How much do Seahawks already like Noah Fant? $9M guaranteed— before his 1st practice
Noah Fant had a smile as broad as his shoulders.
And NFL tight ends don’t have small shoulders.
Fant’s wide grin this week was because he has the one luxury all players in this little-is-assured league wish they had: contract security.
In April, Seahawks general manager John Schneider called Fant to tell him Seattle had decided to pick up the fifth-year option on the 24-year-old tight end’s rookie contract. That decision guarantees Fant $6.85 million for 2023 with the Seahawks, instead of the uncertainty of free agency next spring. It also guarantees Fant his $2.21 million salary for this year, per the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
“It’s cool,” Fant understated Thursday.
This cool:
Fant is the first player in Seahawks history to have the team exercise a fifth-year option. It’s the right the NFL labor agreement gives to a team and a first-round pick, which Fant was for Denver in 2019.
Seattle declined to do pick up the fifth-year option in the spring of 2021 on running back Rashaad Penny. The team refused to give a fifth-year option to its previous first-round pick before Penny, offensive tackle Germain Ifedi — and to every first-round choice before that.
Thing is, the Seahawks guaranteed Fant $9.06 million for the next two seasons — about doubling the $10.3 million total he has earned so far in his NFL career — before they had seen him practice even once for them.
When Schneider called to give him the good news, Fant had only been in Seattle and the Seahawks headquarters in Renton once. That was weeks earlier, to complete the massive trade of Seahawks franchise quarterback Russell Wilson to Fant’s now-former Denver Broncos.
“I was excited about it. Obviously, that was a huge testament. It kind of showed their faith in me. You know, I hadn’t even...the only time I saw them was when I came in for my (trade) physical,” Fant said Thursday following his fifth practice for Seattle, the fifth of the Seahawks’ nine offseason organized team activities (OTAs).
“But that was really cool to be a part of, getting a call from Schneider, and just kind of talking about the plans and stuff.
“It was something that was really cool, and I’ll cherish for sure.”
Fant politely declined to get into the specifics of what the Seahawks GM said on the call informing him his new team had picked up his option for next year.
Seattle gave Fant a home before he had made it a home.
“It was a good call, man,” Fant said. “He was just showing his faith in me, showing that they believe in me, and they want me here. So that was definitely a really good feeling.”
A younger (more productive?) Jimmy Graham
More than $9 million guaranteed before he’d ever put on a Seahawks helmet. That’s how much his new team already likes Fant.
What’s not to like?
He’s 6 feet 4, 249 pounds. He has the size of an inline tight end, yet the speed and elusiveness of a smaller, outside wide receiver. Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron is already using Fant as both in offseason practices.
So far for Seattle, Fant appears to be a younger Jimmy Graham, the All-Pro tight end more like a wide receiver the team traded for in 2015.
The Seahawks expect Fant to be more productive for them than Graham was.
Fant already likes how Waldron is using him, Will Dissly, Colby Parkinson and Tyler Mabry in the offense. The 2022 Seahawks with Fant, Dissly (re-signed for three years and $24 million this spring) and the 6-7 Parkinson present a match-up problem for defenses.
“Honestly, I like — now, granted, this is from just like a month coming in — but I like the way they use the tight ends,” Fant said. “I like the way we get passing concepts down the field. The run game, obviously it’s going to be all built off the run game, which is a huge part of the game. Obviously, the play action is going to be huge.
“So it’s a very balanced offense, which I like. And it’s very favorable to the tight end. So it’s nice.”
Waldron was in Sean McVay’s Rams system as Los Angeles’ passing-game coordinator until Seahawks coach Pete Carroll hired him before last season. Waldron sees a reason his system already seems tight-end friendly to Fant.
“Noah makes it tight-end friendly,” Waldron said.
“The good tight ends make any offense tight end friendly. So, I think (it’s) just having the ability we got, the group of guys right now that can do a little bit of everything. So the more tight ends can do, the more chances we can move them around — and not necessarily just have to line them up in a static inline position, and give them a chance to move around and present different looks for a defense.”
Reunited with Drew Lock
After starring at Omaha South High School in Nebraska, Fant had 19 touchdown catches in a sterling college career at Iowa. Those were the most scores in Hawkeyes history by a tight end, and third-most for a tight end in the history of the Big Ten Conference. In 2017 as a sophomore, Fant led the nation among tight ends with 16.5 yards per catch and an Iowa tight end-record 11 touchdown receptions.
The Broncos selected him 20th overall in the 2019 NFL draft. He had 40, 62 and 68 receptions with three, three and four touchdowns in his each of his three seasons with Denver.
He also had two offensive coordinators and six different starting quarterbacks in his three Broncos seasons. Denver went 19-30 in those three years with Fant and the carousel of play callers and passers.
Now he’s in Seattle — with one of those six starting quarterbacks that threw to Fant in Denver. Drew Lock went 8-13 starting over parts of Fant’s three seasons with the Broncos.
Lock, also 24, is starting a competition with 31-year-old Geno Smith to succeed Wilson in Seattle.
Smith has been throwing more to Fant and with the starting offense in offseason practices. That’s because of his edge over Lock in familiarity with Waldron’s offense and Seahawks teammates. Smith has been Wilson’s backup in Seattle the last three seasons Lock has been with Denver.
Lock knows more than any other Seahawk the weapon Fant can be for Seattle.
“Explosive. Explosive, without a doubt,” Lock said. “If you get the ball in that guy’s hands, he’s going to make something happen with it.
“Me and Noah, last offseason going into this year, we spent a lot of time together. He actually stayed back in Colorado throughout the offseason, so did I. Set the film room up together, watched all of his routes, talked through things. How he thought it could be different. How he thought it could be better. And then we’ll go out to just the local field over there in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, and start throwing together.
“I know he is willing to put the work in. He’s a talented, talented player, and this place should be really excited about having him.”
Carroll says the competition between Smith and Lock to throw to Fant is wide open.
It appears it’s going to stay that way well into training camp. Waldron said Thursday he and Carroll will assess how to split practice snaps between Smith and Lock during the preseason following the conclusion of offseason practices. Those end June 15. Training camp begins the last week of July.
Fant senses Lock is primed for a breakout in Seattle.
“I think he’s approaching it as a chance for him to do something big,” Fant said.
“He’s got an opportunity. Coach Carroll has said that they’re competing for the job.. So I think he’s taken that aspect of competing and trying to win the job, and as has Geno.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2022 at 10:46 AM.
