The Seattle Seahawks will face the Green Bay Packers in Week 15. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Seahawks skill player who has the potential to make a fantasy impact during the game.
Looking for more lineup advice? Head over to our Week 15 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Geno Smith, QB
Geno Smith has completed 16 of 19 passes against the blitz during Seattle’s current four-game win streak (3 of 7 in losses before this run). That’s a nice trend to take into a game against a Packers defense that elected to heat up Jared Goff with a blitz on 32.6% of dropbacks, their highest rate of the season.
We’ll see if that level of aggression sustains in this spot and if Smith can continue to handle it with grace. Green Bay is coming off the mini-bye, and I don’t have much confidence in the creativity of Seattle’s offense, something that has me ranking their QB outside of my top 15 this weekend.
Smith has one finish better than QB20 since Week 7 despite plus volume. If Josh Jacobs can continue to dictate tempo, I’m not sure there are enough possessions for the Seahawks in order to make Smith a viable option in standard 1QB formats.
Kenneth Walker III, RB
Week 17 Status: OUT
Kenneth Walker III missed last week with an ankle/calf injury and his status for this week is TBD. Zach Chabonnet filled the full version of Walker’s role (29 touches and seven catches on seven targets), and while I don’t think we have a changing of the guard in Seattle should everyone be healthy, the idea of this being a committee and/or hot-hand situation is certainly there.
Walker has had his health issues in the past, and it’s not as if he was overwhelmingly productive before getting banged up (Weeks 8-13: 31.1% below PPR expectations).
Keep an eye on every update coming out of Seattle this week. They are going to want to establish the run to help neutralize Green Bay’s opportunistic secondary, but how they go about that is to be determined. Should we get a clean bill of health for Walker, he’ll be ranked ahead of Charbonnet for me, but the gap won’t be nearly what it was a month ago.
Zach Charbonnet, RB
Zach Charbonnet looked great last week against a vulnerable Cardinals defense, racking up 193 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns on his 29 touches. This Seattle backfield doesn’t have to be complicated — if Kenneth Walker III is again sidelined, Charbonnet is a fine RB2. If that’s not the case, neither is going to rank as a top-20 running back.
The team has been committed to Walker as its lead back, but after Charbonnet showed well last week, not to mention Walker’s proven fragility, this could well be a 60/40 committee situation when both are active.
You’ll need to keep tabs on this situation, as it is one of the most impactful situations of the week and could easily swing matchups
If possible, I’d keep him rostered because he is a James Cook rolled ankle away from being a locked-and-loaded RB2. That said, he can be let go by managers who are simply focused on surviving this week — with Cook currently healthy, Davis isn’t close to sniffing starting lineups.
DK Metcalf, WR
This Seattle offense can sustain two receivers, and with Tyler Lockett trending out of favor, DK Metcalf isn’t at serious risk of falling out of your lineup.
That said, Jaxon Smith-Njigba is now my default WR1 for the Seahawks, and I think his skill set is much safer than Metcalf’s in this specific matchup on Sunday night. The Packers own the highest deep interception rate through 14 weeks, a strength that could (should) have Geno Smith favoring the quick hitters as opposed to the chunk plays.
Metcalf hasn’t cleared 60 receiving yards since October, introducing a level of risk that most don’t assume when evaluating this beast. He’s a fringe top-20 player at the position for me, checking just behind Calvin Ridley and Jauan Jennings.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba, WR
At this point, it’s not a hot take to label Jaxon Smith-Njigba as the WR1 in Seattle. His success rate seems to be tied with the team’s success, and that’s always a good sign for business as it’s a good way to experience role expansion.
During the Seahawks’ four-game winning streak, all JSN has done is catch 25 of 27 targets for 443 yards and a pair of touchdowns. No big deal. The list of receivers to post four straight games with an 85% catch rate and 70 receiving yards since 2009 isn’t long:
- Amon-Ra St. Brown (Weeks 10-13, 2022)
- Smith-Njigba (current)
Could that be the trajectory of this former Buckeye? I’m not saying no.
Tyler Lockett, WR
Tyler Lockett was shut out against the Cardinals last week, earning just one target on his 27 routes in the disappointing effort.
Is “disappointing” the right word? The name “Tyler Lockett” carries with it some gravity, but it’s been a month since he cleared 20 receiving yards, two months since he hit 100 air yards, and over a year since his last game with 18 PPR points.
I was wrong on the Seahawks flaming out, but I wasn’t wrong in deeming Lockett’s days as a fantasy asset as over. This is a two-receiver team that concentrates its targets at a high level — Lockett is essentially what Mike Gesicki is for the Bengals but in an offense with less upside and less favorable positional eligibility.