Chris

Carson

Maybe head coach Pete Carroll had FOMO after watching the Jets draft Breece Hall five picks earlier. Walker (5'9/211) started his career at Wake Forest, totaling 209 attempts for 1,158 yards and 17 touchdowns in two seasons. He transferred to Michigan State in 2021 and more than doubled his career production with 263 attempts for 1,636 yards and 18 touchdowns, enough to earn him the Doak Walker award for the nation’s top running back. Walker projects to hit the ground running as an NFL starter, but his receiving ability is less pro-ready. Walker totaled just 19 total receptions in his three-year career and averaged a very poor 0.45 yards per route run. With 4.38 speed, he projects as an immediate RB2 level contributor. However, he profiles as a smaller Nick Chubb-type unless he can develop quickly as a receiver. In Seattle, Walker could be plunged into a messy timeshare backfield with Rashaad Penny -- the league’s most productive running back over the final month of the 2021 regular season -- and Chris Carson, who may or may not return from a serious neck injury.

Carson ran for a combined 2,381 yards between the 2018 and 2019 seasons, becoming something close to an RB1 in fantasy circles, but struggled to stay on the field as he dealt with the neck injury that eventually required surgical fusion. It’s not entirely surprising to see him retire as most of the offseason chatter about him was focused on if he’d be able to play this season. Rapoport notes that Carson won’t file retirement paperwork with the league just yet. This clears the way entirely for Rashaad Penny and Kenneth Walker in Seattle’s backfield. The Seahawks released Carson with a failed physical tag.

“But he has a long injury history and a second-round pick in [Kenneth] Walker vying for a share of the early-down work,” Henderson adds. Chris Carson was left off Henderson’s early 53-man roster projection for the Seahawks, so it seems like this will be the dynamic as training camp opens in Seattle. Absent miraculous news on Carson’s neck, Penny should be viewed as the starter.

This would be the worse of the two fusion surgeries, as multi-level ACDF is harder to come back from. Ex-Giants RB David Wilson retired at age-23 after the surgery, while former Colts RB Ahmad Bradshaw returned in nine months. Carson was cleared to work out in June. The sixth-year veteran is committed to playing this year. Whether he’ll be cleared comes down to Seattle’s training staff.

It’s pretty much what Pete Carroll said yesterday. “I see myself playing until I feel like stopping. My mindset is never to give up. So, I’m staying positive like I said, and continue to fight and get back onto the field,” Carson said. The positive vibes are to be expected, and Carson’s resiliency in the face of a career-threatening injury is to be lauded. But don’t bank on him overcoming this if you can avoid it. Rashaad Penny and Kenneth Walker are shaping up as the backs to have in Seattle.

According to Carroll there will be more assessments in two weeks to determine Carson’s availability for the season. Rashaad Penny investors are currently sitting pretty, and Kenneth Walker drafters should feel emboldened as well. The early returns on Carson’s neck surgery are not looking good. “Our guys love this game that they grow up playing, and when they sense that there may be an end to it, it’s hard. It’s difficult, and it’s real,” Carroll said. “And we’re going to love him through it and help him as much as possible, if that’s the case, like we do with everybody when it comes to the end of it. It’s inevitable. It’s coming, but it’s always too soon, so we’re trying to fight that off.”

Walker’s proficiency as a “one cut and go” runner at Michigan State should translate well to Seattle’s rushing offense, Dugar said. The Seahawks drafted Walker with the 41st pick in the 2022 NFL Draft despite re-signing Rashaad Penny, the most productive back in the NFL over the final six weeks of the 2021 regular season. Chris Carson, coming back from a career-threatening neck injury, is also on the team’s backfield depth chart. Head coach Pete Carroll, meanwhile, has praised Walker’s pass-catching ability after a collegiate career in which he caught 19 passes in three years. Another injury-marred season for Penny could catapult Walker into a three-down role in what will assuredly be a run-first Seahawks offense.

The Seahawks have been largely optimistic about Carson this offseason, but neck surgery makes him not a guarantee going forward. Hopefully training camp will reveal better news for him, but for now, Kenneth Walker is only really fighting with Rashaad Penny for snaps. If Carson does return successfully, the backfield threatens to be a fantasy-killing timeshare.

Inexplicably using a second-round pick on Walker suggests the Seahawks are unsure of Chris Carson’s availability after suffering a serious neck injury in 2021. “Walker should still see a ton of snaps in camp and in the preseason ... and depending on how he looks, there’s a chance he climbs up the depth chart by the start of the regular season,” Dugar said. With nothing suggesting pass-catching chops during his college career, Walker would probably be an early-down banger while Rashaad Penny took passing down duties for what will certainly be a run-first Seahawks offense. None of the Seattle running backs hold much fantasy intrigue unless one of them takes over as an every-down back.

Coach Pete Carroll, as he typically does, sang an optimistic tune when asked about Carson’s return earlier in the offseason, but the reality is nobody knows how Carson’s career will turn after November disc-fusion neck surgery. The Seahawks re-signed Rashaad Penny to a one-year deal last month, and the plan would be for he and Carson to lead Seattle’s backfield. But Carson needs to be treated as a luxury and not a certainty.