Zach Charbonnet Offers Reminder In Seahawks' Bullish Win Over Cardinals

The Seattle Seahawks took care of business at Lumen Field on Sunday, defeating the Arizona Cardinals 17-3.

In what was Drew Lock's second start of the year, he now moves to 2-0 on the season as the Seahawks push ahead to 5-4 and are now above .500.

With Seattle coming into this game needing a strong performance after the poor loss to the Chicago Bears, all eyes were on the running backs, given that it was Lock starting, not Sam Darnold.

And we saw exactly why Zach Charbonnet is so highly thought of inside the building.

In just his second game back from his ACL injury, Charbonnet rushed for 77 yards on 16 carries, serving as the Seahawks' bell cow. Fellow back Jadarian Price managed only 24 yards on nine carries - though the rookie had four catches for 54 yards - as it was clear coordinator Brian Fleury wanted Zach to get up and running against the Cardinals.

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With Seattle's 120 rushing yards, it now marks three out of the last four games where Fleury's offense has topped 100+ yards, and with Charbonnet and Price finding their groove, maybe this is the way forward in 2026.

The longest play on offense all game was just 18 yards, showing that the Seahawks appear to be just fine grinding out the clock and letting their defense hunt, which they did often against Gardner Minshew.

We knew what sort of force Charbonnet was last season, with his bruising, powerful style of running producing 12 red zone touchdowns, and against the Cardinals, while he didn't find the end zone, his tough running style was on show several times.

With Sam Darnold injured, Drew Lock (19 of 28 for 175 yards, 1 TD, no sacks, no turnovers) once again played the role of bus driver to a tee.

But he had help with the run game providing a nice foil.

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And it makes us wonder what this offense will look like once Darnold returns, because if Charbonnet plays like this, coupled with what Sam can do with Jaxon Smith-Njigba (7 rec, 51 yards vs. the Cardinals), then who knows what the rest of the season could look like.

Since Week 1, Seattle hasn't had a fully healthy backfield. Against Arizona, it was, and with Price's ability as a pass catcher and Charbonnet bullying the Cardinals on the ground, maybe the defending champs might see an uptick in form.