Chris Carson lost two fumbles in his first two seasons, over 18 games. The Seahawks running back has lost one in each of the first three games this season.
The Seahawks aren’t ready to bench him, though.
Instead, they will try “every way possible” to fix Carson’s fumbling problems.
“Because we do believe in him, we’re going to continue to show him that,” coach Pete Carroll said, via Curtis Crabtree of Sports Radio KJR and PFT. “He’s a terrific football player, and we want to make sure and maintain that level of play from him, so we’ll work at it and work with him on it. There’s a lot of technical stuff that’s really important, right down to the last instant of that play that he fumbled on there’s another thing that he could do to ensure taking care of the ball a little bit longer. He thought he was secure and thought he was taking care of it and bang all of a sudden the ball comes out. That’s life you know. That’s real in the league and all that. He’s going to have to be really on because guys are going to continue to come after him just like anybody would.”
Carson, who had 1,151 yards and nine touchdowns last season, has 45 carries for 159 yards and one touchdown so far this season. He also has 10 catches for 59 yards and a touchdown.
“I like the way he’s playing,” Carroll said. “I love the style of play. Out of the backfield, he’s added to his game. He’s still running physical and tough and doing all the things that we’re counting on. There’s nobody that we’d rather have have the ball in short-yardage situations and down by the goal line. He’s great at it.”
The Seahawks will see the return of running back Rashaad Penny to practice at some point this week, Carroll said, so Penny will give the team another option at the position. Penny injured his hamstring in the Week Two game against Pittsburgh and missed Sunday.
“He’ll be able to practice this week too, probably by Thursday to some degree,” Carroll said. “We need to see if he can tolerate it and what that means. We don’t know that yet.”