FANTASY FOOTBALL NEWS

Trey Benson Suddenly Out at Least Four Weeks

By Matt Schauf | Updated on Wed, Oct 1 2025 5:59 PM UTC

The Cardinals have announced that RB Trey Benson will hit IR for the knee injury he suffered late in Week 4. That announcement comes just after we learned the RB's Week 5 status was "in question" and knocks him out for at least four games.

Update: Benson underwent arthroscopic surgery on his meniscus and is expected to be out for four to six weeks, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. Arizona has a Week 8 bye, so it's still possible that Benson only misses four games.

What They're Saying

Darren Urban of the team website: "He will return this season."

ESPN's Adam Schefter: "Trey Benson is expected to return this season."

Theo Mackie, Cardinals beat writer for the Arizona Republic, earlier this week: "If Benson misses any time, the Cardinals could turn to Michael Carter as their lead back, a role he filled for two games last year."

2025 Fantasy Football Impact

Well. That escalated quickly.

The two games Mackie's referring to came in the final two weeks of last season. Emari Demercado was already on IR with a back injury. Trey Benson went inactive for Week 17 and then landed on IR for the finale. And James Conner went down in Week 17.

Carter turned the opportunity into the following stat lines:

13-70 rushing, 2-11 receiving (two targets) at the Rams
17-43-1 rushing, 4-16 receiving (four targets) vs. San Francisco

We're giving Carter the rushing edge over Demercado in our Week 5 RB rankings. But this will be our first look at this particular backfield situation. So be careful not to overrate what we "know" about the usage.

Carter also caught five balls the week before, operating alongside a healthy Conner.

Demercado did get two starts in the middle of 2023 (his rookie year), with Damien Williams and Keaontay Ingram as the only other healthy backs. Here's how his stat lines turned out (under the same HC and OC the Cards have today):

13-58 rushing, 4-17 receiving (five targets) at Seattle
20-78 rushing, 1-1 receiving (one target) vs. Baltimore

The Tennessee matchup helps both RBs. The Titans have presented the fifth-friendliest RB scoring matchup this season, according to our adjusted fantasy points allowed.

How to Treat the Arizona Backfield

So consider Carter and Demercado both potential waiver adds with usability this week and next (at the Colts). We'll see how the usage plays out this weekend.

Week 7 presents a difficult matchup with the Packers, followed by a Week 8 bye and a Week 9 visit to Dallas.

Benson will be eligible to return for Week 10 (at Seattle). We'll see about his status as that draws closer. Try to keep him stashed if you can.

Matt Schauf, Editor

Matt has earned two Fantasy Pros accuracy awards for IDP rankings and won thousands of dollars as a player across best ball, dynasty, and high-stakes fantasy formats. He has been creating fantasy football content for more than 20 years, with work featured by Sporting News, Rotoworld, Athlon, Sirius XM, and others. He's been with Draft Sharks since 2011.