Zach Charbonnet’s first Seahawks game without Kenneth Walker III as a teammate will come against him. Mike Macdonald said this week that Seattle hopes to get Charbonnet back on the field in some capacity against the Chiefs on Sunday, and the timing for a sure-handed runner couldn’t come soon enough.
Charbonnet’s last game before being injured was Week 18’s win over the 49ers, when he had 17 carries for 74 yards and a touchdown across 39 snaps (56%) in a time share with Walker. In his final four games, Charbonnet averaged 55% snaps, 4.8 yards per carry, and 62 rushing yards per game.
He isn’t likely to have a big role in his return, if he comes back, but will instead get his feet wet as a reserve behind Emanuel Wilson. The running game has been especially bad recently, as Wilson is averaging 3.3 yards per carry and 52 yards per game since Week 2, and he’s fumbled twice.
How soon until Charbonnet takes Wilson’s place on the weekly expectations survey’s main running back?
Week 7 Seahawks-Chiefs expectations
Every week I’m keeping a record of your expectations ahead of the Seahawks game — yards, best players, final score, etc — and averaging them out for a consensus result. I strongly believe in this exercise and I think that it will become a signature series in the legacy of the Seaside Joe community.
If you play the Expectations Game with, you will literally become a part of Seahawks history! And it’s entirely free to participate:
Enter your Week 7 Expectations NOW!
^^It’s two minutes of your time to change the rest of your life for, I’m gonna say, the better.^^
On Tuesday, I shared some insights into the matchup of Walker and the Chiefs offense against the Seahawks defense. What about the other way around?
Chiefs pass defense: 217 yards per game (15th)
Chiefs run defense: 88.8 yards per game (6th)
Best REC game against: 86 yards (Brock Bowers)
Statistically, this would appear to be Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s toughest matchup. Nobody has had 90 yards against Kansas City’s pass defense this season, and Josh Downs has had the most yards by a receiver and that was only 72.
Part of that is due to matchups.
The Raiders, Colts, Dolphins, Chargers, and Broncos have some of the least impressive receiver rooms in the NFL. I mean who is the best 2026 receiver on all of those teams combined? Tre Tucker?
So it should be the same story for the quarterbacks they’ve faced. Where would you rank Sam Darnold in this group:
Bo Nix
Kirk Cousins
Daniel Jones
Malik Willis
Justin Herbert
Fittingly, we did the Darnold-Herbert comparison over the weekend. Right now in 2026, I’d put the Darnold-JSN connection alone atop that list. It’s just not a very good list.
The only running back to rush for more than 60 yards against the Chiefs this season is the aptly-timed Jonathan Taylor — wrote about the trade possibility this week — who had 92. Ashton Jeanty had 58, Ollie Gordon had 41, JK Dobbins had 36.
So for me, I expect JSN to have the most individual yards against the Chiefs of any WR this season, Darnold to have the second-most passing yards (Cousins had 365), but I don’t expect Wilson or Charbonnet to top 40 or 50 yards on the ground.
Defensively, I really like the odds of Nick Emmanwori impacting both the running game and passing game as a versatile edge/slot, but that extends to Ernest Jones and Devon Witherspoon too. I’m going to go out on a limb and say George Holani has the second-most receiving yards.
I know this comes as a surprise: I expect the Seahawks to score more points than the Chiefs. Say…18 to 12.
Every Week I take questions and comments from Seaside Joe’s Super Joes members. If you want to receive next week’s Super Joes Q&A, upgrade today:
Samuel Garfield: Why the hell are the Seahawks favored to win by bettors?
It sounds like bettors take a more logical, measured approach to predicting outcomes than merely looking at win-loss records. The difference between 3-3 and 6-0 is eight points.
The difference between 5-0 and 3-2 for Kansas City is five points. It’s throwing stones in glass houses to say that the Chiefs looked beatable against bad teams like the Colts, Dolphins, and Raiders because Seattle lost to the Moons.
But are their struggles comparable when you consider that they lost to an undefeated 49ers team on Sunday by three points and then had to go to Denver on Thursday and they lose by three points again?
If the Seahawks had pulled off the sweep last week, everyone’s calling them the best team in football for sure. It wasn’t that far away from happening!
Getting this game at home in primetime, I think that’s enough for many people — including me — to expect Seattle to remind us why they won the Super Bowl with much of the same team. I’ll call my shot with Kansas City:
I think the Chiefs go 6-6 the rest of the season.
They’re overachieving in a way that isn’t sustainable.
