This season, Walker has been the 45th-best in success percentage among qualifying rushers, 24th-best in yards per attempt, 18th in yards before contact per attempt, 36th in yards after contact per attempt.
In the passing game, Walker is uh... not exactly known as a good blocker. However, he has shown that he can be useful as a receiver.
I see all that as perfectly fine on a rookie contract as part of a rotation at what is probably the most fungible position on the field in the modern NFL. Running backs are always terrible players to sign as veterans (for every success, there are many failures), and Walker has done nothing at all to suggest he's one of the rare veteran running backs worth veteran money. Quite the contrary, actually. When Walker was drafted, I thought I saw some Curt Warner in him and said as much. Since then, he has made me feel embarrassed for having thought and stated that. Now I see him for what he is: a perfectly passable, but clearly below-average, NFL running back.
As soon as the Seahawks' season ends, Mr. Walker's time with the team should also. I see no reason to expect Walker to be able to produce even what a decent day-three pick in next year's draft will be able to produce, much less enough more than such a player to make Walker worth signing to a second contract.
As for Mr. Charbonnet, he's been 33rd-best in success percentage this season among qualifying rushers, 41st in yards per attempt, 41st in yards before contact per attempt, and 30th in yards after contact per attempt.
Charbonnet is generally regarded as a better pass blocker than Walker. Hahahaha. OK, yeah, that's not exactly a high bar - I figure at least one of my dead-for-decades grandmothers is too. But Charbonnet actually appears to be a reasonably good pass blocker. He is also useful in the passing game as a receiver.
So Charbonnet is certainly nothing special either. Still, he's an even easier case to decide, because he's got another year on his rookie contract, and none of his salary for next season is guaranteed, so the Seahawks have plenty of time to see if they can get some better backs in next season's draft and decide what to do with him later. The amount of cap space they could save by cutting him before the 2026 season is about $1.7M, and it's not a decision that needs to be made super-early.
I suspect Charbonnet at that price will still be one of the Seahawks' four best options at running back (though I sincerely hope he's not the best they have) for 2026, so he'll play out his rookie contract with the Seahawks and then his situation next season will be basically what Walker's is this season: yeah, fine, he's a perfectly useful player on his current contract, and when that contract is over, the Seahawks should replace him with newer and cheaper players. Rinse and repeat. Always be drafting running backs (IN THE LATE ROUNDS!!!) and churning the old worn-out (or just plain not-that-good) backs out of the roster.
I'm in the same place on these guys as I am on Darnold: perfectly fine on their current contracts, certainly not worth anything even close to what the highest-paid players at their positions are making. I'm rooting for all three to have huge success for as many games as the Seahawks have left this season and postseason, but if one or more big games for them do happen, I'll then be rooting for Mr. Schneider to keep a cool head and not do something stupid in the excitement.
