Getty The Seahawks hosted former Michigan State running back L.J. Scott.
The Seattle Seahawks hosted four free agents for tryouts on September 14th as the team met with former Michigan State running back L.J. Scott, ex-USC receiver De’Quan Hampton, former Florida linebacker Jachai Polite and ex-Illinois State corner Tre Roberson, per the NFL transaction wire. Seattle also hosted former Iowa State tight end Michael Jacobson for a free-agent visit.
The Scott tryout is particularly noteworthy as it appears Rashaad Penny could once again miss significant time. Penny had two carries for eight rushing yards against the Colts before exiting the game with a calf injury.
“It’s a little bit more than that,” Carroll told ESPN 710 Seattle. “He’s got a little bit of a calf issue and we’ll determine in the next couple of days how we handle that. But we’ve got to take care of him and make sure he gets back. He looked great on the couple of carries he had, but it got tight on him. We did some tests and stuff but we’ll let you know in the next couple days. We’ve got to take care of him.”
Hampton is another intriguing name on the Seahawks visit list. The 6’4″ 225-pound receiver played two seasons at USC and his best year came in 2015 when the wideout notched 15 receptions for 165 yards.
Scott Rushed for 2,855 Yards & 25 Touchdowns at Michigan State
Scott rushed for 2,855 yards and 25 touchdowns while averaging 4.7 yards per carry in his four seasons at Michigan State. The former Spartans running back’s NFL stops included the Browns before abruptly retiring days after signing with Cleveland.
“Source close to LJ Scott tells me LJ has decided to not play football and has left the Browns,” WFMJ’s Dana Balash tweeted on May 15, 2019.
Heading into the 2019 NFL Draft, NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein compared Scott to Jordan Howard.
“Scott failed to hit the 1,000 yard mark during his career and had just one season averaging more than 4.8 yards per carry, but those numbers are not indicative of his NFL potential,” Zierlein detailed. “Despite consecutive seasons of traffic jams in front of him, his vision and decisiveness has not been compromised. Scott is a volume ball-carrier whose pass-catching ability adds to his value as a potential starter, but he struggles to find explosive carries and might need to be part of a ‘thunder and lightning’ pairing.”
Penny’s Injury Likely Means More Work for Collins & Dallas
The Seahawks are unfortunately used to dealing with Penny being sidelined and his most recent injury likely means Alex Collins will have an increased role in the offense. Collins was a surprise inactive in the Seahawks season opener against the Colts, but that is unlikely to be the case against the Titans. Second-year back DeeJay Dallas could also emerge as the team’s RB2 behind Chris Carson.
“He’s got a calf strain, so it’ll take us a bit to figure out what the return would be on that,” Carroll noted, per Seahawks.com. “He ran really well when he ran the other night, so we’re going to miss him, it looks like this week, we won’t know. We’ll let you know how that goes. But Alex is ready to go, and both Homer and DeeJay, they’re ready to go too, so we’re in good shape. We had four running backs up this week, so we’re in pretty good shape at the position. Unfortunately, if it takes him a couple weeks, then we’ll figure out how to handle that.”