RADIO
If you're in a dynasty league, the season never really ends. Right now, you're looking at draft boards and thinking about potential trades and stressing about how free agency will hurt all your players when they go somewhere else.
Here at Rotoballer, we know what you're dealing with, which is why we're breaking down each NFL team and how their players stack up in dynasty heading into the off-season.
Below is a position-by-position look at the 2018 Seattle Seahawks. From the Russell Wilson/Doug Baldwin connection to whatever that running back situation is, let's look at the 2018 Seahawks.
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Seattle Dynasty Outlook
Team Record: 9-7 (2nd, NFC West)
Fantasy Leaders (taken from FantasyData.com)
QB: Russell Wilson - 347.92 (QB1)
RB: JD McKissic - 63.3 (RB56)
WR: Doug Baldwin - 148.3 (WR13)
TE: Jimmy Graham - 114 (TE4)
IDP: Bobby Wagner - 166 (LB2)
Quarterback
Do I even need to talk about Russell Wilson? Last year's top overall fantasy quarterback was the second quarterback taken in the dynasty start-up mock draft that RotoBaller recently published, after only Aaron Rodgers. Wilson's dynasty value seems like a bit of a contentious subject. Here's the latest dynasty ranks from our dynasty rankers. Let's talk about these:
Wilson is currently ranked third, behind Aaron Rodgers and Carson Wentz. Pierre is the only ranker to have Wilson listed as his second QB, but I would also if I was on that team. Seattle's team is built around Wilson in a way that the Eagles aren't necessarily built around Wentz. I get that there are age-related reasons that you'd take Wentz over Wilson, but I can't really imagine, barring injury, a world in which Wentz finishes above Wilson in a season for at least a few more years. I know we need to look down the road in dynasty, but isn't there a point where we look too far and hurt our team in the present? (Also re: those rankings, anti-shout out to Kyle for ranking Deshaun Watson so low that he fell to sixth at his position despite the other rankers all having him higher. Do I need to start a Twitter feud with Kyle over his dynasty quarterback rankings?)
Here's what Wilson gives you: everything. Passing yards. Passing touchdowns. Rushing yards. Rushing touchdowns. I've personally thought about taking him over Rodgers if I do any dynasty start-up drafts this year because Rodgers is getting older and is coming off an injury. I get the risk with Wilson and I also understand how his lack of offensive weapons will catch up at some point, but he has top three fantasy finishes in three of the last four years. He's going to be 30 and there's a lot of risk to investing in him when his skill set hasn't traditionally aged well, but a healthy Wilson still has a good amount of top tier fantasy seasons left.
tldr; RUSSELL WILSON IS GOOD
Running Back
Let's check out Seattle's 2017 running back stats!
Oh. That is...oh my.
I have a feeling we'll be revisiting this in a couple of months after the Seahawks draft a running back (which they'll do, right?), but a quick glance at that list is not great.
Chris Carson probably starts the off-season at the top of the depth chart in Seattle. I like Carson. He played in just four games last year before a leg injury cost him the rest of the season, but he was the only Seahawks running back that impressed me and is still on the roster.
Thomas Rawls is gone, as the team didn't tender him a contract and he's been visiting teams. Mike Davis is gone. JD McKissic is back, but he had 63.3 fantasy points in 13 games, while Carson had 32.7 in just four games. McKissic isn't going to do much more than come in and catch a few passes if the rest of the team is healthy.
Who else? Eddie Lacy won't be back. CJ Prosise is basically a worse version of McKissic. Tre Madden is actually a name I don't remember hearing at all last year.
So, we're basically down to Chris Carson. While McKissic has some value right now as the primary back-up, that could all change soon. He's worth holding for now in dynasty formats, but if he ends up third on Seattle's depth chart then it might be time to cut him.
Chris Carson is young. He's a good runner and could be useful as a pass catcher too -- he had just seven catches as a rookie, but he turned them into 59 yards and a touchdown. Our dynasty squad has him ranked as the RB47 right now. I love him at that value in all formats. (I'm also counting on him to be the starter in the RotoBaller staff's dynasty league, because my RB depth after my top two guys is BAD.)
