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2015 Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Grab This Seattle Seahawk

Seattle isn't an instantly exciting landing spot for a rookie receiver, especially after the Seahawks added target hog TE Jimmy Graham in the offseason. This is the only team that has run the ball on more than 50% of offensive snaps each of the past 3 years. But it might not actually be such a bad spot for WR Tyler Lockett.

GM John Schneider said after the draft that his team coveted Lockett's return ability. We have no reason to doubt that. But how often do you see a team trade up to a spot as early as the 5th pick of Round 3 to secure a kick returner?

Sure, Lockett's return skills proved terrific at Kansas State. He led the nation in kick-return average as a freshman (35.2 yards per return) and took 2 kicks back for TDs in each of his 1st 2 seasons. As a senior, he finally took over punt-return duties and scored twice there while averaging 19.1 yards per return. Lockett displayed that big-play speed by running a 4.4-second 40 at the Scouting Combine. But he also put up some big receiving numbers at K-State.

Lockett became the lead receiver in 2013 after WR Chris Harper left for the NFL (4th-round pick by the Seahawks) and snagged 81 balls for 1,262 yards and 11 TDs. He followed that with a huge 106-1,515-11 receiving line as a senior that found him tied for 4th in the nation in receptions, ranked 3rd in yards and tied for 12th in TDs.

And if you watch Lockett's college tape, you'll see that he wasn't just a fast guy working downfield. Lockett runs clean, sharp routes and plays jump balls well for a 5'10 wideout with a just-OK vertical. (His 35.5 inches puts him in the 46th percentile all-time among Combine WRs). Lockett also displays an impressive catch radius for his size, displaying some Antonio Brown-type skills.

(Note: We are not saying he'll become Antonio Brown. Then again, Brown did enter the league as a 6th-round pick.)

Lockett impressed HC Pete Carroll right away with his receiving skills.

“Tyler looked so comfortable,” Carroll told the Seattle Times during May's rookie minicamp. “He’s an adept football player, a very natural player. He has a terrific sense for releasing and getting off the line of scrimmage and space stuff and finding his way downfield against the zones and all. He caught the ball beautifully. He looked really fast.”

We'll see how quickly Lockett can turn those skills into a fight for a starting job, and how soon the Seahawks will let him. But this is the team that handed the starting QB job to a 3rd-round rookie who beat out the expensive free-agent addition back in 2012. And Seattle's WR corps is far from loaded. Doug Baldwin returns as the de facto #1 after leading the team with 98 targets last year. Jermaine Kearse is mainly a deep threat. And no one behind them has caught so much as 30 passes in an NFL season.

Graham will lead this team in targets as long as he stays healthy, and Seattle isn't likely to stray too far from its run-favoring as long as Marshawn Lynch is around. But the Seahawks have thrown the ball slightly more over the past 2 seasons and could continue that slight shift.

It also helps that Russell Wilson ranks among the league's most efficient passers. He ranked 2nd and 3rd in the NFL in TD rate his 1st 2 seasons before last year's weak cast dragged him down. And among the just 10 players in league history who have thrown for more yards than Wilson over their 1st 3 seasons, just 1 has done so with a better yards-per-attempt average.

Draft Sharks Bottom Line:

Lockett's skills are intriguing, and his landing spot could be more helpful than it seems at 1st glance. He'll need to climb the depth chart this summer to present any 2015 fantasy value, though. Doug Baldwin produced just 5 fantasy-starter weeks as Seattle's lead receiver last year, which tied for 49th at the position.

Fortunately, Lockett's ADP means that you don't have to give up much to take a chance on him. He ranks 74th among wideouts in recent MyFantasyLeague.com public drafting and doesn't even get picked every time. Stash him late to see what happens. You can easily drop him for something else if nothing arises.

Matt Schauf, Editor

Matt has earned two Fantasy Pros accuracy awards for IDP rankings and won thousands of dollars as a player across best ball, dynasty, and high-stakes fantasy formats. He has been creating fantasy football content for more than 20 years, with work featured by Sporting News, Rotoworld, Athlon, Sirius XM, and others. He's been with Draft Sharks since 2011.