When the news emerged early this week that Zach Charbonnet had been lost to an ACL injury, the first thought was: Who will be Kenneth Walker’s backup in the NFC title game? But the more long-term question is: Will the Seahawks now feel pressured to pay Walker more than they might have wanted to?

The answer to the first question was resolved when the Seahawks let George Holani begin practicing. He went on IR with a hamstring injury after the Week 12 win over Tennessee, but he said he has been healthy for several weeks now. So expect him to step in for Charbs as Walker’s rotational running mate against the Rams on Sunday.

With that determined, let’s look ahead to the offseason for a minute and see what might happen with the Hawks’ running back room.

We have long thought that the Hawks would let Walker leave in free agency – largely because he had not been able to stay healthy prior to this year and some other team likely would offer him more than John Schneider would prefer to pay.

With Charbonnet, Holani and Kenny McIntosh returning, letting Walker go seemed like an easy call. But now Charbs could miss half of next season with a very untimely ACL injury suffered against the 49ers last weekend.

Seattle seems unlikely to want to put the backfield in the hands of Holani and McIntosh alone, so the odds of Walker returning seem to have increased.

He should have a very good market – upwards of $12 million a year – after his 1,309 yards from scrimmage. He is one of the top five or six backs in a free agent class that is not very strong at all – Breece Hall is the top guy, and Walker probably is ahead of Travis Etienne, Javonte Williams and Rico Dowdle.

The draft is bereft of good backs – Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love is a top-10 prospect and then there are no others in the top 50 of consensus boards.

So the Hawks need to decide whether they are interested in paying Walker, who figures to get top-10 money.

The Hawks – with the fourth-youngest roster in the NFL — have plenty of cap space this year; OverTheCap ranks them fourth with $72 million. They don’t have a ton of people to pay either. Rashid Shaheed should be their top priority and get somewhere in the $10 million to $12 million APY range.

They have to decide whether they want to pay Riq Woolen upwards of $20 million, knowing they are certainly going to pay three-time Pro Bowler Devon Witherspoon (one of Mike Macdonald’s absolute favorite Seahawks). Maybe they look to go a bit cheaper at corner by keeping Josh Jobe (at maybe $10 million).  

Coby Bryant wants a good payday, and the sides were not close when they talked last offseason. His return is up in the air.

Aside from Spoon, the Hawks also will need to pay huge money to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who emerged as one of the best receivers in the NFL this season with teams record of 119 catches and 1,793 yards (which also led the league).

Schneider might follow the same pattern he used with Charles Cross, picking up the fifth-year options on the 2023 first-rounders and then extending them later in the year. But they are the heartbeats of their sides of the ball and will be paid at some point, without question. Both figure to get deals worth around $30 million per year.

Even with those extensions and possibly paying Woolen, the Hawks could afford Walker. It just comes down to whether they think he is worth what it will take. It might approach $14 million if there is a bidding war in the thin RB market.

If they don’t want to pay him, they will need a solid Plan B at the position. And there do not seem to be many good Plan B backs.

Whatever happens, running back certainly became a big position to watch in the offseason.