Chiefs vs. Seahawks Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 7

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Chiefs vs. Seahawks Week 7 matchup on Sunday Night Football.

Find a breakdown of every Week 7 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Chiefs vs. Seahawks Fantasy Quarterback Preview

Patrick Mahomes

Mahomes didn't have to do much lifting on Sunday, completing 23 of 30 passes (76.7%) for 272 yards (9.1 Y/A) with no touchdowns and 1 interception.

He rushed 5 times for 16 yards.

Mahomes has finished outside the top-12 scorers in three straight weeks, with two of those weeks outside the top-20.

His efficiency is up this season in nearly all areas.

His 5.7% touchdown rate is his highest since 2022.

His 8.3 yards per pass attempt is the highest since 2019.

His 12.5 yards per completion is the highest since 2019.

His 3.6% sack rate is the lowest since 2020.

What is down is passing volume.

Mahomes has a career-low 34.8 dropbacks per game (21st in the league).

Mahomes has attempted more than 30 passes in a game once this season.

Kansas City fans will gladly take the exchange, while the addition of Kenneth Walker has impacted fantasy gamers.

I believe Kansas City will inevitably reduce Walker's workload, and the Chiefs will be pushed more throughout the season.

That said, this isn't a great place to look for ceiling, which leaves Mahomes as a QB2.

The Chiefs still have a questionable group of pass catchers for Sunday night if Rashee Rice misses another week.

This is the third-lowest implied total of Mahomes' career.

The Seattle matchup is always tough.

Seattle has allowed two QB1 scoring weeks at home since last season began.

To kick off this season, the Seahawks are allowing a league-low 5.3 yards per pass attempt and 8.3 yards per completion.

The most yards per pass attempt they have allowed in a game this season is 6.5 to Brock Purdy, who averages 8.5 Y/A for the season.

They are allowing 9.6 passing points per game (2nd).

Mahomes has faced Mike Macdonald only once in his career.

That was the 2023 AFC Championship Game.

The Chiefs won 17-10.

Mahomes completed 30 of 39 passes for only 241 yards (6.2 Y/A) and 1 touchdown (15.1 fantasy points).

Sam Darnold

Darnold had another rough outing Thursday night against the Broncos, completing 27 of 51 passes (52.9%) for 278 yards (5.5 Y/A) with no touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

Darnold has now thrown 7 interceptions since returning in Week 3.

He has now lost 1.0 EPA or worse on 22.9% of his dropbacks, 32nd in the league.

Darnold has a league-high 4 interceptions (with no touchdowns) on play action this season.

When pressured, Darnold has completed 38.3% of his passes (28th) for 4.6 Y/A (25th).

The Chiefs are ninth in pressure rate (38.8%) despite ranking 29th in sack rate (4.2%).

Even if you want to let Darnold slide for back-to-back tough opponents, things don't look any easier here, leaving him as a back-end QB2.

The Chiefs are third in passing points allowed (10.6 per game), allowing 6.1 yards per pass attempt (4th) and a 2.2% touchdown rate (2nd).

Kansas City has had a lighter run of opponents, facing Bo Nix, Daniel Jones, Malik Willis, Kirk Cousins, and Justin Herbert.

The question is how far this current version of Darnold is from that group.

The Colts (30 points) and Raiders (27 points) at least put points on the board in those games.

As with Mahomes, we haven't seen this matchup often.

Darnold has faced a Steve Spagnuolo defense only once in his career, back in 2020 with the Jets.

In that game, Darnold was 18 of 30 (60%) for 133 yards (4.4 Y/A) with no touchdowns or turnovers (7.4 fantasy points).

Chiefs vs. Seahawks Fantasy Running Back Preview

Kenneth Walker

Walker stayed red hot on Sunday, turning 21 touches into 139 yards from scrimmage with 2 touchdowns.

Walker has finished as an RB1 scorer in every game this season, averaging 24.0 touches (RB2) for a league-high 152.0 yards from scrimmage per game.

Walker is averaging 6.3 yards per touch (RB2) and has four games with multiple touchdowns.

He leads all running backs in missed tackles forced as a runner (41), despite already having a bye.

He has a 48.1% success rate as a runner (RB3) with a run of 10-plus yards on 17.9% of his runs (RB2).

You're starting Walker as a fantasy RB1, which you don't need me to tell you.

This is a complete strength-on-strength matchup with Walker going back to Seattle.

The Seahawks have not allowed a 100-yard rusher in 35 straight games.

Walker breaking that streak would be something.

The Seahawks allow 3.5 yards per carry to running backs (3rd) and 0.67 yards allowed before contact per rush (4th).

They have allowed a run of 10 or more yards on 7.6% of backfield runs, ninth in the league.

That said, the Seahawks have allowed some fantasy production to backs of late.

They allowed 108 total yards and 2 touchdowns to the Denver backfield on Thursday.

Christian McCaffrey had 83 total yards and a touchdown in Week 5.

The Chargers backfield totaled 152 yards and 2 touchdowns in Seattle in Week 4.

The Seahawks don't give up many points, but running backs have scored 40.6% of the fantasy points they allow, the highest share in the league.

They have been vulnerable to backs out of the backfield.

Seattle is 28th in receiving points allowed to backs (10.4 per game).

Walker has a 15% target share (RB8), but he has only 5 catches for 16 yards over his past three games.

