Zach Charbonnet’s style--truck the guy--fires up Seahawks. Will they give him more opps?
Given a choice between stopping a game clock late or setting a tone for his teammates, Zach Charbonnet chose...
Violence.
With 52 seconds remaining in a tie game last weekend against Washington, the Seahawks had the ball at their own 25-yard line. They had two time outs remaining. They didn’t want to use one of them on a 4-yard pass to the sideline.
But that’s what Charbonnet’s truck-the-guy mentality forced them to do.
Seattle’s rookie running back floated into the left flat as a safety-valve receiver as quarterback Geno Smith looked futilely for open teammates further down the field. Smith finally dumped the ball off to Charbonnet, just 2 yards past the line of scrimmage. Charbonnet had time and space to run out of bounds to stop the clock with 40-plus seconds remaining.
But the second-round draft choice from UCLA also wanted to smash the lone defender approaching him after he caught the pass. In Charbonnet’s mind, Washington’s Jartarvius Martin needed to pay for being in the way.
As they approached the sideline, Charbonnet stayed inbounds. He turned into Martin. He lowered his right shoulder into Martin’s chest. Charbonnet extended his forearm through the hit. The thudding blow sent Martin flat onto his back into the turf.
A couple of the Seahawks a couple feet away on the sidelines erupted in roars of approval. But others weren’t thrilled — including coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator/play caller Shane Waldron.
The force of his hit sent Charbonnet into the ground, too. Inbounds. The clock continued to run, to 38 seconds. Carroll was forced to call time out from the sideline to stop it, to give the Seahawks time to move the ball into field-goal range.
“There’s a time and a place,” Waldron said.
As he walked back to the huddle at the start of the time out, Smith looked Charbonnet in the eye. The 11-year veteran gave the rookie a lesson — and a compliment.
“Zach, you gotta get out right there,” Smith told Charbonnet on the field.
“But, damn, that was a nice hit.”
Charbonnet nodded.
“Yeah,” he said at his locker three days later, “I realized it was a bad decision as soon as I did it.
“I already knew. I didn’t need to be told that. I should have just run straight outside out of bounds.”
Still: Tone set. And, most important, game won.
Smith proceeded to complete two big passes to DK Metcalf in the next 35 seconds. That set up Jason Myers for the game-winning field goal as time expired, and the Seahawks beat the Commanders 29-26.
“Zach’s had some success running a few folks over this year,” Waldron said. “Maybe that’s not the ideal time to run someone over. ...
“He’ll learn.”
Seahawks teammates love Zach Charbonnet
As Waldron alluded to,, Charbonnet has sought to run over a defender instead of elude him or simply go out of bounds since training camp. Against teammates.
Asked this week what he admires most about Charbonnet, Metcalf said: “How he finishes runs.
“He doesn’t go out of bounds.”
His teammates love it. Including a future Hall-of-Fame middle linebacker.
“I always respect and appreciate running backs that don’t go out of bounds,” Bobby Wagner said when asked about Charbonnet. “Like, they would rather hit the person instead of going out of bounds or they finish their runs.
“As a rookie, that’s always been impressive, the way that he seeks contact, likes to run through people. And it’s a tone-setter, for sure.”
Charbonnet says he appreciates his teammates’ admiration, especially from one as accomplished as Wagner.
“But I don’t look at it that way,” he says of his running setting a tone for the team.
“You know, that’s just the style of game that I play. That’s the style I’ve played since I started football (in Camarillo, California). It’s just something that I’m used to.
“But I like to set the tone like that.”
The ill-timed trucking notwithstanding, Carroll glowed about Charbonnet immediately following the win over the Commanders.
“Oh, man, you’ve got to love Zach,” the coach said. “He comes in there and lights us up with his down-hill running, his physical nature.”
It’s how Charbonnet practices. He runs decisively, one cut and GO!
He said he appreciates now how UCLA coach Chip Kelly, a former head coach of Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers, prepared him for Carroll’s Seahawks ways.
