Who Should I Start? Ja'Tavion Sanders or Elijah Arroyo

Friday, October 3, 1:31 PM

The Carolina Panthers have officially ruled out tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders (ankle) for the Week 5 matchup on Sunday against the visiting Miami Dolphins, per The Athletic's Joe Person. Sanders will miss his second straight game after suffering the dreaded high-ankle sprain back in Week 3. High-ankle sprains can keep players out up to four to six weeks, so Sanders could end up missing a third straight contest next week against the Dallas Cowboys. Even before his injury, Sanders wasn't much of an option for fantasy managers in 12-team leagues. With Sanders sidelined in last week's loss to the New England Patriots, Tommy Tremble stepped up for five catches on eight targets for 42 yards and his first touchdown of the year. Tremble is known as more of a blocking TE, though, so expecting more relevant fantasy production might be a mistake. Still, he'll at least be in play as a TE2 streamer this weekend in a good matchup against Miami. Head coach Dave Canales said the hope is that Sanders is ready to go next week.

Saturday, October 4, 9:16 AM

Seattle Seahawks tight end Elijah Arroyo has seen his snap share increase in each of the first four weeks of the 2025 NFL season, and he could continue to get even more involved in Week 5 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The rookie is coming off the best week of his young career, in which he caught two of four targets for 44 yards on a 55 percent snap share. With that said, he's still the No. 2 tight end in Seattle behind AJ Barner, who has two touchdowns this season and has played at least 85 percent of the snaps in three of four games. Nevertheless, even with Barner present, Arroyo has shown that he can carve out a modest role for himself -- and perhaps start to generate some low-end fantasy appeal in deeper leagues, too. This could be a decent week for Arroyo as the Buccaneers' defense is merely near the middle of the league, allowing the 16th-most fantasy points to tight ends in 2025.