Seahawks running game guru Knapp given new weapon with signing of Edgerrin James

Seahawks running game guru Knapp given new tool

RENTON, Wash. — Greg Knapp has always been able to run the football.

In his eight seasons as an offensive coordinator, Knapp’s teams have finished in the top 10 in the league in rushing every year and led the league three times.

But Knapp is facing a challenge this season, revitalizing a struggling ground game while fitting the league’s 11th all-time leading rusher into the fold.

Edgerrin James joined the Seahawks on Tuesday after lengthy speculation that the league’s active rushing leader was headed to Seattle. James has been very limited in two practices with the team as he tries to pick up Seattle’s offense on the fly with the Seahawks nearly a month into training camp.

“He’s still getting into football shape,” Knapp said. “It’s hard to come off the street and be in football shape. He’s in very good shape, just not football shape. I feel that it’s been a good transition so far and I feel that his time in Indianapolis will help (with learning the offense).”

James ran in a zone blocking scheme during his time with the Indianapolis Colts and some of his most productive years came during his time in that scheme.

“I love the scheme,” James said. “This is one of the schemes that I’ve had success in. The past couple of years I haven’t run the things that I came from Indianapolis running. Now you’re getting into where you have the zone blocking scheme and when you do something for seven years, that’s what you’re kind of accustomed to, and then all of a sudden you’re doing something different.”

James has been shadowing incumbent starter Julius Jones in his first two days with the team. After every play he’s in the ear of Jones, third-string back Justin Forsett or fullback Justin Griffith trying to pick up the nuances of Knapp’s offense. He spent 15 to 20 minutes after practice Thursday taking handoffs from backup quarterback Jeff Rowe.

“It’s just of matter of being out here and hearing the calls. I don’t want to be out there and embarrass myself,” James said. “But it doesn’t seem that complicated. I’ll have it picked up in no time.”

Knapp has vowed to turn around a Seahawks rushing attack that has foundered since their Super Bowl run in 2005. He thought he had his pieces in place with Jones, Forsett and T.J. Duckett as his running backs, but the Seahawks came to see Duckett as only a short-yardage role player and not the complement to Jones they were hoping for.

They hope that James can be effective in short-yardage situations while still adding another dimension that Duckett couldn’t provide.

“Julius is going to be our workhorse, our lead dog, and to be able to get a guy of Edgerrin’s caliber, and of his personality, and of his pedigree to come in here and do what he’s going to do, it’s really a bonus for us,” head coach Jim Mora said Wednesday.

Knapp said that they told James that Jones would be their number one guy, but that he would still factor in heavily in the running game.

“We told him that Julius would be our number one back, but that we use two backs quite a bit,” Knapp said. “Just look at our time in Oakland last year, we had three guys — Michael Bush, Justin Fargas and Darren McFadden — that we gave carries to. We want to keep everyone fresh so there will be plenty of carries to go around.”

The Seahawks have struggled to get their rushing attack going in their first two preseason games, gaining only 164 yards on the ground. Jones missed the game last Saturday with a thigh bruise, leaving Duckett, Forsett and rookie free agent Devin Moore to shoulder the load.

With Walter Jones and Chris Spencer going down with injuries this preseason, the Seahawks have also been forced to shuffle their offensive line around several times, adding to the team’s struggles.

But Knapp said he isn’t worried about the team’s progress with the scheme.

“We’ve got plenty of time,” Knapp said. “In my two experiences of starting up with this run scheme, both in Atlanta and Oakland, it will be six, seven games into the regular season before we’re hitting on all cylinders. It takes time, so I’m not worried at all.”