Justin Forsett has no shortage of spark

MINNEAPOLIS — Justin Forsett is short.

No getting around that. He's listed at 5 feet 8 and is really an inch or two shorter.

But Forsett isn't small. Not at all. Small guys don't bench press 225 pounds 26 times in a row like Forsett did before last April's draft. That tied with 247-pound fullback Owen Schmitt for the fourth highest total among all running backs at the league's scouting combine in Indianapolis.

And small guys don't put so much pepper into a block that a 226-pound linebacker is blinking through stars and rubbing his jaw after a one-on-one blocking drill. But that's just what happened when Forsett lit up Lance Laury in one of the team's first padded practices for a collision that drew "oohs" from teammates.

"He hit me up under my chin," Laury said. "And I just threw him on the ground. I was like, 'Man, that hurt.' "

Laury paused for a moment and smiled a little.

"I'll know next time," he said.

The first impression Forsett made in Seattle turned out to be a dent. While veterans are knocking off the rust in tonight's exhibition game against the Minnesota Vikings, Forsett will be busy trying to make the roster.

The starters probably won't play much more than a quarter, coach Mike Holmgren said, so expect to see more of backup quarterback Seneca Wallace than starter Matt Hasselbeck.

It would be easy to overlook Forsett, because this will be the first time the Seahawks roll out their rebuilt ground game with free-agent additions Julius Jones and T.J. Duckett and Maurice Morris' promotion from perennial backup.

Forsett had the longest run in the team's scrimmage at Qwest Field last week, but the Seahawks aren't looking for him to carry much this season. It's his special-teams play and long-term potential that could turn this month's opportunity into a professional career.

The Seahawks have kept five running backs on the active roster to begin the past five seasons. Forsett is a seventh-round pick who will be trying to convince them to make it six.

And after two weeks, Forsett has the team's attention.

"He has prepared himself to make the football team," Holmgren said. "Now whether it happens or not, we'll have to see down the road.

"But he's doing everything he can do."

There are plenty of small players who have hit it big in the NFL. Barry Sanders was listed at 5-8; Dave Meggett stood 5-7, shifty as he was short; and Seahawks receiver Deion Branch stands eye to eye with Forsett.

But in a sport that hinges upon how the physics of a collision sort themselves out, size brings its advantages and an NFL training camp is nothing more than two servings a day of social Darwinism.

Every team gets to start out with 80 athletes, some big as bears and others fast as rabbits. Over five weeks, the number will be whittled to 53. Some will get hurt, others released. It's survival of the fittest, and Forsett showed up in Seattle as the short guy. The one defensive players will try to treat like a speed bump.

That was no surprise for Forsett. It was the same way in college at California.

"People always want to test you first," Forsett said. "They see your size. Shortest guy on the field so they're going to bull-rush you, see if they can muscle you. You've got to make a statement early."

The kind of statement that doesn't require words. Forsett nearly knocked Cal linebacker Desmond Bishop clean off his feet during one practice, and with the Seahawks, it was Laury who was stood up by one of Forsett's blocks.

"He's a little ball of dynamite," Holmgren said. "He's a tough guy."

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com