Field Gulls
The casual observer may have noticed that the Seattle Seahawks have split carries between their running backs.
The astute observer may have gleaned that Kenneth Walker is far and away the more effective back, yet Zach Charbonnet has nearly as many carries (78 to 60 in Walker’s favor, keeping in mind Charbonnet missed a game). The elite observer will note that Charbonnet had nearly double the snaps as Walker in Week 6 against Jacksonville (33 to 19).
So what gives? Are the coaches just incompetent, or bad at math?
It turns out, they might in fact be playing the long game. Perhaps take a breath before jumping to the assumption that they’ve created this timeshare for giggles.
Gregg Bell of the Tacoma News Tribune indicates this has been an intentional decision to help keep Walker healthier.
Remember his foot injury way back in the summer?
It’s actually a scheme/health combination decision. This is Klint Kubiak’s fault, but not in the way some fans have assumed. Not only is Walker a tad injury-prone, but Seattle faces the highest amount of stacked boxes in the league. I know you know this, but that’s eight defenders lined up between the tackles and only a few yards into the backfield. In other words, it’s crowded and bad for running. NFL’s Next Gen Stats has the Seahawks at a stacked box rate close to 40 percent (which leads the league by far), a whopping 10 percentage points higher than the sixth-placed Indianapolis Colts.
That’s insane.
It’s because of the tight end usage and formation that Kubiak runs. In part, it’s also why the play action deep passes are so successful, so they’re not going to change it.
So – Walker, who is more explosive, more effective, and admittedly better at creating something out of nothing, is also more fragile (which is a problem) and chronically faces a severe disadvantage.
Rather than running their best back into a brick wall 28 times a game, why not use Charbonnet? This will infuriate fans all year, but the Seattle objective is not always to achieve elite run success. They’re running because they must run – it’s part of the scheme and play deception – not because it’s their strength.
To that end, saving this (undisclosed) Kenneth Walker injury unnecessary wear and tear is part of the long game.
Does that mean Kubiak needs to run Charbonnet three consecutive times on goal-to-go situations?
No, no it does not. I sincerely hope we don’t see that again for the rest of the season. The outsnapping Walker by that many was also new this week. It’s worth watching next Monday to see if the timeshare normalizes at least a little bit, but expect the actual workload by K9 to remain about the same.
