RENTON, Wash. -- Running back Mike Davis insists that none of his Seattle Seahawks teammates can match his skills in the video game "Call of Duty."
"I win every time," Davis said. "Nobody here can beat me in 'Call of Duty.' Nobody."
Richard Sherman, though, may have an argument that he earned a forfeit victory over Davis earlier this week. Those two were playing against each other Tuesday morning while Sherman was out of town for surgery on his season-ending Achilles injury. They were in the middle of a game when Davis got a text from his agent telling him the Seahawks were signing him off their practice squad.
It was news that Davis -- and many Seahawks fans -- had been waiting for. He called it a game and rushed into the team's facility.
"I was that excited," he said.
It's not clear how Davis will immediately fit into Seattle's backfield rotation, which also includes Eddie Lacy, Thomas Rawls and third-down back J.D. McKissic. Lacy may resume the lead role now that he's on track to return from a groin injury, but it sounds as though Davis will be involved to some degree Monday night against the Atlanta Falcons, his hometown team.
The Seahawks placed C.J. Prosise on injured reserve while promoting Davis to their active roster in what marked the latest change to a backfield that has been in flux in recent weeks.
Rookie Chris Carson beat out Lacy and Rawls for the starting job to begin the season, but he landed on IR after injuring his ankle in the fourth game. Lacy and Rawls split time evenly over the next month before the Seahawks decided that their struggling running game may be better off if one of them takes over. Lacy got the first shot but promptly got hurt, causing him to miss the remainder of Seattle's loss to Washington in Week 9 and last week's win over Arizona.
Rawls gained only 27 yards on 10 carries against the Cardinals as Seattle finished with 75 rushing yards as a team. Offensive line coach Tom Cable, who coordinates Seattle's running game, said the issues in that game were familiar.
"We're just not connected yet, and I've been saying that for a couple of weeks," he said. "We have work to do."
By "not connected," Cable means that Seattle's running backs and offensive linemen aren't working in concert the way they need to in order for rushing plays to work as planned. It's not hard to see why. In addition to all the running backs that have taken their turns, the Seahawks have turned over three-fifths of their opening-day line.
Seattle swapped out Mark Glowinski for Oday Aboushi at right guard in Week 3. Rookie Ethan Pocic has been filling at left guard over the last month while Luke Joeckel recovers from knee surgery. Duane Brown took over at left tackle for Rees Odhiambo after he was acquired in a trade two weeks ago. Brown went down in the second quarter against Arizona with an ankle injury and may not be available Monday night, in which case Matt Tobin would start.
The Seahawks are 22nd in rushing at just under 101 yards per game, which marks the second straight down season for what had been one of the NFL's top rushing attacks from 2012-15. And it's been worse than that average suggests.
The majority of Seattle's rushing production has come from Russell Wilson scrambles. He leads the team with 290 yards. Carson -- who hasn't played since Week 4 -- is second with 208 while Lacy (128) and Rawls (125) are well behind. If that holds, Wilson would become only the fifth quarterback since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to lead his team in rushing, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The Seahawks are averaging only 3.1 yards on designed runs this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information. That ranks 30th in the NFL and would be Seattle's worst mark on such plays in 10 years of tracking that stat.
The problem was at its worst in Week 8 against Houston, when Seattle finished with 33 rushing yards and 30 of them came from Wilson.
"It's just been hard to get the continuity that we want and it's not because we're not trying and the guys aren't working hard at it, but it just hasn't fit," coach Pete Carroll said. "We had one game in here in the last couple weeks that I thought we were really off, but other than that, it hasn't been that far down and I think we have a chance to continue to run.
"We're going to run the football this week. We're not going to not run it. We're going to run the heck out of it and keep working all the stuff that makes our offense fit the way it does. Hopefully we'll be productive. Let's see if we can get more consistent and be more productive with it."
Davis will get a shot to help. A fourth-round pick by San Francisco in 2015, he played sparingly (54 attempts for 108 yards) over his two seasons with the 49ers. But behind Carson, he was Seattle's second-most impressive running back during the preseason, when he gained 106 yards on 24 carries and also scored on a 22-yard screen pass.
The Seahawks claimed him off waivers in May after the 49ers let him go. Asked how he's a different runner now than he was over his first two seasons, Davis said he's more confident and "more angry." He felt he didn't get much of a chance in San Francisco.
"I play with an edge, a chip on my shoulder," he said. "That's something that really, really killed me is when I got cut. It changed everything I do."
Said Cable: "I'm fired up for him, fired up for what I think he can do to help our football team. You need someone who understands what they're seeing and what they're doing and connected to the blocking and it all has to fit. Hopefully he can do some of that for us."