Pete Carroll on Brock & Salk: Seahawks’ RB competition, injury updates and more

The Seahawks start the preseason at 7 p.m. Thursday against the Indianapolis Colts on 710 ESPN Seattle, so coach Pete Carroll joined Brock and Salk on Tuesday morning to help paint a picture of where the team stands almost two weeks into training camp.

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You can hear a clip of Carroll’s interview attached or at this link, or find the entire segment in this podcast of Tuesday’s show.

Below are a few highlights on the team’s offense from Carroll’s sit down with Brock and Salk at Seahawks headquarters in Renton:

Pleasant surprises

“I’m really excited about what we’re doing on offense and the diversity we’ve brought with the new guys and those adjustments. But I probably wouldn’t feel like that if I hadn’t seen the players respond. They’re really responding to it. And there are things we’re doing in the running game that is exciting; the running backs in general are exciting to watch every day. In the throwing game, we have things that are allowing us to take advantage of some of the special talents that our guys have, which I always love that stuff. All of that connection, it’s working, it looks good. I don’t know what’s going to happen the first week or first couple weeks as you look at it, but we’re on a really good track right now and a track that I think most people would not think we could be on at this time.”

The running back competition

“I’m just going to sit back and just feel it, just watch them. We’ve watched them a lot already. (The mock game on Saturday) was a great opportunity to see our guys bust out. There goes Chris (Carson) on the first play, Rashaad (Penny) took off on a couple big plays and just continues to do things. They’re so good at what they’re doing that it jumps out at you while you’re on the practice field. To see Rashaad running down the sidelines on a 60-yard run at 236 (pounds) … and he’s ripping down the sidelines and out running everybody. Pretty special guy.”

The diversity in the running back group

“They have special stuff. They’re really good in the passing game, too. Every one of the guys is really good in the passing game. We’ve worked really hard on our pass (protection) so that’s not an issue even with the young guys where you might think so, they’re going to be fine… Versatility shows up, but then there’s just depth and style and speed and size and a little bit of everything. So it’s a really fun group. I don’t ever remember having a group that has this much depth to it.”

The right side of the offensive line

“J.R. Sweezy has brought (competition) to us. Unfortunately he got knicked a little bit on his first day out, but he’ll be back in a few days. But (D.J.) Fluker’s been legit. I don’t know ho much you’ve zeroed in on him but to understand what he’s doing you need to look at it and understand how he’s moving people and also how he doesn’t get knocked back. You can’t knock him off the spot.”

Injury updates on Doug Baldwin and Dion Jordan

“Doug for sure (will play Week 1 of the regular season). Dion, we won’t know until we get him back out there. We know exactly what’s going on with Doug. He’s going to be able to make it back.

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