Chris Carson ‘full go’ for Monday night, two other Seahawks starters coming back with him

The Seahawks’ running game is (almost) whole again.

Leading rusher Chris Carson is “full go” to start for the Seahawks (7-3) Monday night at the Philadelphia Eagles (3-6-1), coach Pete Carroll said Saturday before the team left for Pennsylvania.

Carson practiced fully Saturday during the team’s lighter, indoor work. It was his first full practice since he sprained his foot Oct. 25 early in Seattle’s overtime loss at Arizona. The Seahawks have lost three of the five games since he’s been out.

“He looks really good,” Carroll said, one day after play-caller Brian Schottenheimer said Carson looked “terrific.”

“He looks explosive, and in great shape,” the head coach said. “He’s got fresh-legs benefit. You can tell. You can feel it in his change of direction and all that stuff. So he is rarin’ to go.

“Yeah, he’s full go.”

Carson and Carlos Hyde, who returned last week from a hamstring he strained the same night Carson got hurt, give the Seahawks their top two running backs for the first time in more than a month.

That should force defenses to play Russell Wilson and Seattle’s offense more honestly. The Cardinals last month in the game Carson and Hyde got hurt then the Buffalo Bills and Rams after them blitzed Wilson into 10 turnovers while disregarding Seattle’s basically non-existent running game without their top two backs.

Pro Bowl cornerback Shaquill Griffin and starting center Ethan Pocic are also returning from injuries and will play Monday for the first time in weeks. Griffin has missed four games with a strained hamstring. Pocic has missed the last two weeks with a concussion.

“We got a few guys back, too, for this ballgame, thankfully,” Carroll said. “It’s been a while.”

Griffin and Tre Flowers will be the starting cornerbacks at Philadelphia. Quinton Dunbar is on injured reserve for at least another week with what Carroll has termed a “chronic” knee injury.

The Seahawks could be a getting a third top rusher back soon. And finally.

Carroll said the team expects Rashaad Penny to practice next week. It will his first time on the field with his teammates since Seattle’s first-round draft choice in 2018 tore knee ligaments last December during a game at the Los Angeles Rams.

The Seahawks signed Hyde to a one-year contract this spring knowing Penny would miss most of this season.

“I’ve talked to Rashaad about, he’s coming out (to practice) next week,” Carroll said.

“We are thrilled about that.”

Starting right tackle Brandon Shell is out for Monday night. He has a high-ankle sprain he got in the team’s win over Arizona last week.

“We won’t know until the end of next week how he’s doing,” Carroll said.

Cedric Ogbuehi will replace Shell against the Eagles. It will the first start for Cincinnati’s former first-round pick since Dec. 17, 2017, to end Ogbuehi’s third season for the Bengals.

Carroll made it sound as if both his wide receivers the team lists as questionable, rookie Freddie Swain and David Moore, will play Monday night.

“Freddie’s fine. He’s ready to go, practiced today and looks fine,” Carroll said.

“David just felt a little something yesterday We just have to see if he’s OK. He thinks he’s going to play and feels good about it.”

Penny Hart would get more playing time if Moore can’t play.

Taylor on hold

Rookie defensive end Darrell Taylor is schedule to meet with doctors early next week to determine whether and when he can practice for the first time with the Seahawks, Carroll said.

The second-round pick has been on the non-football-injury list all season. He had surgery Jan. 30 to fix a stress fracture in his lower leg on which he played his entire final season for the University of Tennessee in 2019. Doctors inserted a Titanium rod in his leg.

Taylor was supposed to be one of the team’s top defensive-line pass rushers this season, as a “Leo” end. His absence and failing to re-sign Jadeveon Clowney are why Seattle traded for two-time Pro Bowl end Carlos Dunlap last month.

Dunlap has 3 1/2 sacks in his first three games for the Seahawks.

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