Seahawks add Christine Michael back to running-back mix

RENTON – Christine Michael is back with Seattle.

Coach Pete Carroll announced on Wednesday that the Seahawks have re-signed their former second-round pick, adding him to their running-back mix with Thomas Rawls lost for the season and Marshawn Lynch still recovering from abdominal surgery. The Seahawks brought back Bryce Brown earlier this week.

It’s a second chance for Michael, who never gave the Seahawks much return on the investment they made in him when he was chosen with the final pick in the second round in 2013. He was inactive more often than not, appearing in only 14 games during his two seasons with the Seahawks while carrying 52 times for 249 yards and no touchdowns.

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He’s back with Seattle following a trade to Dallas then a stint on Washington’s practice squad.

“I’m just happy to be back here, man,” Michael said. “I’m happy to be back here with the guys that drafted me, with the guys that I call my brothers. Like I said, I’m just ready to get going and just help out whichever way they want me to.”

The Seahawks’ running-back situation has been in flux with Rawls going down on Sunday and still no word on when Lynch will return. Seattle waived DuJuan Harris on Tuesday and re-signed Brown, who had two earlier stints with Seattle. Michael and Brown will compete to be the lead back while 34-year-old Fred Jackson remains in the third-down role he’s handled all season.

Michael’s knowledge of the offense would seem to give him an advantage, but Carroll will let it play out this week.

“The familiarity and the background that he has gives him a chance to help us,” he said of Michael, “and we always saw him as an explosive player. So we’ll see how that works out.”

The Seahawks traded Michael to Dallas for a conditional seventh-round pick before the start of the season. Carroll characterized that decision as more of a product of Rawls’ emergence than an indictment on Michael, saying he had a “really good offseason.” Michael was waived by Dallas after appearing in five games, went unclaimed then landed on Washington’s practice squad. He was released earlier this week.

Michael said that was humbling.

“And I used that word to myself when I’m evaluating myself, or whatever,” he said. “It is a humbling experience. I just have to evaluate myself now, I’ve just got to do things right, come in here with a good mindset, come in here focused like these other guys are and just come in here and work.”