The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 4 matchup between the Giants and Seahawks on Monday Night Football.
Find a breakdown of every Week 4 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.
| Seattle | Rank | @ | NY Giants | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5 | Spread | -1.5 | ||
| 22.5 | Implied Total | 24.0 | ||
| 29.0 | 4 | Points/Gm | 14.3 | 31 |
| 29.3 | 29 | Points All./Gm | 32.7 | 30 |
| 61.3 | 21 | Plays/Gm | 59.3 | 25 |
| 72.3 | 30 | Opp. Plays/Gm | 64.3 | 17 |
| 5.4 | 10 | Off. Yards/Play | 4.3 | 30 |
| 5.6 | 29 | Def. Yards/Play | 5.6 | 28 |
| 41.30% | 15 | Rush% | 37.08% | 23 |
| 58.70% | 18 | Pass% | 62.92% | 10 |
| 37.33% | 7 | Opp. Rush % | 50.78% | 32 |
| 62.67% | 26 | Opp. Pass % | 49.22% | 1 |
- The Giants have a 1-12 record with Daniel Jones in his primetime starts.
- The Giants have been outscored 63-to-6 in the first half of games, the worst differential in the NFL.
- The Giants are allowing 2.83 points per drive, 30th in the league.
- The Seahawks are allowing 2.75 points per drive, 28th in the league.
- The Giants have scored just 30.5% of the points in their games played, the lowest rate in the league.
- Seattle is last in the NFL in differential (-8) of plays to gain 20 or more yards versus allowed.
- The Seahawks have allowed 17 plays of 20 or more yards (31st in the league).
- The Giants have gained 20 or more yards on just 3.4% of their plays, 29th in the league.
- Just 37.1% of the Seattle set of downs have reached third down, the second-best rate in the league behind Miami (28.7%). The league average is 48.1%.
- The Seahawks have allowed opponents to convert 57.4% of their third down plays, 31st in the league.
- The Giants have allowed opponents to convert 48.7% of their third down plays, 29th in the league.
Trust = spike production for that player
Quarterback
Geno Smtih (TRUST): Smith has not gotten off to a blazing start for fantasy, but he has played much better in the past two weeks.
He has thrown for 8.0 Y/A and 8.2 Y/A the past two games, completing 71.4% of his throws with three touchdowns and an interception.
When you face the Giants, you know you are going to get blitzed.
The Giants have blitzed on 55.2% of dropbacks, second in the NFL.
The issue that the Giants have is that they have pressured opposing passers on just 45.3% of their blitzes, which is 15th in the league.
When they have blitzed and not gotten pressure, they have allowed passers to complete 21-of-29 passes for 291 yards (10.0 Y/A).
Regardless of pressure, Smith is sixth in the NFL with a 121.0 rating against the blitz, completing 18-of-26 passes for 222 yards (8.5 Y/A) and two touchdowns.
When he has been blitzed but not pressured, Smith is averaging 9.6 yards per attempt, sixth in the league.
These teams played in Week 8 last season. In that game, Smith was the QB11 (19.1 points).
Daniel Jones: Jones has played two good quarters of football so far this season.
He has finished QB29, QB1, and QB33 to open the season for fantasy.
Jones has already thrown four interceptions on 97 pass attempts after throwing five all of last season on 472 passes.
As bad as things have been outside of that second half at Arizona, this is the softest matchup that Jones has had to open the year, even including the Cardinals game.
Seattle has been hemorrhaging passing points through three games, allowing Matthew Stafford (334 yards), Jared Goff (323 yards), and Andy Dalton (361 yards) all to pass for over 300 yards.
The Seahawks have allowed 0.448 passing points per attempt (25th), 7.8 yards per attempt (28th), 11.8 yards per completion (29th), and 19.6 passing points per game (29th).
All of that said, Jones was in a similar spot last year when these teams met and he was unable to put up any production.
That was a year ago and this Seattle defense is in a worse spot than where they are heading into this game, but he ended that game as QB24 (9.0 points), completing 17-of-31 passes for 5.7 Y/A.
The implied line is suggesting to place some blind faith in Jones here given the New York team total, leaving him as a boom-or-bust option on the QB1/QB2 line.
Running Back
Kenneth Walker: Walker is coming off his best game of the early season, producing 156 yards and two touchdowns on 21 touches. He rushed 18 times for 97 and a pair of scores on the ground, but he also added three receptions for a career-high 59 yards through the air.
We have seen Zach Charbonnet’s snaps rise every week of the season so far, but Walker still has handled 16, 18, and 21 touches through three games.
Walker has every touch inside of the five-yard line except for one this season, which Charbonnet had late in the game last week after having his own 12-yard run down to the two-yard line.
Walker will look to stay hot against a New York run defense that has allowed 19.8 rushing points per game to opposing backfields (30th).
The Giants have allowed Tony Pollard (22.2 PPR points), James Conner (16.6 points), and Christian McCaffrey (22.9 points) to all post-front-end weeks.
Walker is an RB1 option here in Week 4.
He is a road underdog, so some slight trepidation about going all-in. The Giants also limited Walker to 51 yards on 18 carries last season.
Giants RB: Saquon Barkley will be 15 days removed from his ankle injury by Monday Night, but that still may not be enough time for him to be ready to play.
We will follow his status throughout the week and adjust as his availability becomes clearer, but I would bet that he doesn’t practice and enters the weekend questionable into Monday.
We do not want to see Barkley push things and have this ankle injury be an issue all season.
This is also not a great matchup on the ground. Seattle is a complete pass funnel early this season.
They have allowed five rushing touchdowns to backs, but they are allowing 2.7 YPC to running backs (second) with a 71.2% success rate (fifth) on those carries.
Even if Barkley suits up, he is a volatile option on the RB1/RB2 line.
If Barkley cannot play, Matt Breida only managed 18 yards in seven touches last week, but he did find the end zone and played 21-of-24 first-half snaps last week before things got ugly.
If Breida draws the start again, he is a touchdown-dependent FLEX.
Wide Receiver
DK Metcalf (TRUST): Playing through a rib injury last week, Metcalf still came out and secured 6-of-8 targets for 112 yards.
This is the type of matchup to look for Metcalf at his best.
The Giants blitz at the second-highest rate in the league.
Going back to last season playing with Geno Smith, Metcalf has a team-high 30.3% of the team targets and has been targeted on a team-high 30.9% of his routes when Smith has been blitzed.
He is averaging 2.31 yards per route run on those snaps.
Because the Giants blitz so much, they also play man coverage at the league’s sixth-highest rate (33.7%).
So far this season, Metcalf has been targeted on 30.8% of his routes against man coverage as opposed to an 18.8% rate against zone coverage.
Going back to last season, that rate is 33.6% against man coverage versus a 22.0% rate per route against zone coverage.
He is averaging 3.20 yards per route against man coverage over that span.
When these teams played a year ago, Metcalf was injured and only played 63% of the snaps, but he still drew a target on 34.5% of his routes, catching 6-of-10 targets for 55 yards with a touchdown.
