What now for Rashaad Penny? He’s been a disappointment for most of his four years in a Seattle, but he’s cranked up his game right as he’s hitting free agency.
Three times in the last month, Penny has come up big. He ran for 137 yards and 2 TDs at Houston. He ran for 135 yards and a touchdown against the Bears. And on Sunday, he went for 170 yards and 2 TDs against the Lions.
Those are all lesser run defenses, of course. But Penny didn’t just inch over 100 yards in those games. He’s been putting up big numbers. He also averaged at least 6.8 yards per carry in all of those games.
In the last 10 years, only 25 running backs have had three games with 135 rushing yards in the same season, and I don’t see lot of lesser-type backs doing it.
| BIG RUSHING DAYS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Tm | No |
| 2012 | Adrian Peterson | MIN | 7 |
| 2021 | Jonathan Taylor | IND | 5 |
| 2020 | Derrick Henry | TEN | 5 |
| 2014 | DeMarco Murray | DAL | 5 |
| 2019 | Derrick Henry | TEN | 4 |
| 2016 | Ezekiel Elliott | DAL | 4 |
| 2014 | Jeremy Hill | CIN | 4 |
| 2013 | LeSean McCoy | PHI | 4 |
| 2013 | Adrian Peterson | MIN | 4 |
| 2012 | Doug Martin | TAM | 4 |
| 2012 | Jamaal Charles | KAN | 4 |
| 2021 | Derrick Henry | TEN | 3 |
| 2021 | Rashaad Penny | SEA | 3 |
| 2020 | Dalvin Cook | MIN | 3 |
| 2019 | Joe Mixon | CIN | 3 |
| 2019 | Christian McCaffrey | CAR | 3 |
| 2017 | Kareem Hunt | KAN | 3 |
| 2017 | Jordan Howard | CHI | 3 |
| 2016 | LeVeon Bell | PIT | 3 |
| 2016 | Jay Ajayi | MIA | 3 |
| 2016 | LeSean McCoy | BUF | 3 |
| 2015 | Todd Gurley | STL | 3 |
| 2014 | LeVeon Bell | PIT | 3 |
| 2014 | Arian Foster | HOU | 3 |
| 2012 | Chris Johnson | TEN | 3 |
As Penny hits free agency, I think this changes the thinking some on him. He’s going to have a market of teams interested in his services, probably with the Seahawks leading the way.
Penny hasn’t been super productive over the last four years, but there have been extenuating circumstances. For most of his four years, he was beaten out by Chris Carson, and no shame in that – Carson has been one of the league’s top dozen backs over the past few years. Penny has had problems with injuries, including a torn ACL that cost him about a year.
The low point for Penny came in training camp this year, where he was not as effective as Alex Collins. But he’s got it going pretty good right now, and I think that will be enough to convince some team to sign him to a contract with the expectation he’ll be doing at least a good portion of the ball carrying for them.
I don’t think a team would want to go into a season with just Penny and a bunch of afterthought players at tailback. But if you get a couple of Penny guys, you could reasonably think you had the position adequately covered.
Notable free agent running backs who moved last year included Mike Davis, Jamaal Williams and Kenyan Drake. Penny, I think, looks reasonable enough when compared with those kind of guys.
—Ian Allan