Seahawks vs. Vikings Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 16

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 16 matchup between the Seahawks and Vikings.

Find a breakdown of every Week 16 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Sam Darnold: Darnold did not play a great game on Monday, matching a season-low with 5.8 yards per pass attempt.

He completed 60% of his passes (24-of-40), his lowest rate in a game since Week 5.

With 1 touchdown and 1 interception, he snapped a four-game streak with multiple touchdown passes.

Closing the week as QB20 (11.2 points), it was only the third time this season that Darnold has finished in the back half of weekly scoring.

This is a spot where I would prefer to use Darnold as a floor-based QB2 and take any spike performance we get.

If you are using him with fringe-QB1 expectations, that is more of a ballpark for an upside outcome.

Seattle has allowed solid floor weeks lately but only a few spike weeks.

They have not allowed a quarterback to finish inside the top 10 since Week 6.

But they have allowed 17 or more fantasy points in five of their past seven games.

One area where Darnold and this passing game can exploit Seattle is with the play-action passing game.

Darnold uses play action at the sixth-highest rate in the league (29.3%).

Using play action, Darnold has a 136.1 rating, second in the league behind Lamar Jackson.

He leads the league with an 11.2% touchdown rate and 10.9 Y/A using play-action.

Against play-action passes, Seattle has allowed a 71.8% completion rate (26th), 9.3 Y/A (28th), and a 7.7% touchdown rate (31st).

Seattle has allowed a 63.2% completion rate (14th), 5.9 Y/A (2nd), and a 3.1% touchdown rate (6th) against non-play action passes.

Geno Smith: Smith was forced from Sunday’s game with a knee injury, but Mike Macdonald said he expects Smith to practice and play this upcoming week.

We will follow his status throughout the week, but Smith is a QB2 option in this spot, even if he checks out physically.

Smith has not logged a QB1 scoring week since Week 9 and has been QB20 or lower in 7 of his past 9 starts.

Minnesota is third in passing points allowed per attempt (0.356), allowing 7.1 Y/A (13th) with a 3.6% touchdown rate (9th).

If you are looking for a positive spin for gamers forced to use Smith, he has been good against the blitz.

The Vikings blitz at the highest rate in the league (37.5%).

Against the blitz, Smith has completed 69% of his passes (3rd) for 8.9 Y/A (7th).

He has been sacked on 9.9% of those blitzes (25th) and only has a 2.0% touchdown rate (32nd), but throwing touchdowns has been his largest bugaboo all season.

Smith has thrown 8.5 fewer touchdowns than expectations on my end.

Running Back

More Week 16 Fantasy Breakdowns From The Worksheet: