1. First-round pick Rashaad Penny impressed as a pass-catcher.
Rashaad Penny led the nation in rushing last year, piling up 2,248 yards and 23 touchdowns for San Diego State, and while the Seahawks made him their first-round pick in large part to help the ground game, Penny also showed this weekend that he can be a weapon in the passing game as well.
“He caught the ball beautifully, really,” Carroll said. “He can do whatever we need to do in the throwing game. Schotty (Brian Schottenheimer) did a nice job of mixing some stuff in so we could see him doing different route concepts, so we had a real good variety of things that we looked at in and out of the backfield. With a couple of exceptions, he did a really good job. So that’s a real good sign. We’re going to work real hard with his pass protection and make sure that he’s up to speed there. We’d like to see if we can make him available to us on all three downs. Kind of like we use Chris (Carson).”
While pass protection wasn’t one of Penny’s strengths in college, Carroll is confident they will get the running back up to speed in that element of the game.
“It’s a really interesting phase of the game,” he said. “The running backs who have not been called on to pass protect a lot, they’ll at times look like they are way out of whack with the pass pro, until they realize what it is—the physical part of what the blocking really calls for. Just through being dedicated to making sure he’s ready for the season, he’ll get a ton of work in camp. He won’t have any problems with it at all. He’s got a great body for doing it. He’s a tough kid. So it’s just a matter of getting in the reps, understand how physical they can be, the different types of styles of rushes they get. It really comes along rather quickly. Some guys always have the knack for being the tough guys in that situation, and we’ll find out about that. I don’t know that yet. But I’m not concerned that we’ll have enough time to get him ready to pass pro because he’s going to work real hard at it in camp.”