Big news in anticipation of Sunday’s huge matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks: The Seahawks will have to do it without their running game. It is being reported that the Seahawks have lost running back Chris Carson and C.J. Prosise for the season.
Those two, along with their prior loss of Rashaad Penny during their game against the Los Angeles Rams, effectively guts their running game. This leaves Travis Homer as their running back as of this writing. The Seahawks will probably be activating some ball carriers this week as they run the ball quite a bit and like to switch totes up. Carson has been their main running back with Prosise handling change-of-pace duties with Penny out. Now all three of them won’t be available Sunday.
The injuries get worse for the Seahawks. They also lost offensive tackle, Duane Brown, for at least Week 17. Brown is having surgery to trim a meniscus on Monday. That injury generally takes 2-3 weeks to recover.
The 49ers know all too well what these injuries can do. They had to play the Seahawks without George Kittle for the entirety and Emmanuel Sanders for most of the Week 10 loss. It didn’t help with Joe Staley and Mike McGlinchey returning (and Staley re-injuring himself).
Seattle is going to be tough no matter how you look at it, and that run-game might work no matter who you plug, but this is a huge setback for the Seahawks.
This might mean more Russell Wilson running than we’ve been used to. Probably more passing as well. This should be interesting.
Because it wouldn’t be Seattle without more drama, the latest news Monday morning was that the Seahawks are entertaining the idea of bringing back Beast Mode. Marshawn Lynch hasn’t played in an NFL game since October 14, 2018, but that’s not stopping Seattle. Lynch plans to travel to Seattle Monday to discuss a reunion. Hey, Lynch, go grab Bowman and Willis and let’s have one big reunion.