The Seattle Seahawks underwent some major changes during the 2024 offseason. They are no longer led by Pete Carroll, as the head coach was reassigned elsewhere in the organization.
Taking over as head coach will be former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald. It will be interesting to see how differently the team operates after Carroll was at the helm for 14 seasons.
Given his defensive background, a lot of people will be interested to see how things play out with the offense. Geno Smith is back again as the starting quarterback and he is surrounded by some very good weapons.
The Seahawks have one of the best wide receiver trios in the NFL with D.K. Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Kenneth Walker is also a solid leadback to lean on in the running game.
There are pieces for this unit to be one of the more productive in the NFL, but there is some pessimism surrounding Lockett. Over at Pro Football Network, Kyle Soppe has cautioned Fantasy Football managers from selecting the veteran for their team.
Lockett currently has an average draft position of 51st among wide receivers. That puts him right around the end of the 10th round, but Soppe believes that is still too high to select the playmaker.
“In full disclosure, expectations aren’t high within the industry as his current ADP is hovering at the end of Round 10 – I’m still not interested.
As fantasy managers, we have to value what teams tell us with their actions. Slot usage is often a nice floor elevator for us and Seattle is trending away from counting on their veteran in that regard,” Soppe wrote.
From 2019-2022, Lockett had 51.5 percent of his targets come from playing the slot. In 2023, that number plummeted to only 29.1 percent. He also experienced a 28.3 percent decline in points per target in half-point PPR leagues.
A major reason for that is the presence of Smith-Njigba. He saw his production increase steadily after the Seahawks’ bye in Week 5 and is trending upward heading into 2024.
The same cannot be said about Lockett, who could take a backseat to the 2023 first-round pick in the team’s pecking order for targets. Soppe believes that players with higher ceilings would be worth taking where Lockett is going off the board.
“In reality, there is no such thing as a real “bad” pick at the point in the draft in which Lockett is going. But why not aim for a higher ceiling? I’m rolling the dice on Khalil Shakir, Romeo Doubs, Rashid Shaheed, and Mike Williams, to name a few in this ADP range, and feeling good about it.”
No player is perfect coming off the board in the 10th round or later; there is a reason they are ranked in those spots in the first place. Some of the players Soppe mentioned are risky in their own right, but value wise could pay off more than Lockett as the No. 3 option on a team that has historically been run-first.
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