How Doug Baldwin stacks up against the best Seahawks wideouts ever

Doug Baldwin has been the Seahawks leading receiver the past three seasons. How does he stack up against the best in Seattle history?

Baldwin actually led the Seahawks in receptions as a rookie in 2011, despite getting just one start. Multiple injuries the following season cut his targets by almost half, from 85 to 50. He bounced back in 2013, finishing second in receptions and yardage, and tied for most touchdown catches.

Since then, he’s easily been Seattle’s best receiver. Which got me wondering: where does Angry Doug rank among the Seahawks best wide receivers ever?

Doug Baldwin wasn’t ranked among the three best Seahawks wide receivers

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And when I say he wasn’t ranked, I mean by me. When discussing which Seahawk would be the best choice to bring to the 2017 team, I listed three wide receivers not named Doug Baldwin. Those proficient practitioners of pigskin procurement were Steve Largent, Brian Blades, and Joey Galloway.

No, no link to their stats, not yet. I’ll give you the stats of all four players in question for their first six years in the NFL. No names attached, not yet. See if you can figure out which stat lines belong to which player.

Hint – Steve Largent’s line shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.

The four best wide receivers in Seahawks history

Player A

24	16	16	133	67	1039	15.50	7	50.38
25	16	16	121	57	987	17.30	7	47.11
26	15	15	147	72	1049	14.60	12	48.98
27	16	16	132	65	1047	16.10	10	49.24
28	8	4	52	22	335	15.20	1	42.31
29	1	1	12	4	62	15.50	1	33.33
	72	68	597	287	4519	15.75	38	48.07

Player B

Age	G	GS	Tgt	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	CTCH%
23	16	1	85	51	788	15.50	4	60.00
24	14	4	50	29	366	12.60	3	58.00
25	16	9	72	50	778	15.60	5	69.44
26	16	16	98	66	825	12.50	3	67.35
27	16	16	103	78	1069	13.70	14	75.73
28	16	15	125	94	1128	12.00	7	75.20
	94	61	533	368	4954	13.46	36	69.04

Player C

Age	G	GS	Tgt	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	CTCH%
22	14	13		54	705	13.10	4
23	14	14		33	643	19.50	10
24	16	16		71	1168	16.50	8
25	15	15		66	1237	18.70	9
26	16	16		66	1064	16.10	6
27	16	16		75	1224	16.30	9
	91	90		365	6041	16.55	46

Player D

Age	G	GS	Tgt	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	CTCH%
23	16	7		40	682	17.10	8
24	16	14		77	1063	13.80	5
25	16	16		49	525	10.70	3
26	16	16		70	1003	14.30	2
27	6	5	32	19	256	13.50	1	59.38
28	16	14	144	80	945	11.80	3	55.56
	86	72	176	335	4474	13.36	22

You have no doubt noticed some players are missing data for targets. If you haven’t figured out who’s who yet, that missing target data for earlier years should be an excellent clue. Not a bad group, overall. Remember, Joey Galloway only played five years with the Seahawks. If you’re scratching your head about one of those stat groups not adding up in your memory, that sixth year was with the Dallas Cowboys in his case.

So who’s who among the Seahawks best stat lines?

Player A is Joey Galloway:

		G	GS	Tgt	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	CTCH%
Galloway		72	68	597	287	4519	15.75	38	48.07

Player B, Doug Baldwin:

		G	GS	Tgt	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	CTCH%
Baldwin		94	61	533	368	4954	13.46	36	69.04

Player C, Steve Largent:

		G	GS	Tgt	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	CTCH%
Largent		91	90		365	6041	16.55	46

Player D is Brian Blades:

		G	GS	Tgt	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	CTCH%
Blades		86	72		335	4474	13.36	22

What surprised me, and possibly you, was that Angry Doug actually has three more catches through his career at this point than Hall of Famer Largent. While his yard per catch average is on par with Brian Blades, he has 14 more touchdowns than Blades at this point. Take away his monster 2015 season, and Baldwin is still even with Blades in that department.

It shouldn’t be any surprise that Largent was the clear leader after six seasons. Largent had more than 1,000 more yards receiving than any other player, and eight more touchdown catches.

Oh, that missing target information

I truly wish I had target information for Largent and all of Blades’ career. From what we do have, it’s obvious Baldwin caught a lot of his passes, nearly 70 percent. Compare that to Joey Galloway, who caught fewer than half his targets. The two years we have for Brian Blades show he caught just over 56 percent of his targets, 99 receptions from 176 targets. Angry Doug Baldwin comes out far ahead of Galloway here, and likely well ahead of Blades.

Galloway missed 23 of 32 games in years 5 and six of his career. Just for kicks, I removed those two wasted seasons and added in seasons seven and eight. The revised totals for Galloway’s six seasons of full play is this:

		G	GS	Tgt	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	CTCH%
Galloway		95	95	765	374	5729	15.32	45	48.89

This would put Galloway just ahead of Largent in receptions, and only one behind in touchdowns. That’s more of a “what if” than a valid comparison. You have to be healthy to play, and the Seahawks could have used Galloway in 1999. Dallas certainly would have liked to get more than one game out of him in his first season with the Cowboys. Galloway missed a lot of time, Largent didn’t.

Back to Baldwin. He’s clearly ahead of Brian Blades at this point. He leads in receptions, yards, almost certainly catch percentage, and has a huge edge in touchdowns. Versus Galloway, he certainly falls behind in speed, as Joey has a two yard per catch advantage. I’ll trade that, though, for a guy who catches 70 percent of his targets, compared to a receiver who can’t make the play more than half the time.

Oh, and Doug Baldwin blocks like a pulling guard. For me, at this point in his career, that puts Angry Doug as the Seahawks second best wide receiver ever.

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