Seahawks RB Rashaad Penny Has Returned From Island of Misfit Toys
Admit it: you wrote Rashaad Penny off. I certainly did, long before this season even started. Yet here we are, talking about Penny having the best game of any Seahawks running back of the season in December of 2021.
It has been a long journey for the former San Diego State great. Expectations skyrocketed for Penny after the Seahawks drafted him with the No. 27 pick in the first round of the 2018 draft. But all four of Penny's seasons in Seattle have been marred to some degree by injury. He fractured his finger during his first training camp in August of 2018. He then missed two games with a knee strain in the latter part of his rookie season.
The following season brought on two new injuries: first, a nagging hamstring that caused him to miss a few games before a devastating ACL injury led to a premature end to his campaign. This caused him to also miss the majority of the 2020 season.
Unfortunately, 2021 would start off in similar fashion as a calf strain limited Penny for most of the first half of the season.
Time and time again, Penny has been cast aside and been the butt of many jokes. Most who criticize general manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll's recent draft whiffs directly point to Penny. Up until now, those critiques have been valid and understandable.
The SDSU product had rushed for 823 yards and five touchdowns in three seasons before 2021. Part of the criticism comes from the high production of other running backs who came after Penny—still on the board when the Seahawks pulled the trigger on No. 20.
Sony Michel went just four slots after Penny, to the Patriots, and proceeded to have back-to-back 900-yard seasons to open his career. The Browns' Nick Chubb out-gained Penny's three-year numbers in his rookie season in Cleveland alone, with 996 rushing yards and eight touchdowns, after being taken eight spots after Penny. He followed that up with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. Also in the second round of the 2018 draft, Ronald Jones II was taken by the Buccaneers and rushed for over 900 yards in their run to a Super Bowl title last season.
Seahawks fans tossed Penny to the scrapheap of draft busts of the current era of Seattle football—like an old, broken, faulty toy. He went where all those kinds of toys go: to the Island of Misfit Toys, as told in the 1964 Christmas stop-motion animated television special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Penny basically took up residence on the forsaken island with others like him from the first round of that draft, like No. 3 overall pick Sam Darnold and the No. 7 pick Josh Rosen. Finally, Penny looks to have taken the perilous journey off that dreaded island.
Pete Carroll spoke with 710 ESPN Seattle on Monday, following Penny's breakout performance against the Texans.
"He was running tough yesterday," Carroll noted. "That was the most physical outing he’s ever had and the most productive one … He just played like he can be. He didn’t play out of his mind, he just played like he’s capable of playing.”
The 25-year old finished the game with 16 carries for 137 yards and two touchdowns, all career-highs. His 8.56 yards per carry was the second-best rate among any rusher this season with at least 15 carries in a game.
At long last, Penny looked like the weapon Carroll and company envisioned he could be over three years ago. The biggest question now is: will he guide Seattle's sleigh to the playoffs? Or was this a foggy mirage due to playing the worst-ranked run defense in the NFL?
Let's find out.
