It was a bit surprising to see Eddie Lacy among Seattle’s seven inactives for Sunday’s 12-9 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.
Lacy was a healthy scratch for Seattle as the Seahawks had just one player inactive for injury reasons. The Seahawks kept Thomas Rawls, Chris Carson and C.J. Prosise as their three active running backs with fullback Tre Madden also active for the game. But despite the decision to make Lacy inactive against the 49ers, the Seahawks insist he’s still a big part of their plans.
“I think right in there,” head coach Pete Carroll said Monday as to how Lacy fits in the running back group. “It was really unfortunate that we had to make that move because I want Eddie playing. But we did it to make sure we would get Thomas up and a couple things that we were concerned about. We will see, each week is a different story for us.
“It depends on what is going on with the rest of the roster and who we can get keep up and who we can’t get up, so it’s just a weekly challenge for us to figure out. We want everyone out, but we can’t have that all the time.”
General manager John Schneider echoed Carroll’s comments it was just a game day roster call to sit Lacy against the 49ers.
“It was a very hard decision for the coaches,” he said on his pregame radio show. “Thomas is back, had a great week of practice as well. Eddie had a great week of practice. C.J., Carson, those guys had a really good week so we need to keep the fullback up in Madden and I just know we have to be balanced with our play-calling too so I know it’s difficult for Eddie, it’s very difficult for the coaches to make those decisions on who is going to be active and who is not. He’s a big man, he played well last week so it’s nothing he’s done or hasn’t done, just a pregame decision.”
Lacy gained just three yards on five carries in his debut for Seattle against the Green Bay Packers in Week 1. Carson ended up getting the most carries of any Seattle back in each of the first two weeks - more than Lacy in Green Bay and more than Rawls against the 49ers as he appears to have grabbed hold of the lead role in Seattle’s backfield.
While the decision to sit Lacy may have just been a single game call, it was still a curious decision to see made. With Seattle’s backfield fully healthy and Carson emerging as a potential star, finding carries for Lacy may not be getting any easier any time soon.
