Most Intriguing Seahawks: No. 12, RB C.J. Prosise

During each show until the start of training camp, “Brock and Salk” is counting down the 20 most intriguing players on the Seahawks’ roster. The countdown continued with running back C.J. Prosise. The segment on Prosise is embedded above. Brady Henderson’s thoughts are below.

The intrigue

At the end of the 2016 regular season, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was asked on “Brock and Salk” for his assessment of the team’s rookies. “It’s a great class that couldn’t stay healthy, unfortunately,” he said. “It could have been a phenomenal contribution that they could have made had they stayed healthy throughout.” And then Carroll pointed to the one rookie that embodied that more than any other. “C.J is the one we know is so obviously a factor,” Carroll said. “We miss the heck out of him.” Third-round pick C.J. Prosise dealt with four significant injuries last year, including two during the season that limited him to only six games as a rookie. But what he did in a few of those six games was impressive enough to create big expectations for Prosise as Seattle’s third-down back in 2017 and perhaps more than that down the road. But delivering on those expectations will depend on Prosise showing durability that he didn’t have as a rookie.

By the numbers

2. Seasons in which Prosise has been a running back. Remember, he was a wide receiver through the 2014 season at Notre Dame, catching 29 passes for 588 yards and two scores that year. That background makes Prosise an excellent fit as a third-down back, a role in which receiving skills are essential. It also means he has lots of room to grow as a runner considering he’s still pretty new to the position.

153. Combined yards for Prosise in Seattle’s road win over New England in November. Making his first career start, Prosise delivered a breakout performance, gaining 66 yards on 17 carries and 87 yards on seven catches. He was the most impressive player in what was arguably the Seahawks’ most impressive regular-season win under Carroll considering everything they were up against. Prosise ripped off a 72-yard touchdown run the following week against Philadelphia, but he broke his scapula later in that game and missed the rest of the season.

17/19. Prosise caught 17 passes on 19 targets for 208 yards last season. It’s not a huge sample size, but that is tremendous efficiency. And it’s not as though he was only catching short, high-percentage passes. The average was a healthy 12.2 yards. Two of his receptions went for more than 35 yards.

Notable

Prosise’s performance against New England was impressive not only because of the yards he produced but also the way he produced them – with some physical running. One play stood out. In the first quarter, Prosise was in a full sprint down the sideline after catching a pass in the flat. Instead of running out of bounds, he lowered his shoulder and ran over defensive back Duron Harmon. That caught the attention of teammates. “Our whole sideline exploded in excitement about that,” receiver Doug Baldwin said. “Football is a violent sport, and when you see things like that in that nature from a guy that you really haven’t seen anything from, it gets you excited.”

Quotable

Carroll, at the end of the season, on concerns with Prosise’s durability: “I can’t tell you that I’m not concerned about C.J. He had trouble through the offseason, was unavailable to us throughout, and there was a groin and a hammy and a wrist and then the scapula thing he had. He has to show it. The interesting thing is he was very consistent at Notre Dame his last year there; he rushed for 1,200 yards and caught some balls and all of that. So we just have to find it, and it seemed like it was a sequence of events. He certainly is on it when he’s right. We would have had a shot this week to try and get him out there again, we would have busted it to get it and he would have had a really good chance to make it, so he was that close to returning. But there is a concern.”

Most Intriguing Seahawks: No. 20, WR Jermaine Kearse; No. 19, K Blair Walsh; No. 18, S Bradley McDougald; No. 17, RB Thomas Rawls; No. 16, DT Jarran Reed; No. 15, DE Frank Clark; No. 14, WR/KR Tyler Lockett; No. 13, WR Amara Darboh.