32 Teams in 32 Days, Day 32 -- Seattle Seahawks

Five Biggest Questions:

1. Is Sam Darnold draftable?
2. Could Jadarian Price lead this backfield?
3. How confident should managers feel about Zach Charbonnet?
4. Will Rasheed Shaheed finish in the top 45?
5. Are any other WRs besides Shaheed and Jaxon Smith-Njigba draftable?

Our final team in this "32 Days" segment entered last season tied with the Cowboys for the 13th-worst Super Bowl odds. Their new starting quarterback was only a year removed from being the ultimate reclamation project -- a recent Niners backup who couldn't cut it with the Jets or Panthers. Three of their four most-targeted players from 2024 were now gone, replaced by the aged / post-prime Cooper Kupp and rookies Tory Horton and Elijah Arroyo.

The Seahawks went from a middling offense and defense in 2024 to the #3 scoring offense and #1 points-against defense in 2025. That's how titles are won. 

But it's not always how fantasy titles are won. Among quarterbacks who played at least half the season, Sam Darnold was the QB23 in points per game. Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet were the RB28 and RB27, respectively. Their best tight end was the TE20, and they had only one wide receiver inside the top 60.

Has any other Super Bowl champion had only one weekly fantasy starter? And before thinking Walker and Charbonnet belong in that group, consider that Super Bowl heroics aside, Walker scored 8.1 points or less in eight games, while Charbonnet scored 8.6 or less in six games.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba scored less than 13.0 points only once and cleared 18 points in 13 of his 17 games. A wide receiver has never been named MVP. But a strong case could be made that Seattle -- which won six contests by a touchdown or less -- wouldn't have even made the playoffs if JSN hadn't been on the field.

Last summer I did a podcast episode highlighting three non-top-12 wideouts who could realistically finish #1 overall. My point was that we don't know how good a player can be until he does it. JSN was one of my favorite bargains among preseason top-30 WRs, and I talked about how he could do what Justin Jefferson did the year before: operate as Sam Darnold's unquestioned alpha and finish as the WR1. Now the fantasy market knows what he can do, resulting in a WR3 ranking. 

While JSN's ADP makes sense, Rashid Shaheed has been a question mark for me at his WR57 ADP.  Kupp (WR70) still looms, and Tory Horton (WR101) can't be entirely ignored. But for context, Mack Hollins was last year's overall WR57 on 65 targets. Shaheed easily could hit 80+ targets as long as he's the #2 wideout (not just in name, but also in targets) most weeks. With that perspective, I actually just alt-tabbed to my fantasy rankings and moved him a round earlier. Seattle recently gave him $23 million "fully" guaranteed. Only 35 wideouts -- primarily teams' #1 WRs -- are guaranteed more. This franchise is committed to him, and that should translate on the field.

Sam Darnold's QB22 ADP is a couple spots ahead of where he was earlier this week. I've got him at QB19, in the belief that a more questionable backfield will put a little more of the offense on his shoulders, and a full season of Shaheed will give him more to work with. Last year he was 14th in QB red-zone throws, 14th in throws inside the opposing 10-yard line, and 19th in throws inside the opposing five-yard line. There's room to improve in that last category. After all, in 2024 for the Vikings he was 7th in throws inside the opposing five-yard line.

Meanwhile, last year Zach Charbonnet had the sixth-most RB carries inside the opposing five-yard line. He's the biggest wild card with an RB42 ADP and question marks surrounding his Week 1 availability. Dominos will fall depending on his status as we get closer to September. In the meantime, first-round rookie Jadarian Price (RB26) controls his destiny as the backfield's presumed 1A, while Emanuel Wilson (RB66) and George Holani (RB70) battle it out for 1B duties if Charbonnet is sidelined.

My second podcast this summer (about a month ago) was about Price's risky ADP. He earned more than 13 carries only once in college and was a limited factor through the air. His draft capital pushed his market value too high. If Charbonnet is out of the picture for a while, then *maybe* Price can deliver streamable numbers. But once Charbonnet returns, Price realistically won't come close to his ADP, making him a pretty big fade, while Charbonnet is the best draftable bargain if he looks remotely ready to return.

I don't know what to make of this team's tight ends, and it might not matter. 2024 fourth-rounder A.J. Barner (TE24 ADP) apparently is miles ahead of 2025 second-rounder Elijah Arroyo (TE84). The former has been largely TD-dependent, while the latter faces higher-than-normal injury risks. That makes Barner better suited as a Best Ball dart throw rather than as a weekly rosterable tight end. 

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