Charbonnet And Price Have No Injury Designations. Somebody Still Has To Split The Carries.

Friends, on Saturday afternoon Adam Schefter reported, "Seahawks running backs Jadarian Price and Zach Charbonnet have no injury designations for Monday night and both are now expected to play against the Bears. This will be Charbonnet’s season debut." Ian Rapoport was shorter about it: "The #Seahawks backfield is whole."

Whole is a lovely word. I understand the urge to read it as an order to start both backs. In my warehouse years, two forklifts once came back from the shop on the same morning, and the dock crew cheered like it was payday. The pallets did not double.

Two backs returning the same night means one job gets split. One of them may not be activated until Monday, and the other is coming back from ACL surgery. I admire both comebacks. I would like to see the work schedule before I pay for either one.

The Fine Print On Price

Start with Price, who is still on injured reserve. Gregg Bell quoted Mike Macdonald: "And with JD, if we were to make a move, that would happen on Monday (game day vs CHI), to my knowledge. We’ll see if that’s what we do."

Per Brady Henderson, Macdonald signaled some uncertainty about whether Price would be activated this week. Price's practice week read better: limited Thursday after being designated to return to practice, then a full go Friday, per Henderson. Around The NFL listed him with a chest injury.

Insurance taught me never to pay a claim while the file is still open. Price has no designation and an open file, and the file may not close until Monday.

The Long Ramp

Curtis Crabtree reported that Charbonnet is set to make his season debut "less than nine months removed from ACL surgery." On Friday, per Henderson, he was limited "after four straight practices of full participation." By Saturday he had no designation.

Macdonald said, per Crabtree, "He's already had our respect, but just hopefully people understand the kind of stud this guy is to come back on this timetable and be ready to go."

By Brian Nemhauser's reckoning, Charbonnet "will be coming back from ACL surgery faster than any RB since 2012 when Adrian Peterson and Rashard Mendenhall did it." I tip my cap.

Admiring the work and paying for it in Week 8 are separate decisions. Nemhauser told fans to expect "a long ramp" and wrote, "Most backs returning from an ACL need 8 games before they perform to their previous levels." If Charbonnet is like most backs, Monday is game one of eight.

The Test-Run Rule

I have repaired the same lawn mower eleven times. After every repair it gets one slow pass along the fence line before I trust it with the front yard, and it has never once complained about the wait.

I call it the test-run rule: a repaired machine gets watched before it gets worked. Monday night is Charbonnet's test run, and Price's too if Seattle activates him. Two test runs on one night share the same carries. The split stays inside the building until the game shows it.

Whatever comes back from the shop runs a lap before it runs a shift. Set your lineup for the lap.

The Case For Whole

Now the other side, neighbors, and it is a fair one. Neither back has an injury designation. John Boyle of Seahawks.com wrote that "both are good to go for Monday’s game." Nemhauser wrote of Price, "With no injury designation, the expectation is he will be active and play." Macdonald, per Bell, said, "We have a plan for Zach."

Mike Garafolo wrote that Seattle's "battered backfield gets healthy with a chance to prove they don’t need any help from a trade ahead of the deadline." All of that is good news for Seattle. None of it tells me who gets the carries Monday.

Chief, I concede the word. I called it lovely before you got here. Save the bourbon for Tuesday. A test run costs one Monday night of patience, and patience is the cheapest thing in my cooler.

So here is my call. Zach Charbonnet will get fewer than 10 carries against the Bears on Monday night. It leans on Nemhauser's ramp and on the split, and I will grade it here after Monday's game.

What I Am Doing About It

1. I am not starting Charbonnet this week. In a deep league with no better option, I would start him and expect a test run.
2. I am not starting Price unless the Seahawks activate him. Macdonald says any move would come Monday. If you start him, pick your fallback today, and if your league locks before Monday, sit him.
3. In dynasty, I am holding Charbonnet through the ramp. Eight games is a long wait, by Nemhauser's count. My father raised me on Cleveland football, so I have waited longer for less.
4. I rank neither back until I see the split. Monday's carries will tell me what the plan was.
5. I revisit after Monday night. My call gets graded then, and I look at this backfield again when the trade deadline passes on Nov. 10.