Does Kenneth Walker’s fantasy value take a hit after the NFL Draft? | Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast
In the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast podcast, analysts Matt Harmon, Andy Behrens and Dalton Del Don discuss the fantasy fallout after Seattle drafted UCLA running back Zach Charbonnet in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
MATT HARMON: Zach Charbonnet getting added to the mix here. I mean, number one, commitment to the bit, A+ work by the Seattle Seahawks there. But what do we, I mean, what are we doing with this backfield now?
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, this is the most Seahawks-y [BLEEP] of all time. That was really disappointing. I still have Ken Walker ranked pretty high. I think he showed us enough as a rookie. And I think we'd probably be in agreement with Ken Walker.
It wasn't perfect, and he did a little big play hunting a lot. But he broke them off a lot, right, like it worked. He's a really good player, and he battled through injury late in the season and still was handling 20 plus carries a game. He proved he could do it.
I think we've seen Pete Carroll often enough default to like that full workload guy when somebody's rolling. And I like Walker a little bit more than I like Charbonnet as a player, so it is an unnecessary complication, it is a complication that I was pretty irritated with. You might have liked to see a third day running back for Seattle instead of a second day running back. So a little bit of a bummer.
DALTON DEL DON: Walker remained a top 12 fantasy back on my board, despite the drafting. On one hand, yes, he is probably the NFL's biggest boom or bust runner, and Charbonnet had the highest success rate of all backs on first and second down. And the rookie will definitely get some more work in the screen game than Walker.
But Charbonnet was not a top 50 pick. And Seattle really made this move out of necessity. They were arguably the thinnest team in backfield behind Walker in the entire league. And Carroll is kind of this guy that makes his rookies earn it. Yes, Walker was a good second day pick, but how many running backs go outside 50 that are not going to make an impact right away?
Seattle had a top 10 offense last year, and added JSN, so Walker weirdly, didn't score a lot of touchdowns through the end last year, but he finished the season with three straight 100-yard games. I think it's still wheels up for him and he's a top 12 guy.
Yes, he'll be frustrated maybe more so than had they not added these guys. But again, there was no depth there at all, and someone's going to get some of those other touches, and certainly work in the screen game, where Walker doesn't excel. So I think he's going to get double digit touchdowns and have a big fantasy year still.
MATT HARMON: Yeah, I'm definitely a little more, a little more hesitant with the Walker stuff. The fact that they were so insistent about Charbonnet's receiving profile, which obviously, was Kenneth Walker's biggest weak point overall as a prospect last year, that's a little concerning.
