Thoughts on Rashaad Penny?

[notweswelker]

My biggest concern was his inability to dislodge Donnel Pumphrey until he left for the NFL. But when I re-checked the stats, he was more impressive each year they were there concurrently. Interested to see how this year plays out.

[hockeyBjj]

Is he gonna play week 1? And if so would you play him over Jay Ajayi? Or are both gonna be out and I'll have to go with James White as my rb3?

[Jetsfan06]

Ya I’m sure he will have a role, but you can’t be confident in it until you see what the backfield is like after a week or 2. If it’s ppr White is probably the best option assuming Sony is out.

[FantasyFreak]

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/spo ... story.html

Article that talks about how the SD State running game was similar enough to Seahawks to help Seattle evaluate Penny.

The article also seems to confirm that Penny is around 236lb.

"Penny’s meal ticket is a thick-legged yet supple and fast-twitch body that weighed 231 pounds eight months ago for SDSU’s bowl against Army.

He slimmed to 220 in March for the NFL Scouting Combine, where he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.46 seconds. He regained the weight plus two pounds as of Aug. 21 and added three more pounds in recent days. Horton quipped that going from hamburger at SDSU to steak in the NFL has increased Penny’s intake."

He was running those kicks back and taking it to the house on those long runs at 231? Wow. I thought he looked a little more slender on his junior tape, but that game speed is impressive vs Stanford and at the Senior Bowl if he is indeed ten pounds heavier on that tape than originally thought. Interesting.

[notweswelker]

Is he gonna play week 1? And if so would you play him over Jay Ajayi? Or are both gonna be out and I'll have to go with James White as my rb3?

Absolutely starting Ajayi over him week 1. That is Carson's backfield as of now.

[HereForTheComments]

Is he gonna play week 1? And if so would you play him over Jay Ajayi? Or are both gonna be out and I'll have to go with James White as my rb3?

Not sure you can trust the Seahawks backfield until you watch it play out for the next couple of weeks. Also, Penny missed a good portion of training camp, his role will take time to fully develop. Don't be surprised if it takes a good portion of the season for his playing time to increase enough to warrant a start on your roster.

[Cult of Dionysus]

I'm a concerned Penny owner. I have no watched any of the SEA games, so I don't know what's actually happening to him. Is he stinking it up? Is it the O-line? The schemes? Are Carson and Davis playing much better? Why isn't Penny getting more targets?

Seattle invested heavily in this kid, and it seems that something isn't right. RBs should deliver early.

Would be grateful for some input on the above.

[Johnny Canuck]

It looks like Penny put on weight during the offseason, but put on too much and zapped his explosiveness a bit. Fingers crossed that's all it is, because that is easy to change. There's always a possibility that he's just a bust tho...

The o-line while not great, hasn't been as bad as last season. And yes, Carson (and now Davis) have both been playing far better than Penny.

[notweswelker]

You're heavily invested into the player, you should at least be familiar with his situation.
He's battled weight issues, his finger injury set him back, he has looked pretty bad so far, Chris Carson lit up camp and has looked the superior running back at every turn this year, then Carson was held out last week and Davis stepped up and looked better than Penny as well. All in all a shitshow, involving a bad but not terrible O-line. I have 4 Carson shares and 1 Penny share and Penny is starting to look like a bust to me.

[steelman]

I watched one Seattle game but saw very little of Penny. I hope it's just a matter of his blocking. That can be fixed easily.

[Servo]

Week 1 - Penny and Carson effectively split down the middle, and Carson just did more with the touches. They canceled each other out in the receiving game but Penny had 8 yards on 7 carries. No bueno.

Week 2 - meh performance from both against a good Bears defense. I believe Carson hardly played in the 2nd half and Penny couldn't muster much to separate himself.

Week 3 - No idea here, Seattle flips the game script and gives Carson 34 touches. Dallas' DLine is solid but on paper Carson's day wasn't anything spectacular. Someone else can chime in if they did watch that game.

Week 4 - instead of letting Penny get his chance, Seattle throws out Mike Davis as the lead guy. At least this game, Penny did something with his touches. Davis has also been a role player his entire career but a good chunk of that was due to injuries.

In sum, I don't think it's fair to say that Penny has been playing on Preseason Rojo's level but what's going on in Seattle is alarming. This team wanted to take Penny in the teens, trades back and gets him anyways later on....and yet are completely trolling the kid.

Sure Penny didn't do himself a ton of favors by having his finger broken and supposedly gaining weight. I get that Carson won the job for now, fine, but you have the opportunity to see what Penny can do in a feature role and instead give it to Mike Davis. Just doesn't really make sense, what's starting to become clear is that with how Seattle is using Penny, this is already looking like a horrible draft selection for them.

[Phaded]

Seattle has many issues right now. Penny is one of them for sure, but the team has bigger issues.

[Valhalla]

Penny has never really been that valuable...unless you can find a flaw in the press.

[BigBawseRoss]

the coach wont use him. he did fine with his touches this week. brutal usage that cant be explained, much like chubb in cleveland, rojo in tb, and drake in miami. coaches often times outsmart themselves.

[_yeti]

He's a finesse guy who played small conference college ball. He is showing to be a more complimentary NFL back than lead back... TJ Yeldon is making that work... It means he may not have the value it seemed but can still have a role