Seahawks RB Zach Charbonnet Earned Bigger Role For 2024

The running back situation in Seattle has been frustrating for years as young, talented rushers continuously seem to experience bad luck with injuries. At the moment, Kenneth Walker‘s injury issues from last year are frustrating as he has practiced sparsely so far this summer, but the real frustration may be with fans of last year’s RB2 Zach Charbonnet, who has more than shown he can carry the torch in Walker’s absence.

According to ESPN’s Brady Henderson, regardless of how healthy Walker is in 2025, the Seahawks expect to utilize Charbonnet in a much bigger role this year. This doesn’t quite indicate that either running back has secured the RB1 role or that the RB1 role is up for grabs at all, but it’s becoming clear in Seattle that they need to get Charbonnet more opportunities, whether Walker is healthy or not.

Walker was an immediate hit as a second-round rookie out of Michigan State in 2022, rushing for over 1,000 yards and notching nine scores in 11 starts after initial starter Rashaad Penny went down with injury. In 2023, the team added Charbonnet, another second-round running back, and the UCLA back proved to be an immediate improvement behind Walker over Seattle’s Miami (FL) duo of DeeJay Dallas and Travis Homer had been in 2022.

Though Walker started all but two contests in 2023, Charbonnet (108 carries) cut quite a bit into Walker’s 219 carries. While Walker got first touches and goal line responsibilities, Charbonnet did more with his carries as a rookie, averaging slightly more yards per carry than Walker. Both backs played equal roles as receivers.

Last year, the picture changed significantly. Injuries forced Walker to miss three different two-game stretches. In those six games, Charbonnet proved to be perfectly capable as a replacement starter, totaling 433 yards and six touchdowns on 91 carries in those games, alone. Once again, Charbonnet outpaced Walker in yards per carry, but this time it was by a significant margin. Despite having 18 fewer carries than Walker, Charbonnet was only four yards short of him on the season and finished with one more touchdown than Walker.

This year, George Holani, an undrafted rookie on last year’s team, and seventh-round rookie (a third Hurricanes back) Damien Martinez don’t stand much of a chance at poaching carries, so it will be the Walker-Charbonnet show, though with what ratio, we don’t yet know. Walker is clearly a talented rusher, but injuries killed his third season in the league, and he has not been on the field much as the team implements a new offense.

Charbonnet, on the other hand, has shown maturity and patience as he waits for his name to be called. He’s been impressive in his spot starts, and perhaps more importantly, he’s only been inactive for a single game through his first two seasons in the NFL.

Keep in mind, also, that Walker will be playing on the final year of his rookie contract, and front offices tend to think running backs age like lettuce. If Walker doesn’t prove to be as effective as he was in his first two years of play, the Seahawks may just decide to see if Charbonnet can handle a full-time RB1 role moving forward and start looking towards future options at the position with no plans of extending or re-signing Walker.

Either way, it’s expected that we’ll see plenty of both backs in 2025. As long as he’s healthy enough, Walker should start the year as RB1. Charbonnet will likely rotate in off the bench as the team works on ways to get him more snaps throughout the games, or perhaps, they’ll alternate possessions. It’s all speculation at this moment, but Charbonnet has shown enough on the field to leave very little room for error for Walker in a contract year.