Noah Fant - Injury History

What You Need to Know:

• Fant was shipped from Denver to Seattle in March as part of the Russell Wilson trade.
• He was the 20th overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft after averaging 13.9 yards per catch across 3 seasons at Iowa and earning a 98th percentile SPARQ score at the Combine.
• Fant posted a 40-562-3 line as a rookie, finishing 14th among TEs in PPR points and 15th in non-PPR. He tallied the 17th most PPR points by a rookie TE since 2000.
• Fant set new career highs with 93 targets, 62 catches and 673 yards in his 2nd season. He scored just 3 times but still finished 11th at his position in PPR points and 16th in non-PPR.
• 2021 brought similar numbers: 90 targets, 68 catches, 670 yards and 4 TDs. Fant finished TE12 in both PPR and non-PPR scoring.
• Here are his Pro Football Focus receiving grades by season (rank among TEs with 40+ targets):
  • 2019 - 61.4 (26th out of 36)
  • 2020 - 80.3 (4th out of 38)
  • 2021 - 69.5 (16th out of 35)
• Fant’s yards per route run by season:
  • 2019 - 1.52 (17th)
  • 2020 - 1.64 (8th)
  • 2021 - 1.52 (12th)
• Fant caught passes from Joe Flacco, Drew Lock, Brandon Allen, Jeff Driskel, Brett Rypien and Teddy Bridgewater in Denver.
  • The Broncos ranked 29th in Pro Football Focus’ 2019 passing grades, 31st in 2020 and 18th last year.
• His QB play doesn’t project to be better in Seattle, where the Seahawks will trot out some combination of Drew Lock and Geno Smith.
• The 2021 Seahawks ranked 31st in pass attempts and 24th in situation-neutral pass rate … with Russell Wilson. This will again be a run-centric offense in 2022.
• D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett return as 1 of the league’s top WR duos.
• As Seattle’s lead TE last year, Gerald Everett averaged 4.2 targets per game on a 14.7% share across 15 games.
  • He finished with 48 catches for 478 yards and 4 TDs, ranking 20th in PPR points per game and 22nd in non-PPR points per game.
• Seahawks HC Pete Carroll said TE Noah Fant had the "most spectacular camp of anybody" at June's mandatory minicamp, according to ESPN's Brady Henderson.

Draft Sharks Bottom Line:

Fant looked like the next elite TE heading into last year. He took a slight step back in 2021, his 3rd NFL season. But we’re still buying the talent.

The issue now that he’s in Seattle is that Fant will be playing in a run-leaning offense with questionable QB play and competing for targets with WRs D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.

That figures to prevent him from hitting his ceiling this season, although he can still be considered a TE2 with upside.