During their first week of training camp, the Seattle Seahawks are already having injuries to their running back group, as head coach Pete Carroll announced after their fourth training camp practice on Sunday that lead back Ken Walker III has a groin injury and rookie back Zach Charbonnet has a shoulder injury.
Walker is week to week, as the groin injury has kept him out of three consecutive practices, while Charbonnet’s shoulder discomfort has kept him out of the last two. Both injuries are probably precautionary but the timetable for them to return is unknown for both former second-round pick running backs.
“Yeah, because it’s a groin, we’ve got to make sure,” Carroll said. “He doesn’t feel bad. It’s not a terrible injury or anything like that. We just don’t want to aggravate it now and make it something that lingers through camp.’
Carroll didn’t offer a specific timetable for Charbonnet, saying, “We’ll take some time to figure it out.”
“It just kind of crept up on him, really,” Carroll said. “He didn’t get hit or anything like that. Just all of a sudden, he started to feel something, so we’re just checking him out and being really cautious right now.”
The Seahawks have had poor injury luck at the position in years past, with Rashaad Penny, now with the Philadelphia Eagles, and Chris Carson, who retired last offseason at the age of 27 due to injuries after five years in the NFL.
To add to their running back room for the preseason and training camp, Seattle signed undrafted rookie SaRodorick Thompson on Monday, the day after the other running back injuries were announced. The Seahawks also have second-year Bryant Koback and undrafted rookie Wayne Taulapapa for depth as well to make up a young group of ball carriers.
But unless another big move is made at the position, the two that will likely take the lion’s share of the workload are fourth-year veteran DeeJay Dallas and rookie Kenny McIntosh. The 24-year-old Dallas has started two games for Seattle in the past three seasons, but based on camp reports, it seems that former Georgia’s seventh-round pick McIntosh is in the lead for taking the first team reps so far.
Both Dallas and McIntosh, along with the other backs mixed in, will likely take over in the preseason while Walker and Charbonnet rest up for the regular season. If McIntosh can prove he is more than just a third-down back, it will be interesting how his skillset meshes with the projected starting duo.
