There are 18 wide receivers and tight ends on the Seattle Seahawks roster right now. I am not going to write about all of them, don’t worry. But I am going to talk about people who can step up or who might be important for the coming season. Two rookies made the list, but not all of them because there are just so many new guys this year.
Wide Receivers
Tyler Lockett 5’10” 182 lbs.
Lockett will handle the lion’s share of Baldwin’s targets. The trouble with that is these guys are two completely different receivers.
Baldwin had such an incredible feel for whoever was guarding him and coupled that with impeccable route running. Lockett is a good route-runner but he has been used as a deep threat and a run-after-catch guy mostly in his career. He can take the top off a defense with his speed, and he has much better hands than people acknowledge.
I do not expect him to take over Baldwin’s slot routes, though. I think he stays on the outside.
John Ursua 5’9” 182 lbs.
Ursua is a guy whom many teams targeted as an undrafted free agent. And he even said he received calls from interested teams about signing after the draft.
Seattle decided to use one of its picks on him to make sure he was on the team. Pro Football Focus tracked Ursua last season and found he snagged 16 catches for almost 500 yards and eight touchdowns. That was only from when he ran a “go” route (run straight down the field!).
So, he could help take some pressure off of getting deep balls to Lockett. He worked a lot from the slot at Hawai’i, so he could be a possible fit for Baldwin’s spot.
Gary Jennings 6’1” 216 lbs.
Jennings is another guy who has a lot of experience in the slot. In 2018, he led all Big-12 receivers in yards-per-route-run from the slot (an advanced statistic that judges how successful a player is from the slot).
Jennings finished his career at West Virginia with 17 touchdowns and almost 2,300 yards receiving. He got many of those yards because he had the physical tools to beat just about everyone in the NFL.
Jennings also shows great hands, as he was rated in the top 5 among FBS receivers in catch-rate in 2018. He is also now one of the bigger receivers on Seattle’s roster, so he could be asked to outjump defenders in the end zone like the Jimmy Graham days.
David Moore 6’ 215 lbs.
Moore had several great games in 2018 for Seattle but for the most part he was more consistent than game-breaking. He had eight games with one or no catches and another four games with just two catches.
In Weeks 5,6 and 7 he scored four of his touchdowns for the season. The rest of the year, he scored one touchdown.
In 2019 he needs to step up; it will be his third year with the Seahawks and he is now the de facto number two receiving option.
Moore has a ton of potential, and he flashes it sometimes. He has really good size and even better speed, so he can get past people or get over people on his way to the ball.
Moore could be the biggest wild card in the receiving room right now, even more so than the rookies.
