Field Gulls
From top 10 over the past two seasons to barely inside the top 20? Hmm...
We’re almost at that time of year where we can watch actual football and not create offseason NFL rankings articles, but the operative word is almost. In the meantime, let’s see how much you’re emotionally affected by an unflattering ranking for the Seattle Seahawks.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell ranked teams from worst to first in terms of their offensive supporting cast, aka wide receivers, running backs, and tight ends. His criteria involved 2025 on-field performance and not credit for past work, looming suspensions and/or injury-related absences, greater weight toward wide receivers over RBs and TEs, and an emphasis on the top-end of the depth chart and not RB3s and WR5s.
Over the past two seasons, the Seahawks were 8th in 2024 and 4th in 2023. With DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett outta here, Barnwell placed Seattle at the bottom of the NFC West and in the bottom half of the overall rankings at No. 19.
A significant overhaul means the Seahawks drop in these rankings. Even while acknowledging that DK Metcalf’s 2020 season looks like an outlier and Tyler Lockett’s decline has become apparent, Seattle might have downgraded at both spots (while getting cheaper) by replacing them with Cooper Kupp and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Like Metcalf, Kupp is several years removed from what looks like an outlier year-plus as an elite receiver. He was the league’s best receiver when helping push the Rams to a Super Bowl in the 2021 season, and he stayed at that level during the first half of 2022. He hasn’t been the same since suffering an ankle injury and missing the rest of 2022, however.
The emergence of Puka Nacua in Los Angeles might have taken targets away from the former Offensive Player of the Year, but Kupp has averaged 2.2 yards per route run without Nacua on the field and 2.0 YPRR in total over the past two seasons. Those are solid numbers, but they’re a ways away from the 2.9 yards per route run he averaged in 2021-22. Factoring in Kupp’s age (32) and the reality that he has missed eight games over the past two seasons with injuries, he projects more like a solid No. 2 receiver than one with elite upside.
Valdes-Scantling was good in a small sample for the Saints last season, but the 30-year-old was cut by the Bills and joined New Orleans for free. The passing game should run through Jaxon Smith-Njigba, whose 2024 breakout helped keep the Seahawks from falling further. He averaged nearly 83 receiving yards per game from Week 9 onward, a 1,402-yard pace over a full season.
We’re still waiting for the breakout from other Seahawks. Noah Fant continues to be a high-floor, low-ceiling tight end, combining catch rates north of 74% with a lack of consistent big-play ability or any sort of threat in the red zone. He has one score...
