Seahawks may have found Marshawn Lynch’s replacement in Chris Carson

The Seahawks once were as stable in the backfield as an NFL team can be these days.

From the minute Seattle traded for Marshawn Lynch in October 2010 to the minute Lynch suffered the first significant injury of his career in November 2015, the Seahawks used just 10 players at tailback, and aside from Lynch almost all in complementary or backup roles. That number includes the barely-remembered Eddie Williams and his two carries in 2011 as well as Leon Washington and Justin Forsett, the main tailbacks when Lynch arrived.

But from the minute in 2015 when Lynch went on injured reserve because of a sports hernia until Sunday, the Seahawks used 14 players at tailback.

That number includes the brief “awakening” of Christine Michael’s second stint in Seattle, regulars such as Thomas Rawls – whose chance to make the job his own the past two years has been stunted by injuries – free-agent signee Eddie Lacy and a few who, like Williams in 2011, even diehards might not remember, such as DuJuan Harris (2015) and Terrence Magee (2016).

Given all the starts and stops in the Seattle backfield the past 22 months, caution might still be the order of the day when wondering if the merry-go-round finally has come to a halt.

But in Chris Carson, the Seahawks might have at least slowed that merry-go-round to a crawl.

Rawls and Lacy are still around, and coach Pete Carroll said on Monday that the Seahawks can find ways to use all three as well as C.J. Prosise, whose primary role should continue to be a third-down back. Seattle’s depth chart for this week’s game at Tennessee, in fact, still shows Rawls as the starter and Lacy as the backup.

But if Carson has indeed become the truest thing to the Seahawks’ first 20 carries-per-game back since Lynch, his performance on Sunday in a win over the 49ers might be remembered as the watershed moment.

After Rawls started and gained 4 yards on five carries in the first half (similar to the 3 yards on five carries Lacy had the week before as the starter), Carson took over. He gained 58 yards on seven attempts as Seattle finally scored the touchdown it needed to hold off stubborn San Francisco.

And on Monday, Carroll said there’s no reason to think Carson can’t pick up on Sunday at Tennessee where he left off against the 49ers.

“I think we can have very high expectations for Chris’ play,” Carroll said. “He has shown us, and now that we have looked at him all through camp and all of that, nothing has changed in his style of approach, his toughness and all of that. Everything he has done has been very, very consistent. I think he can continue to go, and he didn’t have any problems carrying it 20 times (for 93 yards), which is a good sign.”

Carson has impressed coaches with his maturity and humble nature since arriving in April as a seventh-round draft pick out of Oklahoma State. After his breakout game on Sunday he resisted the idea that he had wrested control of the starting job.

“You never take (football) for granted,” he said.

Carson learned that the hard way when he suffered an ACL injury during his senior year at Parkview High School in Lilburn, Georgia.

The knee injury combined with some academic issues (which weren’t helped by dealing with the stress of his injury) led to Carson having to forgo plans to attend Georgia and instead head to Butler Community College in tiny El Dorado, Kansas, a town of roughly 13,000 about 2 1/2 hours from Kansas City.

Troy Morrell, the coach at Butler when Carson played there, watched Carson on television on Sunday and recalled not knowing that Carson was coming to his school until the night before signing day. Another junior college Carson had been considering had a late coaching change, and Carson called up Morrell to tell him he was coming.

“It was just sort of by luck that we got him,” Morrell said.

Morrell says it actually wasn’t a given that Carson would play tailback when he arrived.

“He was the best athlete on our team and could have played any number of positions,” said Morrell, who also coached quaterback Zach Mettenberger and running back Rudi Johnson, both future NFL players, at Butler. Carson also played linebacker in high school and, Morrell said, worked as a wildcat-type quarterback, taking a direct snap and then running.

But he settled quickly at tailback at Butler and, in gaining 994 yards and averaging 7.1 per carry, as a sophomore reignited the college interest he had received before his injury. He also, Morrell said, “actually graduated early” so he could have a seamless transfer to Oklahoma State, where he signed after also considering Georgia.

He also solved an issue with fumbles. He had eight during his freshman season at Butler.

Morrell said one day he showed Carson some video of Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith “and how any time he got in traffic he put two hands on the ball” and showed an awareness for knowing where defenders were coming from.

Watching the Seahawks on Sunday, Morrell said Carson “was doing exactly that. So he did have some fumble issues at the beginning, but he is such a coachable kid he was able to make those corrections.” Carson had just two fumbles during his Oklahoma State career but he didn’t lose either.

Carson, though, battled a few injuries at Oklahoma State, missing four games as a senior due mostly to a broken left thumb. He gained 517 and 559 yards in his two seasons there, which helped lead to him falling to the seventh round of the NFL draft.

The 5-foot-11, 218-pound Carson said again on Sunday that he never cared where he was drafted.

“I was just excited I got picked,” he said.

Morrell said “for what he did at Oklahoma State and his career there, he probably fell where he needed to. You always worry about a guy that gets drafted that late getting into a good organization. That was the thing I told him after the draft, is that I was very thankful you are with a good organization.”

One that, despite having signed Lacy and drafted three tailbacks the year before, still had a glaring hole at tailback.

“He’s gotten his opportunity, and it’s his job to take and run with it,” Morrell said. “And that’s exactly what he is doing.”