During OTA’s, Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said that he was “really excited” about the stable of backs that Seattle has on hand for this season.
Three of those backs are rookies that the Seahawks took during this year’s draft, so that excitement comes with a side order of uncertainty about what will happen when they get their first tastes of NFL action. In a perfect Seahawks world, it will go as well as it did for Thomas Rawls when he ran for 830 yards last season. Or Rawls could just use that as a springboard to a tight grip on the No. 1 job this year.
Rawls’ season ended with a broken ankle, however, and he wasn’t on the field this offseason as he rehabbed. Coach Pete Carroll said in June that he “absolutely” expects Rawls to be ready for the regular season. Rawls pushed things forward on Sunday when he said, via Sheil Kapadia of ESPN.com, that he will “most definitely” be ready when the team starts training camp at the end of the month.
Given his lack of offseason work, the Seahawks may opt for something other than full go from Rawls once camp starts but the prospects seem good that he’ll be back in a lead role for the offense by September.