To freak out, or to keep calm? That’s the question almost any fantasy manager will have about at least one player on their roster each week. It can be easy to overreact and lose control over a disappointing performance, but each week, we’ll dive into a few of fantasy football’s biggest names and help you decide if we should panic over a poor fantasy output or if we should stay the course and keep them in our lineups. Are there reasonable excuses for why the player had a down week or a few concerning performances? Is it an outlier, or is there something to their struggles and time to look for alternative options? That’s what we’ll aim to answer in Patience or Panic each week throughout the season.
You might be thinking, why is this being posted late in the week? Shouldn’t we decide to panic or be patient right after the previous week’s games? The goal is to look forward to the following week regarding lineup decisions, while being a few days removed from the emotions of a down performance.
Heading into Week 6, there’s no shortage of players we can lose control over. We’re more than a month into the season, meaning we can feel a little more comfortable about hitting the full panic button on players, and rookies are no longer safe.
Kenneth Walker III, Running Back, Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks’ backfield has been frustrating for fantasy football, to say the least, to start the season. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there’s an end in sight to the committee approach. In Week 6, Zach Charbonnet played 14 more snaps and ran seven more routes than Walker, despite Charbonnet having just a 32% success rate on rushing attempts compared to Walker’s 46% success rate on the season, according to JJ Zachariason.
In the past three weeks, Charbonnet’s rush attempt share has grown from 36% to 55%, and Charbonnet has also taken all the goal line carries, except one, according to Chris Allen of Yahoo. Another concerning aspect of the Seahawks’ backfield as a whole is their limited target share. Charbonnet and Walker have just a 10.4% target share combined, according to JJ Zachariason, even though Seattle doesn’t have a legitimate second pass catcher behind Jaxon Smith-Njigba. I want my Running Backs involved in the passing game, and unless there’s a pretty significant scheme change, it doesn’t appear that’s going to be the case for Walker.
To be fair, Walker has been dealing with a foot injury since training camp. Seahawks beat reporter Greg Bell of the Tacoma News Tribune noted that the coaching staff is managing the foot issue, helping to explain the committee despite Charbonnet not exactly looking like the most efficient and explosive back. While it’s possible the coaching staff is planning to increase Walker’s snaps as the season goes on and the games mean more, it’s Week 7; we need our fantasy teams to win now (I know I do). Walker’s lack of involvement in the passing game, his entanglement in this committee with Charbonnet, and his foot injury that’s being managed make him difficult to start with confidence in Week 7.
Verdict: Panic
Alternative options:
If you’re going into Week 7 unsure of whether or not to start Walker, a good possible alternative for Walker could be Bucs Running Back Rachaad White. The Bucs play in the early Monday night game at 7 pm Eastern against the Lions, while the Seahawks play in the late contest at 10 pm at home versus the Texans. It’s quite possible to have both rostered Walker and White, as they were selected far apart from each other in fantasy drafts. White is the clear #1 option in Tampa’s backfield while Bucky Irving is injured. Browns Running Back Quinshon Judkins also could make for a good alternative option, as he has a great matchup against the Dolphins in Week 7. Walker owners easily could have drafted Judkins several rounds later or picked him up off waivers early in the season. The Dolphins allowed Rico Dowdle to run rampant on them a few weeks ago. We can’t expect Judkins to have that kind of day, but it’s an excellent opportunity for Judkins to get back on the right track.
Saquon Barkley, Running Back, Philadelphia Eagles
As someone who drafted Barkley in the first round of my home league draft, it pains me to even type his name. However, some fantasy managers may have moderate levels of panic or concern when it comes to Barkley. His Week 6 outing against the Giants resulted in just 8.7 PPR points, and he now has two games this season with fewer than 10 PPR points in 2025, something that happened just three times last year. The injuries to the interior of the offensive line (Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens, who’s still recovering from offseason back surgery) have made the rushing lanes tighter than they were in 2024. His rushing yards over expected per rush are just -0.1 compared to +1.6 in 2024, according to Next Gen Stats courtesy of JJ Zachariason.
While the Eagles offense is clearly not what it was last year, and Barkley may not break the same amount of long touchdown runs that he did in 2024, we can’t panic trade him for a reduced return, or even worse, bench him. It sounds crazy to even comprehend benching Barkley, and it is! The 28-year-old former Giant has actually been more involved in the passing game this year, as he already has 19 receptions through six games compared to 33 all of last season. If the rushing lanes continue to be limited, it makes sense to get Barkley the ball in space through the air. He’s still too explosive just to sit him behind an injured/under-performing offensive line. I’m no tape guru, but Saquon still looks to have plenty of juice. He just needs some alleyways to show off that juice. Center Cam Jurgens acknowledged he’s feeling a bit better each game as well.
It’s becoming clearer that Saquon isn’t going to follow up his historic 2024 with another record-breaking season, but there are still reasons to point to optimism for Barkley to be highly productive in fantasy this season. I can’t think of anything worse than making a panic move with Saquon, and then him breaking a long-touchdown run and looking like the Saquon we all love.
Verdict: Patience
Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire | Featured image by Ethan Kaplan (@djfreddie10.bsky.social on Blue Sky and @EthanMKaplanImages on Instagram)