely have asked to come out of the game and stayed out. But while Peterson was with the team, that didn’t happen.

Ruller can have that same kind of effect on Penny. While Ruller may not be with the team once the season begins, her presence and influence in training camp can be instrumental in reminding Penny that overcoming any obstacles put in his way could mean great production. That means future contracts that pay him a lot of money too.