Does it matter which of Walker and Charbonnet is Seahawks’ top RB?

Sep 15, 2025, 12:51 PM

Seattle Sports

Heading into the season, a big question surrounding the Seattle Seahawks was how the carries would be split between running backs Kenneth Walker III or Zach Charbonnet.

10 numbers that stand out after Seahawks’ Week 2 win

Will the tandem be more of a timeshare? Or will one of them eventually emerge as the RB1?

Through two weeks, the answers to those questions remain murky.

In Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers, Charbonnet was clearly the more productive back. Charbonnet ran for 47 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries in that game, while Walker finished with just 20 yards on 10 carries.

But in Sunday’s Week 2 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, the results were flipped. Walker had one of the best games of his career, exploding for 105 yards and a TD on 13 carries – capped by a sensational 19-yard score on third-and-goal in the closing minutes that put the game away. Charbonnet, meanwhile, logged just 10 yards on 15 carries.

Why has there been such a dramatic disparity in results over the first two games? Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald was asked that question Monday during his weekly appearance on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

“It’s interesting,” Macdonald said. “I mean, look, this is why you don’t make crazy decisions after one observation. … We’ve got two great backs, and you’ve seen Charbs at his best. And frankly, there wasn’t a lot of space for Charbs yesterday. We’ve gotta do a better job at giving him more space and opportunity to do his thing – as was (the case with) K9 in the first game.”

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According to Pro Football Reference, Charbonnet averaged 2.2 yards before contact against the 49ers, while Walker averaged just 1.1 yards before contact. As Macdonald mentioned, that would seem to indicate that Charbonnet had more room to maneuver than Walker.

PFR’s yards before contact aren’t yet available for Seattle’s Week 2 game against Pittsburgh.

“Why that happens, I don’t know,” Macdonald said of the week-to-week discrepancies. “I mean, there’s a lot of things at play. It’s how (the defense) is playing it, the defensive structure. Now, going into the game, if you would have told me that it would’ve worked out the way it (did), I probably wouldn’t have believed you. It wasn’t like, hey, K9 is gonna be way better against this defensive structure than Charbs. It doesn’t really work like that, I don’t think.

“But what’s important is that these guys get ample opportunity, and they’re gonna be great backs for us the whole year. And it’s important that you share the workload as well.”

Macdonald also mentioned that while Charbonnet didn’t have much production in the run game, he excelled at picking up blitzes. Charbonnet finished with a team-high 81.3 Pro Football Focus pass block grade on Sunday.

“I’m happy for both guys,” Macdonald said. “Charbs has the capability to play on every snap the whole game, as does K9. But that’s probably not the best for the team right now. But happy for K9. He’s been working really hard. He’s been working through his foot (injury) obviously, and he had a lot of success yesterday and iced the game there on that run.

“But Charbs is doing a lot of great. Even though the (yards) weren’t there, the pass-protection stuff, the third-down stuff, … those are all good plays as well.”

Listen to the full Brock and Salk conversation with Mike Macdonald at this link or in the audio player near the bottom of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.