Justin Fargas

Edgerrin James has been shadowing incumbent Seahawks RB 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."