Seahawks report cards for each receiver for the 2018 season

The Seahawks had one great receiver in 2018 and the rest were not so good. Here are the grades for each receiver for Seattle this year.

Where would the Seahawks have been without Tyler Lockett having the season of his life in 2018? I shudder to think of a Seattle team with no Lockett but with a banged up Doug Baldwin and a bunch of underwhelming receivers. Seattle has to get more depth in 2019.

Six receivers and four tight ends caught passes from Russell Wilson this season. Most of those pass catchers were not overly productive, though. Still, there was Lockett, and to a lesser-than-normal degree, Baldwin.

Here is how each receiver graded for the 2018 season.

Tyler Lockett

When Wilson targeted Lockett this season Wilson finished with a perfect passer rating of 158.3. The issue was that Wilson did not target Lockett even more. Though Lockett played three more games than Baldwin, Baldwin was targeted three more times. And Lockett had no drops this year. Lockett signed an extension last offseason that will keep him in Seattle through at least 2021. Tyler Lockett needs to be Wilson’s most targeted receiver in the next few seasons.

2018 statistics: 57 catches on 70 targets, 965 yards, 10 touchdowns, 16.9 yards per catch

Grade: A+

Doug Baldwin

Baldwin had the most injury-plagued season of his career. He played in 13 games but was limited in several of them. Baldwin even dropped three passes which is extremely unlike him. Baldwin is signed through 2020 but at $13 million in each of the next two seasons. The receiver is great for the community and has been Seattle’s best receiver over the last five years, but he might be too expensive to keep as he gets older. Still, Baldwin is clearly one of the top two receivers with the Seahawks and he deserves to retire a Seahawk.

2018 statistics: 50 catches on 73 targets, 618 yards, 5 touchdowns, 12.4 yards per catch

Grade: B-

David Moore

Moore was extremely inconsistent this year. He did produce a little more than expected but it came in spurts and that isn’t a way to build a career. Against Carolina in week 12, Moore had four catches for 103 yards and a touchdown and was a big reason Seattle won on the road. Two weeks later, though, he was targeted five times against the Vikings and had zero catches. In fact, in the last five games of the regular season, Moore was targeted 16 times and had four catches. Ouch.

2018 statistics: 26 catches on 53 targets, 445 yards, 5 touchdowns, 17.1 yards per catch

Grade: C-

The other receivers

Jaron Brown signed last offseason and is due $3.7 million in 2019 if he is on the team. But Brown needs a lot more production than the paltry 14 catches he had in 2018. And he played in all 16 games.

Grade: D

Brandon Marshall looked old and was released midway through the season. He managed just 11 catches on 23 targets and had three drops. That is bad. Still, he was good with the young players on the team so maybe he has a career in coaching soon, if he wants to do that.

Grade: F

Malik Turner played in just six games and was targeted three times. He did catch two of those, though.

Grade: Incomplete

The tight ends

Seattle’s tight ends were targeted just 71 times between the four tight ends who caught passes (and I am not counting George Fant). Those targets were two less than Baldwin alone and one more than Lockett alone. The group was hurt by Will Dissly getting injured after a fast start to his rookie season. Dissly was on pace for 56 targets before he was lost for the season in week four.

Nick Vannett had 29 catches on 43 targets but averaged just 9.3 yards per catch.

Ed Dickson missed the first part of the season but had some nice runs on the 12 passes he caught. In fact, Dickson caught 12 of his 13 targets and looked like he should stick around with the Seahawks in 2019 too. Three of his catches were for touchdowns.

Collective grade for tight ends: C