Why Will Dissly will have a breakout season for Seahawks in 2021

The Seahawks will use their tight ends a bit more in 2021 since new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron knows how to do that. This means that Will Dissly will be a factor. Dissly was expected to be a breakout star last year, per ESPN, but that didn’t happen for a few reasons.

One was that Dissly was still working his way back from another injury. This time it was an Achilles injury that normally takes a year to fully recover from. Dissly did play all 16 games in 2020 but wasn’t the same type of player he was in 2018 and 2019 before being injured in both seasons.

A lot of this leads us into reason two that Dissly didn’t breakout in 2020. His offensive coordinator at the time, Brian Schottenheimer, changed the offense a bit to try to allow Russell Wilson to do his thing and that meant more throws to D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. In the end, while exciting, this was a mistake as Seattle could have used a few yards at a time with passes to Dissly and others instead of trying for the home run to Metcalf and Lockett so much.

Seahawks will see Will Dissly breakout in 2021

Waldron will be different. The season will change and should make Wilson a more efficient quarterback. This should mean more underneath throws to Dissly and fellow tight end Gerald Everett. Not only that but the way Waldron will use his receivers with deeper crossing patterns and slants should open the middle of the field up for Dissly.

Dissly, if Wilson does his job correctly, should get at least 55 targets this coming season. In the first three years of his career, Dissly has caught 78.6 percent of his targets. He turns those targets into 12.2 yards a catch and a touchdown or first down 55.7 percent of the time.

Assuming Dissly keeps with his 78.6 percent of targets caught and gets 55 targets (the number of targets is based on what the tight ends of the Rams, who Waldron was the passing game coordinator for the last few seasons until this year, have gotten lately), then Dissly will have 44 catches for 537 yards and 5 touchdowns. Likely, his numbers will be even better because he will be put in better positions by Waldron’s scheme.

Will Dissly is in a walk-year for the Seahawks. By the end of the season, Seattle is going to have a very good reason for extending him for at least three more years. He is already a great blocker and in 2021 will show his potential as a receiver.