Facing as important of a game as they’ve had all season, the Seahawks may have their full complement of running backs.
Starter Kenneth Walker III was listed as a full participant in Thursday’s practice, his first full practice since before suffering a calf injury that caused him to miss the last two games.
Zach Charbonnet, who started in place of Walker the past two games, was listed as limited with an oblique injury.
That was an upgrade for Charbonnet, who sat out Wednesday. That was the first mention of any injury as he had not been listed as injured coming out of Sunday’s game.
Walker sat out on Wednesday, which had left it unclear if either would be available for Sunday’s game against the 12-2 Minnesota Vikings.
Walker and Charbonnet practicing on Thursday — as well as the stakes of the game — would seem to indicate each giving it a go Sunday.
The Seahawks had a mostly positive injury report Thursday as only two players sat out solely because of injury — tight end Brady Russell (foot) and linebacker Trevis Gipson (ankle).
Three others sat out for a combination of injury/illness and rest — right tackle Abe Lucas (knee/rest), defensive lineman Leonard Williams (foot/rest) and nose tackle Johnathan Hankins (illness/rest).
Along with Charbonnet, three others were limited — center Olu Oluwatimi (knee), linebacker Ernest Jones IV (knee) and cornerback Tre Brown (hamstring).
Everyone else was a full participant.
Getting back their one-two punch of Walker (who leads the Seahawks with 542 yards on 145 carries) and Charbonnet (454 on 105) will greatly help their cause in trying to mount a consistent running game Sunday.
That’s been an issue for all season as the Seahawks are 28th in the NFL in rushing at 94.8.
The task will be as difficult as any this week as the Vikings are second in the NFL in run defense allowing 89.1 yards per game, and third in yards per attempt at 3.9.
Charbonnet had 54 yards on eight attempts in Sunday’s 30-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers. But 40 of that came on two plays, including a 24-yard TD in the fourth quarter, as the Seahawks struggled to run the ball consistently.
Falling behind 14-0 late in the first quarter forced the Seahawks into throwing the ball. Seattle had 26 dropbacks and just eight runs by running backs in the second half, most of which came with backup Sam Howell at QB in place of injured Geno Smith.
Smith was again a full participant in practice Thursday and appears on track to return to the starting role against Minnesota.
Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said Thursday that in hindsight he might have tried to call more running plays.
“The scoring situation dictates a lot of that when you’re down,’’ Grubb said. “But there are always opportunities. I think we had gotten ourselves in a good position when we got ourselves back in the game within 10 points (at 23-13) and 10 minutes left, you give your guy a chance to run the ball a little bit more than what I did. Hindsight is always 20-20 and you always look at those things critically.’’
Grubb said the Seahawks went into the game wanting to try to exploit some favorable matchups it thought it had with receivers Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf.
“That was certainly the thought is (getting the ball) to 14 and 16 and 11,’’ Grubb said.
