SEATTLE – Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet will be out for the rest of the season after suffering a knee injury in Saturday’s divisional playoff win over the San Francisco 49ers, coach Mike Macdonald said Monday morning during his radio show on Seattle Sports 710.
Macdonald said Charbonnet suffered “a significant knee injury” when he was hurt on a play with 3 minutes, 6 seconds left in the second quarter. Charbonnet was injured on a 1-yard gain when he was hit hard by San Francisco’s Dee Winters and Eric Kendricks.
Macdonald said Charbonnet will need surgery.
While Macdonald did not specify the nature of the injury, the NFL Network reported that it is a torn ACL.
“He’s got a long road to come back so my heart goes out to him,” Macdonald said of Charbonnet, a third-year player taken in the 2023 draft out of UCLA who was second on the team in rushing with 730 yards on 184 carries and a team-leading 12 touchdowns this season.
“We’ll figure out the extent of everything as we move forward here but it’s going to be enough for surgery and that’s a tough one,” Macdonald said.
Macdonald had said after Saturday’s game that the team was “optimistic” that Charbonnet had not suffered a significant injury but that he would have to get imaging done.
“Just hurts, man, it hurts that it’s going on,” Macdonald said of losing Charbonnet. “But he’s going to be back, he’s going to be back stronger than ever and the guys are going to pick him up. It’s not like he’s leaving us. He’s going to be with us.”
Seattle has just one other running back on its 53-man roster in starter Kenneth Walker III.
However, it has two on the practice squad in veterans Velus Jones Jr. and Cam Akers.
Jones filled in the rest of Saturday’s 41-6 win over the 49ers working behind Walker and finishing with 10 yards on six carries.
Akers was signed to the practice squad in November and played in the final three games of the regular season. He started three games for the Rams in the postseason in 2021 when LA won the Super Bowl, rushing for 21 yards on 13 carries in the win over the Bengals. He has not had a carry yet with the Seahawks but returned two kickoffs for 54 yards against Carolina.
George Holani, who opened the season as the team’s No. 3 running back, is on Injured Reserve with a hamstring injury suffered in November but is eligible to return to practice.
Macdonald’s comment that Charbonnet has a long road back and the NFL Network report that he suffered an ACL injury indicate that there could be a question of when – or whether – he will be available for the 2027 season. That is the final year on Charbonnet’s four-year rookie contract, due to pay him $1.68 million as part of an overall deal worth up to $6.876 million.
The question of Charbonnet’s availability next year could also impact Seattle’s long-range plans at the running back position.
Walker can be a free agent in March as he is completing the final season of his four-year deal that has paid him $8.441 million.
Pro Football Focus recently placed Walker first on a list of potential free agents “whose performance profiles make them some of the most compelling names to monitor heading into next offseason” while OvertheCap.com put a valuation on him as worth more than $6 million a season.
For now, the Seahawks will have to plan how to navigate their running back position for Sunday’s NFC Conference championship game without their leading-second leading rusher.