Bringing this former Seahawks player home would be an extremely wise move

Seattle needs help at this oft-injured position.

Steph Chambers/GettyImages
facebooktwitterreddit

The Seattle Seahawks technically do not have any cap room left in the 2024 offseason. The team does not even have enough money to sign their draft picks this year. Again, technically. According to Over the Cap, Seattle has $1,616,170 left in cap space. But that number is relatively meaningless.

Sure, Seattle and general manager John Schneider cannot exactly start spending millions upon millions of dollars more, but cap room has always been malleable. If a team wants to sign a player then they will create the room to do that. Plus, what fans see now may not be the same once final roster cuts are made ahead of Week 1. For instance, should Seattle decide Darrell Taylor is not worth keeping around, the team could release him and save over $3 million.

I point this out because Seattle is still hosting free agents and many 12s might be asking how the team can sign anyone. The Seahawks cannot if the player costs $10 million, but if the player is signed for $2 million or so, Seattle can get the contract done. This potentially includes one former Seattle player who visited with the team this week.

Seattle Seahawks should take another chance on Rashaad Penny

That is running back Rashaad Penny who left in free agency last offseason but only played for one year with the Philadelphia Eagles and was paid only $1.3 million. Penny appeared in just three games and had just 11 carries. The Eagles saw no need to bring Penny back and no other team has signed Penny likely due to his injury history.

The issue is that Penny has flashed elite potential if he ever played consistently and stayed healthy. With Seattle from 2018 through 2022, Penny averaged 5.7 yards a carry. He led the league in yards per carry with 6.3 in 2021 even though he appeared in just 10 games. Still, he finished with 135 yards or more rushing in four of the team's final five games. In 2022, he ran for 151 yards against the Detroit Lions in Week 4 before an injury cut his season short once again in Week 5.

The reason Seattle should bring Penny back is that he would not cost much, would not be a long-term commitment (he likely would only be signed for one season at close to $1 million), and would not need to be RB1 or RB2. The Seahawks have Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet for that last part. In a pinch, though, should either Walker or Charbonnet have to miss time, Penny might be capable of some explosiveness.

His signing would also mean Seattle would not need to waste a pick on another running back. The Seahawks can wait until 2025 for that. Walker and Charbonnet - plus, 2023 draft pick Kenny McIntosh - are all signed through 2025.

Read more from 12th Man Rising

manual