The Seahawks (8-5) have won four in a row to take the lead in the NFC West, and now face a tough challenge with the Packers (9-4) coming to town for a Sunday Night Football showdown at Lumen Field. But before we turn our attention fully to that game, it's time once again to open up the mailbag and answer some questions from you, the fans.

As always, thanks to everyone who asked questions this week, and apologies if I wasn't able to get to yours this time around. And remember, the mailbag is always open for submissions at Seahawks.com/mailbag.

Donna from Raleigh, North Carolina asks, "How will the Seahawks use Charbonnet once K9 is healthy?" And @andrewhobson.bsky.social asks, "When Walker has been healthy, he has dominated the snap count and carries. Do you think Charbonnet's career day will change that at all? I'm sure Walker will remain the main man, but could we see a more balanced usage of the two backs?"

A: Is there a better situation for an NFL team to face than, "What do we do when our starter gets back after his backup just had a huge game to help us win a game?" Well, the Seahawks could be facing that conundrum when Kenneth Walker III returns, whether that's this Sunday or somewhere down the road. Zach Charbonnet has been good in his limited opportunities over the past two seasons, but had his best game last week with Walker out, rushing for a career-best 134 yards and two touchdowns while adding 59 receiving yards.

As good as Charbonnet was, I don't see Walker losing his starting job, but Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald has shown a willingness to let players earn more reps either through practice or by stepping up when given opportunities. Again, that's not to say I'd expect Charbonnet to take Walker's starting job, but I could see a situation in which he gets a bit more of the workload when both are back.

And of course for that to really come to fruition, the Seahawks would need to continue to run the ball successfully. As we've seen this season when the Seahawks aren't running the ball as well or as often as they did last weekend, there are only so many carries to go around in those types of games, so the starting back is going to end up with the bulk of the work. Ideally, the Seahawks will run the ball well and play from ahead a lot down the stretch, in which case there would be no shortage of work for both backs.

@DanCohen17 asks, "Which player would make the best Elf of a Shelf?"

A: I mean if we're basing this on size, the smallest player on the roster is new return specialist Jaelon Darden, so I suppose he's a good first choice. Darden in a Garden maybe? Tyler Lockett, or Lockett in a Pocket, is another solid option. Or put a Devon Witherspoon elf in the kitchen on a bit serving spoon and call it Spoon on a Spoon. Ooh, or a Riq Woolen elf on your patio furniture, Riq on the Teak. OK I'll stop now. I apologize for that.

**@tbradfordgillette.bsky.social** asks, "How many snaps did Uchenna Nwosu get and how did he look?"

A: Nwosu played 30 percent of Seattle's defensive snaps, or 21 total, as he is eased back into game action. Statistically it was a pretty quiet return for the outside linebacker, who was credited with one tackle—he had another on a play that was negated by a penalty—but more important than his production was that he just had a first game back to knock some rust off and work his way back into game shape, and most importantly, he came out of it healthy. And going forward you can expect to see more of Nwosu as he gets fully up to speed, which is a nice late-season development for Seattle's defense.

"It was great to have him out there," Macdonald said. "He played really hard. We're still on a coming-back-to-play type of plan, so that'll continue this week. We'll see if it's a full workload or not by the end of the week going into Sunday, but we're just excited to have him back, and then his role will grow here as we keep moving forward. But excited to have him back."

@seattlechef.bsky.social asks, "I'm liking what I'm seeing from the O-line? Has it mainly been that we've gotten better in the run game with the addition of Olu Oluwatimi, Sataoa Laumea and Abe Lucas?"

A: You're not alone in liking what you saw from the line, which on Sunday helped the Seahawks rush for a season-high 176 yards while in the passing game, Geno Smith was not sacked in a game for the first time this season. Smith, Macdonald, Charbonnet and others were all raving about the play off the line on Sunday, and there have been signs of progress leading up to that performance.

Certainly the three individuals you mentioned all have had a hand in the improvements since joining the starting lineup, with Lucas returning from the physically unable to perform list midway through the season, Oluwatimi taking over at center after Connor Williams' unexpected retirement, and Laumea taking over at right guard two weeks ago after Anthony Bradford went down with an injury. But as much as each of those players' individual talents has played a role, it also has been very helpful just having the same starting five for a few weeks.

"Just continuity up front and having the same five guys, not only is Taoa taking all the reps, but it's all the other guys across from him that Olu is used to communicating with, and having Abe on a consecutive streak here going in," Macdonald said. "So I think all those things are contributing to those guys playing well.

"I'd much rather it be like this than a bunch of moving parts. We talked about it at the beginning of the year, this isn't what we wanted to have happen. This isn't an ideal situation, but in time, trying to make the best decision for the team and for that unit and being able to work through it and people are on different learning curves in terms of development, but it is nice to have some continuity to that group. And I think you're seeing them play with more confidence and I'm happy for these guys. They work really hard, they practice incredibly hard every day, and we're not going to lack reps around here. So they're getting it and they're building off of it, and that's all you can ask right now. So we're excited about it."

@MrEd315 asks, "What should the Seahawks request from Santa to get through the final four weeks of the season?"

A: I suppose just answering with wins or good health is too obvious, so we'll skip over those. Overall there's a lot to love about what we've seen from the Seahawks over the final four games, but if I were asking Santa for something for the closing stretch of the season, I'd go with continued improvement/progress from the offensive line. We saw on Sunday how much better the offense can look with a good running game, both because of the yards that gives the team, but also because it helps make life easier on Geno Smith. The line has also been better at pass protection of late, and obviously that's going to help any quarterback perform better.

The defense has been awfully good of late so hard to wish for much there other that say continued success taking the ball away. The Seahawks have forced turnovers in seven straight game, including multiple turnovers in each of the last two, and they've scored touchdown on three of those during that streak, and have four total defensive touchdowns this season. Keep that up, and the Seahawks are going to be awfully hard to beat the rest of the way.