“Just the style of how important practices are, coming to the NFL,” Charbonnet said. “Especially coming to the Seahawks organization, practice is everything for us. Chip did a great job at that.
“That’s something I’ve been able to do and carry on.”
His style is different than that of Seahawks lead back Kenneth Walker. Walker is patient. He often waits behind the line to set up his linemen and for their blocks to develop. He usually makes multiple cuts on his runs, right and left. When he is at his best Walker doesn’t run over defenders as much as he leaves them flailing.
Carroll believes he has something of his optimal duo of running backs in Walker and Charbonnet. Think: Reggie Bush and LenDale White in Carroll’s USC heyday of the early 2000s.
“They’re totally different styles, and I couldn’t love that more,” Carroll said. “I’ve been saying that for a long time: I love that we have a one-two punch or a two-one punch. It doesn’t matter. Those guys can really make it happen.”
Thing is, Carroll and the Seahawks aren’t using Walker and Charbonnet enough for them to have Bush-White effect on the Seahawks’ offense and season. Not so far. Walker and Charbonnet are averaging 20 carries combined of the 60 plays Seattle is averaging per game on offense.
Will Walker and Charbonnet run?
The Seahawks’ next game is Sunday at the Rams (3-6), in Inglewood. It’s a homecoming for Charbonnet. He grew up 50 miles north of SoFi Stadium and went to Oaks Christian High School.
Then comes a gauntlet of games against San Francisco (6-3), Dallas (6-3), the 49ers and Philadelphia (8-1) that begin Thanksgiving night in Seattle.
Those games will prove if it is true, but it appeared Waldron had an epiphany in the Washington game: To run Walker and Charbonnet more.
After weeks of Carroll saying they need to run the ball more, after Walker and Charbonnet combined for 13 total rushes in each of the Cleveland and Baltimore games, they ran 25 times against Washington. That led to — and was because of — Seattle’s 27 first downs against the Commanders.
The Seahawks rushed for 120 yards and gained a total of 489 yards. It was their most since week two of the 2022 season, in their 48-45 win at Detroit.
They need to run more than the fifth-fewest carries in the league. That’s what Seattle’s 214 rushes through nine games is.
“Our goal is to get that number up and get to be a more balanced offense,” Waldron said.
The Seahawks certainly need to run more Sunday in Inglewood than the 15 combined carries Walker (12, for 64 yards) and Charbonnet (3 rushes, 11 yards) had in the Seahawks’ last game against the Rams. That was a dismal, 30-13 loss in Seattle in this season’s opener Sept. 10.
For the season, Walker, the 2022 second-round pick who had a 1,000-yard season as a rookie, has rushed 145 times for 595 yards (4.1 yards per carry) and six touchdowns.
Charbonnet has 38 carries for 214 yards. That’s an average of 5.6 yards per rush. He’s yet to score his first NFL touchdown.
“(The goal) is to get a good mix of those guys. They both bring a great skill set. Both deserve touches,” Waldron said. “Both deserve to get a chance to make plays.”
Charbonnet led the Pac-12 with 136 yards rushing per game last season at UCLA. He had an 1,100-yard rushing season for the Bruins in 2021. He rushed for 27 touchdowns his last two college seasons.
So he’s not used to waiting his turn. That’s what he’s mostly done through his first nine NFL games.
And he’s says he’s OK with that.
“We are all just trying to win. Whatever the team and coaches think is best...it’s a team game. That’s how I look at it,” Charbonnet said. “I’m not worried about the carries. When I do get them, I will take advantage of it and do what I can.
“Ken does a great job.”
Given all he did at UCLA, after he was another running back Carroll and the Seahawks drafted high, in the second round, what expectations did Charbonnet have for his rookie season?
“Honestly, I didn’t have any expectations going throughout this year. Especially coming into a new system and a new coach and all of that,” he said.
“Just whenever the opportunity presents itself I try to take full advantage.”
By running the guy over.
This story was originally published November 16, 2023 at 4:10 PM.
