Thomas Rawls
The Seattle Seahawks will look to the 5-9, 215lbs, Thomas Rawls, to be their featured running back in 2016. Rawls was signed by Seattle as an undrafted rookie out of Central Michigan in 2015. Despite being buried on the depth chart at fourth string, the former Chippewa became the first undrafted running back in league history to rush for at least 160-yards in two games. He emerged as the starter in place of an injured Marshawn Lynch. In his first year, Rawls went on to rush for 830-yards on 147-attempts, even in a season cut short by injury.
While replacing Lynch, Rawls averaged a whopping 5.65-yards-per-carry; a league-best that turned heads in the Seahawks’ front office. Sheil Kapadia of ESPN stated:
“Rawls showed the Seahawks everything they wanted to see last season: vision, toughness, explosiveness, and smarts.” All of that production made parting with the 30-year-old Marshawn Lynch much less painful.
Beastmode retired at the end of the season, opening up 6.5 million dollars in salary cap space, and saving the Seahawks the agony of releasing one of the franchise’s most beloved players. In preparation for life without Marshawn, the Seahawks struck gold with Rawls. The NFL.com draft report for Rawls stated with uncanny accuracy:
“While he finishes with brute force, he possesses the vision and lateral movement of a finesse runner. He is more than capable of handling a starter’s workload in the NFL.”
When Beastmode went down, Pete Carroll looked to Rawls to fill in for the injured all-pro. Unfortunately, the first-year running back suffered a fractured ankle in week 14 against the Baltimore Ravens. The injury was severe enough to require surgery and the rookie’s season was over. Currently, the second-year pro is still recovering and the Seahawks are dealing with the uncertainty of his return.
While Rawls has been limited in off-season training activities, he is making progress and the team plans to bring him up to speed in training camp. When asked if the Seahawks plan on Rawls being ready for week one, the coach commented
“That’s kind of what we are thinking . We have to avoid setbacks, obviously. But we are kind of counting on it.’’ (The Seattle Times)
Rawls will be asked to replace one of the greatest running backs in NFL history. When coach Carroll was asked about his remarkable emergence as the team’s top running back, he said
“Now we know what we have, so it will be even more exciting. He’s confident he’ll get it done.” (The Seattle Times)
Rawls is off to a phenomenal start, but he has big shoes to fill and he needs to stay healthy down the stretch.
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Christopher DuVall is a writer for the Couch Rider Report. Follow him on Facebook.
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