Thomas Rawls, C.J. Prosise among Seahawks who won’t play vs Vikings

RENTON – The backfield that the Seahawks have envisioned all offseason began to take some shape this week with projected starter Thomas Rawls progressing to team drills in practice and rookie C.J. Prosise returning from an extended injury absence.

Neither of those players will play in Thursday night’s preseason game against Minnesota, however. Rawls is still being eased back in following ankle surgery while the short week didn’t give Prosise enough practice time. He missed a significant portion of offseason work with a hip-flexor injury then hurt his hamstring on the first day of training camp and only returned on Monday.

All the time he’s missed means Prosise has a lot of catching up to do in order to win the third-down job that Seattle drafted him in the third round to fill. Coach Pete Carroll said he’s off to a good start.

“He had a good week but it’s a very short week, so we need a good, solid one to make sure that he’s back,” Carroll said. “So next week, if all goes well, we’re counting on him playing.”

With Rawls still out, Christine Michael figures to again get the first crack in Seattle’s backfield Thursday followed by Alex Collins and another rookie, Zac Brooks, who also returned to practice this week from a hamstring injury of his own.

Carroll: Seahawks energy in training camp ‘the best ever’

Right tackle J’Marcus Webb practiced on Tuesday for the first time since injuring his knee last week. Carroll said that “unless something changes and he looks really good” in pregame warmups, the Seahawks will hold him out at least another week. That means Garry Gilliam’s move to left tackle is still on hold. He’ll play right tackle with Bradley Sowell again starting on the left side.

Carroll said strong safety Kam Chancellor and defensive tackle Jordan Hill are close to returning from their groin injuries, but neither will play Thursday. Nor will tight end Jimmy Graham, who has yet to take part in team drills since returning to practice last week for the first time since knee surgery.

Wide receiver Kasen Williams will play now that he’s back from a hamstring injury. Linebacker Mike Morgan will as well despite traveling to Philadelphia earlier this week to see a doctor about an issue with his groin. And so will defensive tackle Tony McDaniel, who was brought back earlier this week.

“We’ve always liked Tony,” Carroll said about McDaniel, a starter for Seattle in 2013 and 2014. “We worked him out to see how he’s doing. He had a great workout. He’s in terrific shape, very trim and ready to go. He just looked good enough to be able to help us. We know he’s a significant factor in the past. We’re hoping that he’ll show in the next couple weeks that he belongs here, and we’re going to give him a good shot.”

Carroll said the starters will play more on Thursday than the dozen or so plays they got in the preseason opener against Kansas City.

“They’re going to get more play time and we’re anxious to see them out there together,” he said. “It’s a really good defense they’re playing against, good personnel with Minnesota. It gives us another good evaluation to see where we stand. This week, we weren’t able to take a lot out of the week.”

Something they were able to take away from the short week of practice is that their backfield is getting healthier.

“It really did kind of start to take some shape,” Carroll said. “Thomas got some really good reps in practice. He’ll have a really solid week next week if all goes well. We’ll see about what that means in terms of playing. We’re not going to rush that at all. But he looked good, and that was great to see. He and Christine just kind of working off each other, it was kind of fun to see how that will fit. C.J. Prosise got his first chance to really kind of show something, but again, it was such a limited week that you can’t tell. But he looks to be a very promising prospect to fit in somewhere. Zac as well. Zac’s a little bit ahead. He got a little bit more work.

“So the position just drastically shifted when those guys all came back. Next week will be a really good test to see where we are and see what it looks like if all goes well.”