Erniegehre: I loved your article on trading for Nelson, and Taylor, well thought out, also love the idea of Sauce Gardner, a tall corner back 6’3” which I think is needed for opponents tall receivers Ala Mike Evans. But I believe Seahawks will focus on offense. I doubt Schneider would pay Taylor that much after letting Walker get away for less, and his two running backs coming back. Bradford will leave for silly money, so maybe Nelson is the answer. I did love TB comments how Sam has to let the ball go way sooner. With everybody saying this will be one of the best drafts ever don’t see us giving away a 1, or 2 pick. So hopefully they can fix offensive line woes. As always enjoy your articles.
Many thanks to you and I wish you and your family one million years of good luck.
Trade proposals and ideas of any kind almost never bear fruit. Trading for Jonathan Taylor and/or Quenton Nelson is immensely unlikely to happen, but doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t put it on the record anyway. In past cases, as we’ve seen, I’ve been able to go back and track not only the moves that Seattle did make but also the opportunities that they passed on.
However, I will say that Taylor is much cheaper to the Seahawks than Walker would have been.
That’s because Indianapolis had to pay his $15 million signing bonus, not a team that trades for him. Seattle would only owe him the remaining portion of his $7 million base salary, which right now is under $5 million. Even paying him next year would make him much cheaper than Walker—and the Seahawks still need to pay somebody to play running back. So it’s not just Taylor’s salary on top of nothing; it’s his salary over someone else’s salary.
Do I think you’re “wrong” in saying that Schneider probably wouldn’t pay it. No, not really. But we’re not in Schneider’s head when he sees that every Seahawks running back has already fumbled twice. The way this season has gone should make any general manager re-think his previous strategy.
Chip Mac: For all the criticism regarding AB at right guard, I think everyone can agree he is way better than the current replacement (Haynes and Stephens). Stephens maybe the future,but he not ready for prime time today. My question is how fast can AB come back and contribute, especially to the run game?
Sounds like he will return on Sunday and play the entire game. I wouldn’t expect Seattle to activate him just to give him some reps. I think they’d only start him if they were confident that he’s ready for his usual night.
Historically, Anthony Bradford has not been graded as a great run blocker. I think his reputation has been upgraded considerably while he’s been out because of how the backups — and the offensive line as a whole — has played recently. Ironically, last year we were saying “anyone is better than bradford” based on how he played.
Could he be considerably better after 1.5 years of coaching from John Benton? Potentially. I’m more “cautiously optimistic” than excited. Chris Jones hasn’t been elite this season. Let’s hope he doesn’t remember how to be elite this Sunday.
zezinhom400:
It’s going to be a great challenge between Kenneth Walker and our defense -- they both want it BAD. And we have this going for us, 5th longest in league history:
Longest Streaks Without Allowing a 100-Yard Rusher in NFL History
Team Consecutive Games Streak End / Details
Cleveland Browns 59 Broken by Ollie Matson in 1956
Philadelphia Eagles 53 Broken by Emmitt Smith in Week 8, 1992
Los Angeles Rams 51 Broken by Ken Willard in Week 9, 1968
Baltimore Ravens 46 Broken by Corey Dillon in Week 14, 2001
Seattle Seahawks 35 (active) Ongoing streak through October 2026
My question is: KC seems to be doing well bc they have balance and Spags on defense. When I look at KC’s passing offense I’m not that impressed -- Kelce is clearly aging, and the WRs are unimpressive. Feels bizarre to say this but would you agree that if Mahomes has to throw 40+ times, Seattle wins?
Seems I ended up answering most of your question with Tuesday’s newsie. Maxx, you asked a similar question in the Super Joes Q&A also.
When Patrick Mahomes faced the Texans last season, he posted a passer rating of 19.8 (14/33, 160 yards, 0 TD, 3 INT), which is the worst of his career. In fact, his three worst games have come within the last two seasons. The Seahawks defense belongs up there with the best that Kansas City has faced since 2024, if not the best.
Then you take away Tyquan Thornton, who had become KC’s best receiver, and you potentially have the personnel/play caller to stifle both Kenneth Walker and Travis Kelce … in my opinion, Andy Reid is too smart to have Mahomes throw it 40 times.
Mahomes is the last quarterback I’d want to see in the fourth quarter when the game is on the line because he’s so smart with the football, he’s not going to “Dak Prescott” the game away, and it’s annoying that he’s so good at manipulating the situation to get exactly what the Chiefs need.
However, you almost have to split his career between the first five seasons and everything he’s done since 2023. He was on track to be the best quarterback in history there for a while (both Super Bowls AND stats). I’m curious to see where it goes from here because he’s practically a “he just wins” quarterback now.
Part II of the Q&A will come soon. Don’t forget to share your expectations!
This was a really good time to have a mini-bye week. One more factor in favor of the Seahawks. It's not a must-win game, but it feels like a statement needs to be made to get momentum moving in the right direction. A legit Super Bowl contender would win this game.
The margin between winning and losing in the NFL is so thin. A slight improvement by the offense probably makes the Seahawks best team in the NFL.