Seahawks make history, pick up 5th-year option for new tight end Noah Fant
Noah Fant sounded content to let his chance at guaranteed millions play out.
It has. In his favor.
Three weeks before an NFL deadline to make the decision, the Seahawks have chosen to pick up the fifth-year option on Fant’s contract for 2023 and guaranteed him a salary of $6.85 million for next year. That is according to multiple reports from NFL Network, ESPN and others Tuesday.
Fant will get a huge raise next year. And the Seahawks will get to keep a 24-year-old tight end from entering free agency in the spring of 2023.
It’s the first time in Seahawks history they’ve exercised a fifth-year option. That is the right the league’s collective bargaining agreement gives to a team and a first-round pick.
Fant was to earn $2.2 million in 2022, the final year of his rookie deal with Denver.
Seattle inherited that contract last month when they acquired Fant, quarterback Drew Lock, defensive tackle Shelby Harris and five draft choices for trading Russell Wilson to the Broncos.
Last week, Fant said he had not heard from the Seahawks whether his new team would be picking up his option for next year.
“For me, it’s kind of letting that fall where it may,” he said.
Seattle had by NFL rules until May 2 to decide whether to pick up Fant’s option.
Last offseason the Seahawks had a fifth-year option on running back Rashaad Penny, their first-round pick from 2018. They declined it, because of Penny’s many injuries of the first 3 1/2 years of his career.
With his contract ending, Penny exploded with the four best games of his career over the final five weeks of the 2021 season for Seattle. That earned him $5.75 million in a new, one-year deal from the Seahawks for 2022 last month.
Fant joins in the Seahawks’ investment of more than $30 million in two tight ends over the last month.
Seattle re-signed Will Dissly on a three-year, $24 million deal last month after he attracted interest in free agency.
Fant entered the league as the 20th-overall pick in 2019’s draft out of Iowa. He’s 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds. That’s down in weight from last offseason, when he said he got too heavy, thinking that was the way to be a more effective run blocker.
Fant is known as an elite, wide receiver-like receiving tight end. The Seahawks have been seeking one of those since before they traded Pro Bowl center Max Unger for Jimmy Graham in 2015.
Fant had 62 and 68 catches with 673 and 670 yards for Denver in 2020 and ‘21. His catches were seventh among league tight ends in each of the last two seasons. That’s not enough for him.
“To be honest with you, I haven’t been happy, from my perspective, with my production the last two years,” Fant said.
“Granted, it’s been decent production compared to other tight ends in the NFL. But I am definitely striving for me, and better,” he said. “But I think essentially the biggest I’ve grown in my game is just kind of understanding defenses and understanding where I can slide into certain zones and how to run my routes and get different coverage, different press, different ways the defense is playing me and just kind of overall knowledge gaining of the game.
“Goals for year four is to take that leap, right? I’m kind of stuck at that high 600(-yard) ceiling, and I got to break through that.
“I think I have every opportunity to do that in Seattle, and I’m excited to get to work to do that.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2022 at 8:16 PM.
