Seahawks News: Geno Smith, Devon Witherspoon, injuries and Zach Charbonnet
- Geno Smith is trending downward
- Devon Witherspoon is a star
- Charbonnet needs the ball more
By Lee Vowell
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Zach Charbonnet needs the ball more
One bit I didn't understand about what offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was trying to do against the Bengals was his lack of use of Zach Charbonnet. The Seahawks ran Kenneth Walker III 19 times against Cincinnati but Charbonnet only had 2 carries. Charbonnet runs hard up the middle and sometimes his power running makes a team think a bit more about maintaining focus in the middle of the line.
Cincinnati has good edge rushers but because Seattle was running wide a bit more, the edge rushers could stay outside instead of having to cheat a bit more to the middle. The Bengals weren't really moved off their mark and didn't have to adjust what they were doing as Walker was running toward the edge many times. Cincinnati wasn't great against the run coming into the game but a lot of the deficiency was because of their interior players and not guys like defensive end Trey Hendrickson.
Charbonnet only got 5 yards on 2 carries, an average of 2.5 yards a carry. Walker finished with 62 yards on 19 carries, but 21 of that came on one run. Take that away and Walker had just 41 yards on 18 carries, an average of 2.3 yards per rush. Walker is much more of a home run threat than Charbonnet, but in games against teams like the Bengals, sometimes just banging the ball inside could help the passing game more.
Seahawks injuries following Week 6
The good news is that Seattle didn't really suffer any long-term injuries against the Bengals. While DK Metcalf and Jake Bobo both left the game at certain points, they also both returned. Hopefully, Seattle can get Damien Lewis back in Week 7 as Phil Haynes was not good at left guard against Cincinnati.