Zach Charbonnet

Charbonnet is expected to make his return to the lineup on Sunday night, recovering from his ACL injury suffered last postseason.

The Seattle backfield has averaged 3.5 YPC (25th), failing to gain yardage on 20.7% of their runs (26th).

Their backs average 0.65 yards before contact per rush (31st) and are hit at or behind the line on 53% of their attempts (3rd highest).

The bar is low for Charbonnet to improve those rates, but with such a lengthy layoff and an unknown workload, he is a touchdown-dependent RB3.

Kansas City has also squashed the run, allowing 3.2 YPC to running backs (2nd) with a 70.7% success rate (3rd) against those runs.

They have allowed 63.8 rushing yards per game to backs (2nd) while allowing a first down or touchdown on 18.2% of those runs (5th).

Chiefs vs. Seahawks Fantasy Wide Receiver Preview

Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Thursday night was another testament to how good Smith-Njigba is.

If you were watching the game, it felt like Denver was doing a good job slowing him down.

Then you look up, and he has 12 catches for 134 yards on 16 targets.

Even with Darnold struggling, Smith-Njigba keeps rolling.

He has hit 100 yards receiving in five of six games and has at least 5 receptions in every game.

The “lowest” target share he had in a game this season is 29.6%, and he has at least 40% of the Seattle air yards in every game.

There isn't much else to say about a guy in contention for the WR1 spot every week.

Kansas City hasn't allowed a touchdown to a wide receiver yet, and they are allowing the fewest points per game to receivers, but their schedule explains it.

Facing the Broncos, Colts, Dolphins, Raiders, and Chargers, that is a lot of receivers who haven't done much so far.

Not that I believe the Kansas City secondary and defense are soft, but this is a complete jump in quality of opponent here with JSN.

The Chiefs' defense is balanced, mixing up coverages (54.4% in two-high and 45.6% in single-high) with a 38.2% pre-snap disguise rate (5th).

Smith-Njigba has 28.9% of targets against two-high and a higher-end 40.6% target share against single-high looks.

Xavier Worthy

As the lead receiver on Sunday, Worthy caught 7 of 7 targets for 73 yards against the Chargers.

Without Rashee Rice or Tyquan Thornton, Worthy got 24.1% of the targets.

He had only 24.8% of the air yards, as he absorbed many of the crossing routes and mesh concepts Rice typically gets.

Worthy only averaged 4.7 air yards per target.

Rice didn't practice on Wednesday, so we could get another week of Worthy as the offense's top receiver.

That would put him on the board as a WR3 here, but there are muted ceiling expectations facing the Seahawks.

Seattle allows a league-low 6.2 yards per target to receivers with 10.8 yards per reception (2nd).

They have only allowed two top-36 scoring receivers so far: Mike Evans (7-113-1) and Terry McLaurin (6-77-1).

Tre Harris (60 yards) and Mack Hollins (51 yards) are the only other receivers to reach 50 yards against them.

Cooper Kupp

Kupp had a season-high 10 targets on Thursday, catching 5 of them for 50 yards.

The receptions and yards were also season highs, making Kupp a WR5 option best suited for single-game DFS.

The Chiefs haven't faced many good pass catchers, but if you're looking for an angle on Kupp, 54.4% of wide receiver receptions against Kansas City have gone to slot receivers, the highest rate in the league.

Rashid Shaheed

Shaheed also had his best game of the season on Thursday, catching 5 of 8 targets for 66 yards.

That is the most targets Shaheed has had in a game since joining Seattle last season.

He has had only two other games with more receiving yardage since joining the team.

It was the first time he had more than 35 receiving yards in a game this season, and he beat it with a 42-yard reception.

Shaheed is still looking for his first touchdown catch with the Seahawks, making him primarily a single-game DFS option.

Chiefs WRs

Behind Worthy on Sunday, Jalen Royals ran 27 routes (84.4%) and caught 2 of 4 targets for 24 yards.

Andrew Armstrong served as the WR3, running 24 routes (75%), catching 1 of 2 targets for 13 yards.

Cyrus Allen ran only 4 routes but had more yardage than both of the others, catching 2 passes for 27 yards.

Against Seattle, these are thin plays even for single-game DFS players looking at touchdown-or-bust options.

Chiefs vs. Seahawks Fantasy Tight End Preview

Travis Kelce

Kelce grabbed 4 of 5 targets for 53 yards against the Chargers.

Kelce has two TE1 scoring weeks through five games.

We knew his early-season YAC wasn't sustainable, and he hasn't been heavily targeted.

Kelce is the TE19 in expected points per game.

Kelce is a TE2 option.

Seattle allows 4.4 yards per target to tight ends (3rd), including facing Trey McBride (8-41-1) and George Kittle (5-24-0).

AJ Barner

Barner has topped 20 yards in one game this season without a touchdown, so it is hard to push him as more than a touchdown-dependent TE2.

Elijah Arroyo being out doesn't do a ton since Barner has already run a route on 80.3% of the dropbacks (TE6).

There is matchup appeal here.

Tight ends have scored 33.5% of the fantasy points the Chiefs allow, the second-highest rate in the league.

Some of that is a byproduct of the tight ends they have faced being better than the wide receivers on their teams, but it does include Evan Engram (4-43-1) and Greg Dulcich (5-55-0), along with Brock Bowers (6-86-1), Michael Mayer (8-82-0), and Tyler Warren (6-21-1).

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