Is This Real? Week 11

Photo: USA Today Sports

Determining what is real, sustainable production instead of unreliable production is critical for your fantasy team. Players with sustainable production should anchor your team and the type of players you seek to acquire in the trade market. Players with unsustainable production are the types of players that you should not depend on in your lineup and sell trades.

Is Zach Charbonnet taking over for Ken Walker III?

Fantasy GMs entered the 2023 season curious about how the Seattle backfield would play out. Walker was the dominant running back in the backfield, handling more than 60% of the snap share in five of the season's first six games. That has changed in the past three weeks, with Charbonnet handling more snaps than Walker in each week.

Is this a sign of a change in hierarchy?

No.

The difference this past two weeks has been entirely based on two-minute snaps. In the past three games, Seattle's running backs have handled 32 snaps in 2-minute situations, and Charbonnet has handled all of those snaps. By comparison, in the first seven weeks of the season, the team only handled 4.5 2-minute snaps per game. This situation is largely an outlier. When you exclude 2-minute snaps, Kenneth Walker is still the leader of the backfield, but the timeshare has grown closer.

On the season, Walker has handled 15 snaps inside the 5-yard line this season, while Charbonnet has taken only 2. The backfield split is similar to what would have been expected earlier in the season, with Walker handling the running role and Charbonnet the receiving role out of the backfield. The game scripts of the past three weeks have simply amplified the stylistic differences.

Verdict: The game scripts from the past two weeks have favored Charbonnet in a way unlikely to continue in the coming weeks. Expect Walker to continue the leading role in the backfield, with Charbonnet the receiving-centric back more dependent on game script.