RENTON, Wash. -- In addition to the acquisition of Pro Bowl left tackle Duane Brown, the Seattle Seahawks are hoping a change in approach will jump-start their struggling running game. Seattle is going from a committee of tailbacks to committing to one of them: Eddie Lacy.
At least for now.
The first two months of the season have shown that the Seahawks' backfield plans are fluid, but Seattle's coaches indicated Wednesday that Lacy will get a chance to take over as the featured back beginning Sunday against the Washington Redskins (3-4) at CenturyLink Field.
"Going to see a lot of Eddie this week," coach Pete Carroll said.
Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell added: "We're going to start with Eddie and kind of let him go a little bit and then see where it goes from there."
Seattle's running game has been going nowhere for much of the season. The Seahawks rank 21st in the NFL in rushing at 97.6 yards per game and 27th in yards per carry at 3.7. Much of what little success they've had on the ground has come from quarterback Russell Wilson, who's second on the team with 194 yards.
The issue was never more pronounced than in last Sunday's win over the Houston Texans. Seattle rushed for a season-low 33 yards in that game, and 30 of them came on Wilson scrambles. Lacy, Thomas Rawls and J.D. McKissic combined for five yards on 16 carries.
"We missed," offensive line coach Tom Cable said. "We targeted right and all, but we just missed blocks. Too many negative plays."
The run blocking -- as opposed to the runners themselves -- was the primary issue against Houston, as has generally been the case this season. But Carroll acknowledged that the Seahawks might have been doing a disservice to their running game by trying to spread out the carries instead of giving one tailback a shot to see what he can do with the bulk of the work.
Rookie Chris Carson was Seattle's primary option until he went down in Week 4 with an ankle injury, but Seattle has divvied things up in his absence. In the three games without Carson, Rawls has gotten 25 carries (eight, 11, 6) and Lacy has gotten 26 (nine, 11, six). Seattle has mixed in McKissic (nine carries in that span) as the third-down back while C.J. Prosise has been sidelined.
That committee approach, and the fact Seattle has struggled to run the ball, helps explain why Carson remains the team's leading rusher with 208 yards. Lacy (108, 2.6 average) and Rawls (59, 2.0 average) are well behind.
"I don't feel like we've been in rhythm," Carroll said. "I think I've held them back a little bit by spreading it around quite a bit and trying to figure that out, and so as we zero in here, heading into the second half, I'm hoping that we're going to make some real headway."
Does Carroll want Lacy to be the featured back?
"We'll see," he said. "Yeah, I would love that to happen."
This was the assumed outcome when the Seahawks signed Lacy in free agency to a one-year deal. But after Carson won the starting job, Lacy played only seven snaps in the opener and was a healthy scratch in Week 2. That led some to suspect he could go the way of Cary Williams and J'Marcus Webb, recent free-agent busts who were released during their first seasons with the Seahawks.
But cutting bait right away wouldn't have made sense. Lacy is making nearly $3 million guaranteed this season, and the Seahawks have yet to see what he could do with more than just a handful of carries.
They're about to find out.
"My want is to see him as the finisher in the second half, going forward, where he can establish that size and that strength that he has, that power," Cable said. "So what does he bring? He brings power; he brings a guy who's done it. He's had a ton of carries in this league. I just think sometimes those backs, they've got to see it enough to really get kind of wired in."