Floundering Seahawks second-rounder among NFL players with the most to prove

The word is out. For the first time in 10 years, the Seattle Seahawks are once again a serious team that has a chance to go all the way. Seattle heads into Week 7 ranked first in overall DVOA - as well as ranking in the top five on offense, defense and special teams. That's something the Legion of Boom teams never accomplished, even when they finished first in DVOA four straight years.

NFL teams that excel in one area or another tend to get to the playoffs - but true contenders are separated by that lack of having a real weakness.

Just imagine how good this team could be if they could only run the ball efficiently. So far that's their only real problem - it's just been masked by sensational quarterbacking from Sam Darnold and elite defense and special teams work.

There's more than one reason why, but a major culprit is the disappointing performance of Zach Charbonnet, who's been named one of the NFL's to 12 players with the most to prove by Brad Gagnon at Bleacher Report.

"Walker has simply been better in a contract year, which could lead to him getting the cash Charbonnet might have been hoping to land ahead of the final year of his rookie deal. This is a battle between two second-round picks wrapping up entry-level contracts, and Charbonnet could be costing himself a lot of money."

After six games Charbonnet has only managed 156 yards on 60 carries - an anemic average of just 2.6 yards per attempt. His success rate is just 41.7% and his explosive run rate is the lowest in the league of any running back with a decent number of attempts.

It wouldn't be such a big deal if offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak did not insist on such an even-handed way of distributing the carries in Seattle's backfield.

Walker has been far more efficient and explosive, but so far he only has 18 more rushing attempts, eating into both Walker's production and the Seahawks' rushing ceiling in general.

We would like to believe Gagnon's note about it being inevitable for Walker to start taking more and more of Charbonnet's workload. However, if that was going to happen odds are it would have by now.

The only conceivable reason the Seahawks have for this arrangement is trying to protect the foot of Ken Walker, which came into the season supposely injured. However, we have yet to see how the injury has slowed Walker down or limited what he's capable of. The same can't be said of what little Charbonnet has offered as a rusher.

Aug 13, 2022; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) is pursued by Pittsburgh Steelers safety Terrell Edmunds (34) during the first quarter at Acrisure Stadium. | Phillip G. Pavely-Imagn Images

More Seahawks on SI stories