Week 4 Fantasy Football Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em: Trey Benson vs. Kenneth Walker III
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For week four’s Thursday night matchup, the Arizona Cardinals will take on the Seattle Seahawks. Within that game, there is an intriguing running back matchup between Cardinals RB Trey Benson and Seahawks RB Kenneth Walker III. Benson is making his first official start of the 2025 season, and Walker III is coming off his second strong outing in a row . Here is a breakdown of who to start and who to sit between the two in fantasy football.
Kenneth Walker III
The Seattle Seahawks RB had many fantasy managers concerned with his game in week one against the San Francisco 49ers. In the contest, he had 10 carries for 20 yards. RB2 on Seattle’s roster, Zach Charbonnet, in that game had 12 carries for 47 yards and a touchdown. This immediately raised concerns of this truly being a committee backfield for Seattle in 2025.
Kenneth Walker ran for 105 yards on Sunday despite playing only 35% of the snaps. pic.twitter.com/BSLgu723DN
— SleeperSeahawks (@SleeperSeahawks) September 17, 2025
However, things could start trending toward Walker III getting more carries, based on how he played in weeks two and three. Over the past two games, he has recorded 29 carries for 143 yards and three touchdowns. In his latest performance, he had 16 carries for 39 yards and two touchdowns. This outing had him finish as RB10 in fantasy points in PPR formats in week three, tallying a total of 18 fantasy points.
Going into week four, Walker III will have a tough task. The Cardinals so far in 2025 have allowed the fourth fewest rushing yards per game. The most rushing yards they have given up to an RB1 so far was in their latest matchup against the 49ers, where Christian McCaffrey logged 52 rushing yards on 17 carries.
Running backs have had success in the pass game against the Cardinals. McCaffrey logged 88 receiving yards on 10 receptions, and Chuba Hubbard logged five catches for 39 yards. Walker may not be able to capitalize on this, though. So far this season he has not been used a significant amount in the passing game. He has five catches for 29 yards in total this season.
Trey Benson
After the Arizona Cardinals' lead back, James Conner, suffered a season-ending injury in week three against the San Francisco 49ers, second-year running back Trey Benson will be the featured back for the remainder of the 2025 season in Arizona.
2nd year RB Trey Benson for 52 yards
— NFL (@NFL) September 7, 2025
AZvsNO on CBS/Paramount+https://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/0kWYCp0G2e
Through three games in a backup role, Benson has looked good. He has logged a total of 125 rushing yards on 21 carries. He has also showcased some promise in the passing game, logging a total of eight catches for 45 yards.
Benson’s hype was already high coming into the 2025 fantasy season, and now he has a chance to put validity to it in week four. The Seahawks, like the Cardinals, also have a stout rushing defense. They are allowing on average 90 yards a game, which ranked as the seventh fewest in the NFL. The most rushing yards they have given up to an RB1 this season was also to Christian McCaffrey. He ran for 69 yards on 22 carries.
Final Verdict
Although it is Benson’s first game as a starter, he should be the start in fantasy football and Walker III should be the sit between the two. Here are a couple reasons why this is the case.
The Seahawks also have given up a significant amount of receiving yards to RB1’s like the Cardinals. Through three weeks, opposing RB1s have a combined 173 receiving yards against Seattle. Benson out of him, and Walker feels like he could make a bigger impact in the passing game.
Another downtick to Walker III being the sit option is Charbonnet will likely be back. He missed week three’s contest against the New Orleans Saints with a foot injury, but is expected to be back in week four. And although Walker III is in the process of proving that he should get some of Charbonnet’s workload, him being back is significant.
Charbonnet being active puts a little dampener on the ceiling of Walker's week four potential, while the new RB2 for the Cardinals seems rather insignificant. The now RB2 for the Cardinals, Emari Demercado, has no catches and two rushes for zero yards so far this season.
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Gray Deyo is a Nashville-based sportswriter who graduated with a sports management bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He has covered prep sports, college sports, the WNBA, and the NBA for the past four years. In addition to writing for SI, Gray also currently contributes to Prep Girls Hoops