Field Gulls
Zach Charbonnet will not play in the NFC Championship Game, a brutal loss for the Seattle Seahawks.
But if there is a silver lining it’s this: Kenneth Walker may finally be ready to shoulder the entire load on his own, helped by two factors. A lighter workload, and a late-season coaching change.
Walker played 498 regular season snaps this year, less than his rookie or second season. It was only 47% of the team’s offensive snaps, his fewest in his career by several percentage points as he split time with Charbonnet.
But more interestingly, Walker has been a substantively different runner over the final third of the season, which coincides with a coaching departure. Kennedy Polamalu began the year as the running backs coach, but took a leave of absence of December 10th, which was later announced as permanent.
So you know what time it is Field Gulls…
A nod to you all, the initial comment section was loaded with speculation on this. The team has indeed run better in the last month than it did in the first two months.
Admittedly, there’s a ton of evidence that this is simply correlation. You got things like playing bad defenses, the return of injured TE Eric Saubert, the year-long-improvement of the offensive line, the fact that a RB coach is about fourth tier on the offensive org chart.
But let’s consider!
Replacing Polamalu’s duties has been Justin Outten, the assistant line coach and run game specialist. Just two years ago, Outten was so popular he received multiple inquiries to be interviewed and hired away from the Tennessee Titans, who blocked all requests.
Brian Nemhauser of Hawk Blogger said the improvement in Walker is “not a coincidence.” It can be confusing when reporters share opinions, because a minute or so later he followed it up by saying he is “not reporting this,” but that the leave of absence was in reality the result of Mike Macdonald being unsatisfied with the running back room’s performance.
So it definitely was a mandated coaching change. Possibly. But don’t quote me on that. I like Brian and assume he knows what he’s saying, even if I don’t know what he’s saying.
Whatever the cause, the results are something I can report. Kenneth Walker is more confident. Evidenced by a bunch of stats, but also speed. If you felt at any point over the last five weeks that Walker has been hitting the gaps faster or with more decisiveness, you are right.
Polamalu has been away from the team since December 10th. December 14th was the extremely disappointing Colts game from an offensive standpoint. Give everything a week to simmer, and here’s how Walker has fared from Week 16 until now. This is four total games, including the playoff win.
