Last week was one of the most disastrous injury weeks in the history of fantasy football. It started on Thursday night when Seattle Seahawks RB Zach Charbonnet left the game in the fourth quarter with a knee injury. What is the latest on Charbonnet’s status? Is he likely to play in Week 14?
Latest Injury Update on Zach Charbonnet
In what was undoubtedly the best Thursday night game of the season so far, Charbonnet shined in his second start. He carried the ball 19 times for 60 yards and a touchdown while adding a 39-yard reception against the Dallas Cowboys.
Unfortunately, Charbonnet couldn’t close out the game after banging his knee on a short-yardage conversion. He left the game and was replaced by DeeJay Dallas.
After the game, head coach Pete Carroll said Charbonnet was just dealing with a bruise. Yet, whenever we hear knee injury, we immediately think the worst. A bruise is the best-case scenario. It had me cautiously optimistic that with the extended gap between games, Charbonnet would be okay.
It was definitely worrisome when Charbonnet missed practice on Wednesday. However, this late in the season, Wednesday practices are largely meaningless. There’s no reason to be concerned unless a player is absent on Thursday.
Amidst all the bad news we’ve gotten recently, we got some good news on Charbonnet. He got in a limited practice on Thursday, which bodes well for his chances of playing this week.
Will Charbonnet Play This Week?
The Seahawks are notoriously cautious with injured players at practice. We’ve already seen Tyler Lockett be held out all three days, only to end up playing anyway. We’ve seen DK Metcalf get numerous rest days while dealing with nagging injuries. Yet, he’s only missed one game.
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We still need to see Charbonnet’s practice level on Friday, and what the Seahawks do on their final injury report. But we can reasonably infer that if Charbonnet were seriously hurt, he wouldn’t have practiced on Thursday.
As of now, I’m projecting Charbonnet to play this week. I think there’s even a chance he avoids a questionable tag altogether, but I wouldn’t consider it likely.
What Does This Mean for Charbonnet’s Fantasy Ranking?
Currently, the PFN Consensus Rankings are operating as if Charbonnet will play. But the real issue isn’t Charbonnet — it’s Kenneth Walker III.
What gave Charbonnet his fantasy value over the past two weeks was the unimpeded volume. Walker hasn’t played the past two games due to an oblique strain.
In addition to Charbonnet returning to practice on Thursday, Walker did as well. While I do think Charbonnet has played well enough to earn a larger role with Walker healthy, he’s not going to see the 80% snap share he saw when Walker was out.
In a better matchup, 40% of Charbonnet could be usable as an RB3. Against the 49ers’ fifth-ranked run defense in terms of fantasy points per game allowed, Charbonnet would be an uninspiring volume-based RB3 with Walker out. If Walker plays, it’s hard to paint a picture of Charbonnet having any sort of upside.
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