The fantasy football landscape shifts each week, bringing fresh opportunities and unexpected challenges that separate the prepared from the pretenders. Savvy managers know that last week’s performance tells only part of the story, and diving deeper into the underlying metrics reveals the accurate picture.
This week presents some intriguing decisions. Here’s insight about key Seattle Seahawks players heading into their matchup with the Los Angeles Rams to help you craft a winning lineup.
Sam Darnold, QB
Sam Darnold continues to impress, and this team has a Rashid Shaheed card to play when they are comfortable.
Could they unleash the deep threat in this huge game?
I was impressed with Darnold scrambling to extend an early play last week, keeping his eyes downfield and allowing Cooper Kupp to position himself in the perfect spot for what turned into a 67-yard gain.
You could run away because of the three turnovers last week, but I’m not too worried on that front. The Rams allowed Mac Jones to eclipse 22 fantasy points for a second time last week, and I like the chances of Darnold posting top-15 numbers this week.
In Week 11, Dak Prescott (at Raiders) and Matthew Stafford are the only two true pocket passers that I have ranked ahead of Seattle’s main man.
Zach Charbonnet, RB
Zach Charbonnet’s two lowest snap shares of the season have come over the past two weeks, and while his touch ceiling seems to be 15, it’s his six games with 3+ red-zone touches that are driving his value.
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We can argue all we want about the touch distribution, but the top five 26 finishes at the position work. I’m not sure that Charbonnet is anything other than average (4.3% chunk gain rate, 36th of 37 qualified running backs), but until that is reflected in his role, he deserves flex consideration.
The ceiling is low, and I worry about the floor against the third-best red zone defense in the NFL. In a perfect world, I don’t think you’re relying on any Seahawk not named Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
This week or any week.
Cooper Kupp, WR
A blowout win where the Seahawks were either scoring or turning the ball over isn’t exactly ripe with data points, but it is worth noting that, in the first quarter, Kupp, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Rashid Shaheed all ran six routes.
The Seahawks could go three-wide, but I would be shocked if this offense doesn’t lean into Shaheed’s game-breaking potential more over time.
Of course, on the week when they bring in a field stretcher, it’s Kupp finding a hole in the zone and exposing the Cardinals’ shaky tackling for a 67-yard gain.
At the end of the day, we are more than a month removed from the last time Kupp earned more than three targets in a game, and the team, with the NFC seemingly open, opted to add depth at the position.
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I’m out on Kupp. I prefer Shaheed (this week and moving forward) if we are looking at secondary Seahawks and would lean toward a Darius Slayton or Keon Coleman type if you’re rounding out your roster with darts.
AJ Barner, TE
I’m fine with explaining away AJ Barner’s goose egg last week by way of the blowout, but what are you going to use to excuse seven catches on 65 routes during this four-game win streak?
The four-score-in-four-games run was nice earlier this season, but we are beyond that, and with the Rashid Shaheed acquisition, I think we can safely move targets from the TE position as a whole to the WR room.
The Seahawks are great, but that doesn’t mean you blindly roster a player on their team over players with more upside, even if they are the TE2 on their own roster (Isaiah Likely and Michael Mayer).