RENTON — With the emergence of rookie C.J. Prosise and the expected return from injury of Thomas Rawls this week quickly changing the face of the Seahawks’ backfield, the team on Tuesday decided to waive running back Christine Michael, likely bringing to an end one of the more enigmatic careers in the franchise’s recent history.

The Seahawks also waived defensive tackle Sealver Siliga while signing defensive tackle John Jenkins, who was recently released by the Saints. That leaves the Seahawks with one open spot on their 53-man roster. Seattle used that opening to promote Troymaine Pope from the practice squad to fill out the tailback spot with Michael gone. Pope, who led the Seahawks in rushing with 162 yards, was recently re-signed to the practice squad after being waived by the Jets.

Michael was the team’s surprise first pick in the 2013 NFL draft, taken No. 62 overall in the second round out of Texas A&M, viewed at the time as the heir apparent to Marshawn Lynch. But he never quite lived up to the lofty billing in either of his two stints with the team.

After failing to make much of a dent on the depth chart in 2013 and 2014, he was traded to Dallas for a seventh-round pick before the 2015 season, at the time seeming to spell a surprisingly quick end to his Seattle career.

But when injuries shelved Rawls and Marshawn Lynch late in the season and with Michael available, languishing on Washington’s practice (he had been waived by Dallas), the Seahawks brought him back.

The move appeared for a while like a masterstroke for each side with Michael appearing to finally play the way the team expected he could, rushing for 102 yards in a late-season win at Arizona and leading the team with 70 yards on 21 carries in its wildcard playoff win at Minnesota, a game he had to start when Lynch decided two days prior to the game that he wasn’t healthy enough to play.

With Lynch retired and Rawls still recovering from a broken and dislocated ankle suffered last Dec. 13 at Baltimore, the team re-signed Michael to a one-year, $725,000 deal in the off-season (though only after somewhat tellingly declining to make him a qualifying offer as a restricted free agent, the team appearing to still hedge its bets.)

Also indicating that the Seahawks weren’t totally putting all its chips in Michael’s basket was the drafting of three running backs, including Prosise.

Michael, though, appeared to have fully turned a corner in the off-season as he worked throughout training camp as the starting tailback with Rawls still recovering and none of the rookies either staying healthy or overtaking him on the depth chart.

When Rawls then suffered a hairline fracture in his fibula in week two against the Rams, Michael became the unquestioned starter and played well for a while, rushing for a career-high 106 yards in a win over the 49ers.

But his production and playing time decreased the last few weeks and he was benched late in the Buffalo game in favor of Prosise, a third-round pick out of Notre Dame, who then started Sunday’s 31-24 win at New England as the Seahawks sought for ways to revive a running game that has been stagnant much of the season —- Seattle is averaging 77.7 yards rushing per game which remains on pace to be the worst in franchise history and is 30th in the NFL.

Rawls is also expected to return this week with Pope coming off the practice squad — all of which made Michael expendable.

Prosise started against the Patriots after the Seahawks had somewhat mysteriously listed Michael as questionable for the game on Friday with a hamstring injury. The team had not listed Michael on the injury report earlier in the week and the report of Michael was added to the team’s initial injury report only after coach Pete Carroll had met with the media. Michael played against the Patriots but did so sparingly (Michael had just 22 yards on five carries against the Patriots while Prosise had 66 on 17).

Asked about Michael’s hamstring on Monday, Carroll dismissed the issue quickly saying “he’s fine. He was fine.” That made it clear that Michael’s demotion had been performance and not injury related.

Carroll on Monday, in fact, seemed to foreshadow that Michael would be on the outside looking in speaking enthusiastically of a pairing of Rawls and Prosise in the backfield. Along with Pope, the team also has Alex Collins, a fifth-round pick this year, available to play tailback.

“With C.J., the versatility of all the things he seems to be able to do at this point, and knowing that there’s a really style to Thomas that we’re really looking forward to seeing it could be a real nice matchup,’’ Carroll said. “Well see how that works.”

Rawls led the Seahawks with 830 yards before suffering a broken and dislocated ankle against Baltimore on Dec. 13. He then had 25 yards on 19 carries in the first two games this year before hurting his fibula. Rawls returned to practice last week and Carroll said on Monday he would be “practicing to play” this week.

While Michael showed some early flashes this season, Seattle running backs coach Sherman Smith spoke frankly before a game against New Orleans on Oct. 30 about the need for Michael to be more physical — he had several times run out of bounds to avoid contract near the end of runs, to which Carroll later said “we coached him up” about.

“I think the thing that helped us be successful in the past was we extended runs,’’ Smith said last month. “We had Beast Mode (Lynch), we had Thomas Rawls breaking tackles. So now we are doing a good job of getting what’s there but I think there are more yards there to be had. … C-Mike against the Jets (when he had 58 yards on 18 carries) he was very physical as a runner and that’s the mindset that he has to bring every week.”

Michael has 469 yards on 117 carries for this season and 915 on 208 attempts in his Seattle career, which now appears over for good. He scored his last touchdown on a 3-yard touchdown run against Buffalo, afterward throwing the ball into the stands, a move for which he was fined $6,076 by the NFL. But he finished the game with just one yard on five carries, paving the way for Prosise to start against the Patriots.

Michael’s re-emergence in his second Seattle tour led offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell to at one point refer to him as having “an awakening.”

And the storyline that Michael had now matured was a popular one among Seattle coaches and players. Michael wore the name “Michael Sr.” on his jersey this year after the birth of his son in the off-season and talked about that having led to him realizing he needed to not take his NFL career for granted, as he felt he had been guilty of during his first sting with the Seahawks.

“As a man, you have to grow up someday,” Michael said in August.

Siliga, who had been waived as injured in the pre-season, was re-signed in October. He played in four games making four tackles.

Jenkins is a former third-round pick in 2013 who started 22 games for the Saints before being released. The 6-3, 359-pounder had seen his playing time decrease with the Saints before being released.