NFL Week 4 Recap: Immediate fantasy football takeaways from Monday Night Football

• The New York Giants make multiple changes at wide receiver: Two young Giants receivers set season highs snaps played.

• Darren Waller has another quiet night: Backup tight end Daniel Bellinger left the game early with an injury, but that wasn’t enough to get Waller more involved in the offense.

• Kenneth Walker III leads the Seattle Seahawks offense: The Seahawks defense did most of the work to secure the victory, but Walker did most of the work when Seattle was on offense.

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Seattle Seahawks @ New York Giants

• Kenneth Walker III: 17 carries, 79 yards, 1 touchdown
• D.K. Metcalf: 3 receptions, 34 yards, 1 touchdown

Jalin Hyatt takes over as an outside receiver: Hyatt played significantly more snaps than Isaiah Hodgins.

• Hodgins started the game as usual, but Hyatt rotated in on the third play and took the majority of snaps over the rest of the game.
• A lot of those snaps were in the run game. The two spent most of the game evenly matched in terms of routes run.
• This only led to two receptions for 10 yards, while Hodgins recorded 24 yards on three catches.
• Sterling Shepard has been the Giants’ other backup outside receiver, but his playing time has declined each week, and he wasn’t involved in the offense until the fourth quarter.
• It’s too early to start Hyatt because this could remain a rotation for the near future, but this was a step in the right direction for the third-round rookie.

Wan’Dale Robinson takes over as the Giants' slot receiver: New York changed its lead slot receiver, with Robinson taking the majority of snaps.

• Robinson was a second-round pick of the 2023 draft and often served as the team's slot receiver in his rookie year, but injuries cost him most of that season.
• He tore his ACL in Week 11 of last season and was finally able to return last week. He was used sparingly, running only nine routes, but he was targeted five times and caught four passes.
• The Giants started this game in 12 personnel, but Robinson played instead of Parris Campbell in their first snap of 11 personnel.
• Campbell still rotated in significantly. This is another case where we can’t trust either player for fantasy purposes until one has a firm hold on the slot role, which might never happen.
• On the bright side, New York prioritized throwing to its slot receivers. Both Robinson and Campbell led the wide receiver room in targets.

Monitor the health of Daniel Bellinger: The backup tight end suffered a knee injury at the end of the first drive and didn’t return.

• Bellinger was already dealing with a neck injury that kept him limited in practice last week.
• The Giants started the game with both Darren Waller and Bellinger playing significantly.
• The Giants mostly stuck with 11 personnel for the rest of the game but also used a sixth offensive lineman at times.
• Waller took nearly every snap over the rest of the game after the injury, so this move should have helped Waller’s production.
• Instead, Waller was targeted only three times, with two of those targets coming in the last five minutes of the game.
• He’s been off the injury report for the last two weeks, so this is time to start being concerned about Waller’s fantasy value.

Kenneth Walker III takes a larger role than usual: Walker was the early-down back as usual but played more passing snaps than he had in past games.

• Walker took all of the snaps during the two-minute drill. DeeJay Dallas had that role in Week 1, and Zach Charbonnet had it in Weeks 2 and 3.
• Walker had only played three snaps in two-minute drills over the first 14 weeks of last season but was the primary two-minute-drill back over the last four weeks of the regular season.
• He’s also averaged a few third-down snaps each game this season, which carried on into this game. Unfortunately, that increased role didn’t lead to any targets.
• The box score made things look good for Zach Charbonnet, who averaged 6.2 yards per carry and saw three targets. But if anything, Charbonnet’s playing time was down this week.
• Walker can very safely remain in fantasy starting lineups regardless of the matchup going forward.

Miscellaneous Notes

• Geno Smith left the game with an ankle injury before halftime but was able to return by the start of the second half. This allowed Drew Lock to see his first regular-season action with the Seahawks. Naturally, he completed a 51-yard pass to his longtime teammate Noah Fant.
• Fant and Will Dissly were on the injury report this week and questionable for this game, which likely contributed to the Seahawks' tight end rotation being more frustrating than usual for fantasy managers.
• Saquon Barkley missed another week, leaving Matt Breida as the starter again. He and Gary Brightwell rotated more often than last week, but Breida received most of the touches. Breida should remain on fantasy rosters until Barkley has been cleared.

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.