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Charbonnet Went Full Go. The Clock Runs Out Today.
Zach Charbonnet was a full participant in practice Wednesday for the first time since he returned on Oct. 1, per ESPN’s Brady Henderson. He’d been listed as limited on every report before that. The timing is no accident: Seattle has to put him on the 53-man roster by Thursday or leave him on the PUP list for the rest of the season. Nobody is leaving him there.
Mike Macdonald says there’s a “possibility” Charbonnet plays Sunday night against Kansas City, eight months after surgery on the ACL he tore in January’s playoff win over the 49ers. Activation doesn’t guarantee he dresses, as SI points out. But a full week of reps tends to point one direction.
Here’s why I care more about Charbonnet than about most Week 7 returns. Per SI, he did not lose a single fumble in his first three NFL seasons. Emanuel Wilson and George Holani each coughed one up in the 49ers loss, and Jadarian Price lost two in three games before he landed on IR. A running back who holds onto the football is, in this building right now, an imported luxury good.
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Lost fumbles in Zach Charbonnet’s first three NFL seasons, per SI.
He might not be alone in that hallway, either. Anthony Bradford was limited in his first practice off injured reserve, and SI says the coaches sound far more sure about him playing Sunday. A right guard and a back who doesn’t fumble, for an offense that has given up 16 sacks in six games. Neither one fixes everything, but at least now somebody is showing up to help.
SOURCES →
Analysis
Seattle Never Even Offered Kenneth Walker a Contract
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So the only contract talk on record is John Schneider’s pre-parade joke that Walker tried to negotiate with him before going on stage, which Walker said never happened. Walker told PFT in May he’d figured out during the season that he wasn’t coming back. It’s not hard to see how. Per Seattle Sports, he got 20 or more carries in only one of his 20 games last season. That was the Super Bowl, where he turned 27 carries into 135 yards and the MVP trophy.
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Games out of 20 last season in which Seattle gave Walker 20 or more carries, per Seattle Sports. It was the Super Bowl.
“We appreciate the heck out of him,” Macdonald said Wednesday. “We have to move forward now.” Easy to say until Sunday night, when Walker brings the NFL’s rushing lead (665 yards) to Lumen and faces a run defense allowing 3.9 yards a carry, 15th in the league.
I don’t actually mind that Seattle wouldn’t pay a running back what Kansas City did. Teams make that call every year. What bugs me is that the one time they gave him the ball 27 times, he won them a title. Kansas City noticed that. Apparently nobody here did.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Drake Thomas, Chazz Surratt and Connor O’Toole all sat out Wednesday, and Tyrice Knight, who started for Thomas in Denver, was limited with an oblique. The league’s leading rusher shows up Sunday. The linebacker room is currently a medical chart. Yahoo Sports
Kansas City’s tackles both missed Wednesday: Jaylon Moore with a concussion and Josh Simmons for a personal matter. Darnold took ten sacks in five days. Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II would love to pass that energy along. Chiefs.com
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is off the injury report this week. On the bad ankle in Denver he caught 12 passes for 134 yards. Imagine what he’d do with two working ankles and a quarterback who isn’t getting sacked. Seahawks.com
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
ESPN dug into the 2-4 Rams and found the stat that explains a lot: Matthew Stafford’s completion percentage over expectation on deep passes has gone from plus-5.8% last season, one of the league’s best, to minus-8.5% this year. Against Arizona his average target traveled 4.8 yards, the third-shortest of his whole Rams tenure. They built a superteam around the best deep arm in the division, and now he’s playing catch with a running back like a dad in the backyard.
NINERS
Brock Purdy yelling at Kyle Shanahan on the sideline went viral, so Shanahan explained it Wednesday: the helmet communication cut out and Purdy needed the play call repeated. The most celebrated play-caller in football, with all that motion and all those shifts, briefly got beaten by a dropped signal. The 6-0 offense runs on genius, plus whether the headset has bars.
CARDINALS
Chad Ryland is the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for his six field goals in Sunday’s 18-16 win over the Rams. He scored every one of Arizona’s points. That makes the kicker the most productive part of the offense, even though his job only starts once the offense has stalled. Congrats, Chad. The award for Arizona’s red zone offense is still pending.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This undrafted former Washington Huskies quarterback signed with Seattle in 1997 and, at 41, was named MVP of that season’s Pro Bowl. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Warren Moon. He took MVP honors at the Pro Bowl in Honolulu in February 1998, eight years before he was elected to the Hall of Fame.
THIS DAY IN SEAHAWKS HISTORY
2015
October 22, 2015
Beast Mode Throws Up, Then Runs Over the 49ers
Seattle went into Levi’s Stadium on a Thursday night and won 20-3, its fourth straight win over San Francisco. Marshawn Lynch threw up on the sideline in the first half and still ran for 122 yards and a 1-yard touchdown. Russell Wilson hit Tyler Lockett for a 43-yard score before halftime, and the 49ers managed just a single field goal all night.
Got a Question for The Rooster?
Charbonnet’s carries, Walker regrets, whether the linebacker room needs a GoFundMe: send it in. The best (and most unhinged) questions get answered in a future issue.
Three days to Sunday night. Hang onto the ball. — The Rooster