Wide Receiver
We know Doug Baldwin is good, but he doesn't carry the same upside in dynasty that he does in re-draft. We have him at WR17 in the dynasty rankings. That feels right -- he's a guy who can have some good game but will also have a couple of rough ones over the course of the season. He's also a guy who isn't going to get much better than he is now, which will make some players wary of drafting him in start-ups. If he's there at or after his ADP, though, I like his value, and I especially like him at his current price for anyone who wants to jump right into win now mode in their start-up. Baldwin was 14th in fantasy points per route last year.
After Baldwin, there's the newly-signed Jaron Brown. I wrote a now embarrassing piece during the season about the Arizona Cardinals (I SAID PEOPLE SHOULD ADD BLAINE GABBERT AND RICKY SEALS-JONES HAHAHAHA) but one thing I still feel okay about from that piece is my hesitance with Brown, who I didn't love as an option in Arizona and still don't love as an option in Seattle. Brown couldn't make himself stand out in Arizona. He'll be entering his sixth season. His catch rate in 2017 was just barely in the top 100 among wide receivers. I get that he's fast and that Paul Richardson finished as the WR36 last year in the role that Brown should assume, but I don't know. Richardson was sixth in air yards, so Brown and his speed should be given a chance to succeed, but will he take advantage of those chances? We'll see. His stock is up over last year, but I like him more in re-draft, where you aren't betting on a player who'll be 29 by the end of the season to both A) finally break out and B) sustain that breaking out into the future.
Tyler Lockett is still on the team. He does a good job of creating separation from defenders, but his upside is limited by his role on the team. To me, Lockett's upside would come if the team either moved on from Doug Baldwin in the near future (which is unlikely) or if Baldwin dealt with injury. Lockett was RotoBaller's 68th-ranked wide receiver before the team acquired Brown. He should be owned in dynasty leagues, but hopefully you wouldn't need to start him.
I'm not sure there's a sleeper at this position. I'm a little -- and I mean a very little -- intrigued by Marcus Johnson, but third year receivers with five career receptions aren't the kind of player you want on your roster. Tanner McEvoy led the team in yards per reception last year, but he also had just five catches so #SmallSampleSizeAlert. I saw Trevone Boykin listed as a wide receiver on one depth chart site and I'm mildly intrigued by that if it happens, but that's not the kind of thing that's worth anything from a fantasy perspective right now, and I think Boykin is more useful as a backup quarterback than as a fourth or fifth receiver.
Tight End
Jimmy Graham was the TE4 last year (though there were signs of decline), but he's a Packer now. In his place, Seattle brought in Ed Dickson from the Panthers, who saw extended snaps this year after the Greg Olsen injury. Dickson had 30 catches for 437 yards and a touchdown last year. It was the second best season of his career. He's been in the league since 2o10. I'm not sure he's the best replacement for Graham, who thrived down near the goal line last season while Dickson was targeted just two times inside the 10 yard line. He's not a major threat down at that part of the field, which will leave the Seahawks with two options: either force the ball too him anyway, or target someone else (Doug Baldwin?) down there.
Nick Vannett will likely see the field a good amount as well this year despite catching just 12 passes last season. He's young and I like his upside more than Dickson's, but I'm not sure he's worth owning. If we're getting into the third and fourth tight end spot on your dynasty team, I'd rather roll the dice with one of the rookies this year
IDP
The Legion of Boom is over, but the Seahawks still have last year's LB2, Bobby Wagner. Wagner is 27 and is one of the best linebackers in football. We can debate the value of defensive players, but if you're someone who does put a premium on having top ones, Wagner should be one of the first linebackers off the board despite his age.
Other than Wagner, fantasy owners are taking a risk buying into the Seahawks defense. With Michael Bennett gone, the Seahawks best defensive lineman (as judged by last year's fantasy stats) is Frank Clark, who finished 32nd at the position. He's young and could improve statistically with Bennett gone, so go ahead and grab him as a backup DL play, but don't rely on him to start.
Only one Seahawks defensive back finished in the top 50 last year: Earl Thomas, who is very, very likely going to be traded soon. I like Thomas in the right situation in re-draft, but with his age and injury history I'm going to steer clear in dynasty.
The team added Barkevious Mingo, who maybe is a player that you take a flyer on. He wasn't great for the Colts last year, but he's a former first-round pick who is still young enough that he could, in the right situation, put it all together.
