Published October 23, 2026 11:41 PM
The Seahawks sent plenty of mixed signals this week regarding the question of whether running back Zach Charbonnet would play on Sunday. On Friday, the decision came.
He will not play.
Charbonnet, who suffered a torn ACL in the divisional-round win over the 49ers in January, returned to practice on October 1. He was moved to the active roster this week, and he fully participated in practice on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
“Zach is going to have a full week’s worth of reps, so that’s exciting,” coach Mike Macdonald told reporters on Monday. “There is a possibility that you can see him on Sunday in some capacity, so that is exciting.”
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Macdonald’s explanation created the impression that Charbonnet not playing on Sunday was the plan all along.
“We’re going along with the plan,” Macdonald said. “Plan was to get a great week’s worth of work and see where we’re at. We’re going to take it into next week. It’s part of the plan. Zach’s doing great and we’ll go into next week and see how it goes.”
The situation doesn’t violate the injury-reporting rules, even if the Seahawks arguably created the impression Charbonnet would play.
Actually, the Seahawks could have milked the uncertainty for two more days. Charbonnet could have been listed as questionable on Friday, with the decision announced on Sunday that he won’t be among the active players.
Still, it feels odd. Especially since Ian Rapoport of ESPNFL said on Friday’s Pat McAfee Show that Rapoport expects Charbonnet to “play and play a lot” on Sunday night. (The clip apparently was deleted from Twitter, but it’s still in the YouTube version of the episode.)
At a time when more and more fans are skeptical of the impact of gambling and prediction-market influences on the flow of information (and/or misinformation), this is another tangible piece of grist for the tinfoil-hat mill.