The Seattle Seahawks’ makeover of the offense may lead with the decision to trade quarterback Geno Smith and sign Sam Darnold, but as big a story is the overhaul of the wide receiver group.
Tyler Lockett? Seahawks legend, but no longer on the team. DK Metcalf? Wanted out, got out, got his money via the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s almost 1,100 combined receptions, 15,000 combined receiving yards, and 109 combined receiving touchdowns gone in a flash. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is the clear top option on the depth chart entering his third season.
In the immediate, Seattle signed Los Angeles Rams great Cooper Kupp, veteran deep threat Marques Valdes-Scantling, and… I guess we’ll throw in River Cracraft. Of those three listed, only Kupp is on a multi-year contract.
Get beyond the 2025 season and you’ve got a vastly different story.
Seahawks wide receivers under contract through 2026
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Cooper Kupp
That’s all, folks. Beyond all the players on one-year contracts, Jake Bobo is approaching the end of his rookie deal—UDFAs get three-year deals instead of four. I know we’re in peak optimism season, but I do not believe this is a deep wide receiver group at present and the depth is hugely dependent on the oft-injured Kupp not getting hurt again/looking past his prime.
Only JSN is a clear lock for 2026 given what he’s shown over his first two seasons. Kupp is on the other side of 30 with the aforementioned injury issues, MVS is also in his 30s and an inefficient target whose best asset (downfield threat) is negated by having notoriously un-good hands.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling has five drops on passes traveling 30+ yards in the air since 2018. Nobody else has more than three.
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) November 21, 2023
The fourth option at receiver is Jake Bobo, whom ideally is used a lot more in the red zone than what we saw last season. He’s also not targeted a lot for a reason and we shouldn’t assume his efficiency will remain unchanged or increase with more looks. There is no getting around his lack of speed and we have to acknowledge that even the best offensive coordinators cannot just scheme any target wide open all the time. He is far from a lock to be on the 2026 roster no matter how hard we meme him.
Dareke Young, Cody White, River Cracraft, and John Rhys Plumlee are all going to be fighting for roster spots. Young and White hardly ever get on the field on offense.
Even if you want to counter with the idea that Klint Kubiak’s Seahawks offense is supposed to heavily feature 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends) and rely on their running game, even very 12 personnel dependent teams need a viable receiving corps that’s at least three deep. The Philadelphia Eagles probably aren’t enjoying a Lombardi Trophy if they had their elite offensive line but didn’t have receivers as good as A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith.
Seattle has an emerging star, a potentially fading and increasingly fragile star, a notoriously inconsistent and one-dimensional player, and a low-ceiling but fairly dependable fourth option. That does not give me any fuzzy feelings of confidence for 2025 and even less so in the long-term.
I do not put it past the Seahawks to take a receiver at No. 18, whether that’s Texas’ Matthew Golden, Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka, or Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan. It’s unlikely but it’s not inconceivable. When I specify “early” I mean the Seahawks should be using one of their five top 100 picks at the WR position. This isn’t considered as deep a receiver class compared to recent drafts but there are many talented projected Day 2 options like Iowa State’s duo of Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel, TCU’s Jack Bech, and Stanford’s Elic Ayomanor.
The one exception to my stance is if the Seahawks draft Michigan tight end Colston Loveland, whom alongside Penn State’s Tyler Warren are the only TEs expected to go in the first round. There’s almost no shot that Warren is available at No. 18 but Loveland might be. Given how well Loveland performed in a low-volume passing offense—even more so was in 2024 while dealing with a labrum injury and a series of J.J. McCarthy replacements who seldom looked capable of throwing a forward pass—his talents are irresistible. He’d be reunited with his former Wolverines teammate A.J. Barner and present a higher pass-catching ceiling than Noah Fant, who’s been fairly unremarkable even when he played in more favorable circumstances under Shane Waldron compared to Ryan Grubb.
Is the offensive line top priority for the Seahawks? Yeah, no kidding. You have to win in the trenches to contend. You also need high level skill position players in the passing game to be a great offense; it’s even more important if you don’t have some cheat code at quarterback like Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen. I don’t care how improved the offensive line is if the receivers are struggling to get open and there isn’t great depth at the position.
I think it’s imperative for the Seahawks to have a wide receiver (or Loveland) in their class before Day 3 arrives. Pretending it’s not a need is putting way too much stock in Klint Kubiak when he has only two seasons of offensive coordinator experience from which we can draw data from.
