For the longest time when you thought of Seahawks running back C.J. Prosise it was mostly about his injuries, so many and so many different body parts that it was hard to keep track of what they were.

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Since being drafted in the third round in 2016, Prosise has played in only 16 of the Seahawks’ 48 regular-season games. Two of them stood out from his rookie season – in a Sunday night win at New England, Prosise rushed for 66 yards and added 87 receiving yards, then he had a 72-yard TD run against Philadelphia the following week.

But he suffered a season-ending injury in the Eagles’ game and was not heard from much in the past two years, injuries derailing his second and third seasons too.

Prosise has become a running joke in Seattle for his inability to stay healthy. Some question his toughness, but is it really his fault? Maybe he’s fragile, or maybe he’s just been unlucky.

What you can’t question is how good he is when he’s healthy. And we saw more evidence of that Saturday night in the Seahawks’ 23-15 victory over the Chargers. Prosise rushed for 32 yards on five carries and stood out during a scoring drive in the second quarter with consecutive bursts of 9, 8 and 7 yards. Then he culminated things with a 1-yard touchdown run.

He didn’t look better than the starter, Chris Carson, but he outshined every other running back, including Rashaad Penny, who had a good night himself but didn’t look as effective as Prosise to me. Plus Prosise is still only 25 with several years left in his prime.

Prosise was on the field for only 12 plays Saturday night. Perhaps Pete Carroll had seen enough to know what he has in Prosise, rekindling those memories from three years ago, even if it was just a preseason game. Or perhaps Carroll didn’t want to chance a 13th play in which Prosise would have suffered his 18th injury and never been seen in a Seahawks uniform again.

Based on his history, it’s impossible to rely on Prosise, but because of his obvious talent, it’s impossible to give up on him too. I’d roll the dice and put him on my 53-man roster. And then I’d roll the dice some more and make him the primary backup to Carson and turn Penny into the third-down back.

And if I lost Prosise to another injury, I’d say oh well and elevate Penny to replace him. Well, that’s what I’d do if I were Carroll anyway. If I were calling the shots, I’d replace him with J.D. McKissic, a personal favorite and a player who I think is a better change of pace to Carson than Penny.

However that shakes out, we’ll see once the season starts, but for now, a supposedly meaningless game in August told us that Prosise can still be an asset for the Seahawks.

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