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Leading up to the 2015 NFL Season, Rotoballer's fantasy football expert Frankie Soler will be looking at the offseason's biggest winners and losers. In the second installment of the series, we take a look at Seahawks Quarterback Russell Wilson. You can find the previous installment on Indianapolis Colts Wide Receiver Andre Johnson by clicking here.
Russell Wilson is one of the few players to fall into a unique category of having an outstanding fantasy year in 2014 and actually being helped out by his team's off-season moves. Sometimes it’s not what you gain or lose but it’s what you retain and the Seattle Seahawks managed to keep Marshawn Lynch, re-signing him to new a contract. It’s an overlooked move that keeps the Seattle offense every bit as good as it was last year with the tandem of Wilson and Lynch leading the charge. The two are a deadly combination, particularly when it comes to defenses having to worry about not just Lynch running or Wilson passing, but the quarterback scrambling out of the pocket as well. Oh yea, the Seahawks also traded for Jimmy Graham. So there’s that.
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The New Orleans Saints trading Jimmy Graham to the Seattle Seahawks is one of, if not, the most shocking moves of the off-season. I do think this trade hurts Graham’s production slightly considering the Saints have always been a more gun-slinging team as opposed to the more rushing-based attack of Seattle but we’ll discuss that some other time as the focus right now is on Russell Wilson. I don’t think it’s any sort of wild or bold claim to state that Jimmy Graham is the most talented pass catcher Russell Wilson has ever played with. Graham is a massive red zone threat and touchdown machine so when the Seahawks get in close, good luck defending against the triple threat that is Graham, Lynch, and Wilson. While Graham’s 37 red zone touchdowns over the last four seasons probably isn’t repeatable in Seattle, a decent enough chunk of that will exist within the Wilson to Graham connection. You don’t acquire the second most dominant tight end in the league and just pretend like you’re not going to throw him the ball at least once near the goal line.
Here’s some additional food for thought: remember Seattle’s last offensive play in the Superbowl? A pass play at the goal line when everyone and their mother thought they should have ran the ball with Marshawn Lynch? Maybe if they had Jimmy Graham in that scenario we’d be singing a different tune about the current Superbowl champions. The moral of the story here is simple: the Seahawks re-upped their most prized possession in Lynch and acquired a new toy for Russell Wilson to play with. Sure it might hurt Lynch and Graham respectively but the most important thing to remember is that Wilson will be the prime benefactor. Wilson finished as a top five fantasy QB in most formats last year and with the moves Seattle has made this off-season, that’s absolutely the way he should be drafted for 2015. The Drew Brees era of fantasy dominance is over. Matthew Stafford and Cam Newton have shown their inconsistencies. Give me the guy who just had the best fantasy year of his career and who happened to acquire the best pass-catcher he’s ever had.
Given this off-season's moves, I would draft Russell Wilson well before Drew Brees and Tom Brady, putting Wilson firmly in the third round in a standard sized league.
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