Heading into the 2024 season, the Seattle Seahawks seemed to have a good plan in place for their wide receiving corps. The undisputed alpha was 2023 Pro Bowler DK Metcalf. His primary running mate over the past several seasons, Tyler Lockett, was getting on in years but his successor seemed to be in place in second-year player Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Lockett, who turned 32 this past season, would ideally provide veteran leadership and a few big plays downfield as the younger wideouts came into their own.
For depth, Jake Bobo was on hand, along with a collection of young free agent vets the likes of Laviska Shenault, Cody White, and Easop Winston. Jr. Recent draft picks Dee Eskridge and Dareke Young would also be in the mix. If one or two of them stepped up, wide receiver looked to be a strength of the team.
Seattle Seahawks might need receiver help if the team lets Tyler Lockett go
It didn’t work out that way. Smith-Njigba had his expected breakout season and Lockett took a predictable step back. None of the depth players emerged. Shenault made the roster but was eventually released toward the end of the season. Seattle’s fourth, fifth, and sixth receivers – Bobo, Shenault, Young, and, after Shenault’s release, Cody White, basically combined for what might be a slightly above-average single game from Justin Jefferson.
All of that would have been just fine if D.K. Metcalf hadn’t regressed. On the surface, Metcalf’s numbers don’t look too bad. Almost 1,000 yards at 15 yards per catch would be a sensational year for most players. Not so for Metcalf. He saw his lowest number of targets since his rookie season. He had career lows in touchdowns and first downs.
Despite an impressive yards-per-catch, Metcalf just didn’t make big plays like he has throughout his career. Most distressingly, he saw his targets shrink over the course of the season. He had been getting almost nine looks per game in the first half of ’24. Over the final seven games, that number dropped to four-and-a-half.
JSN’s increased productivity could not offset the drop-off from both Metcalf and Lockett. No other wideout stepped up. And so Seattle heads into the 2025 offseason with plenty of questions at a position they had hoped would be reasonably secure.
John Schneider could certainly draft another receiver this Spring but I doubt he will invest an early pick in the position. Improvement will need to come from at least one of several places. Choice number one is a reconciliation with Metcalf, who was clearly frustrated throughout 2024 and might have played his last game in action green.
Or one of the youngsters could blossom over the offseason. Cody White is never going to be a big play machine, but he could still be a big-bodied possession receiver who could free up JSN to run a wider range of patterns.
The final remedy comes from free agency. As we have done with running backs, today we’ll take a look at the pending free agents – a high-end option, a mid-tier player, and a bargain basement prospect – who could be options for Schneider this off-season.
High End - Tee Higgins, Cincinnati Bengals
As of today, there is only one huge wide receiver who projects to be a free agent come March. That makes the expected bidding war for Higgins must-see TV. The Bengals would dearly love to retain his services but that seems almost impossible. They are already paying top dollar for Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase, and the 21 million they shelled out to bring Higgins back in ’24 will not get the job done for a multi-year extension.
His price is going up. And it is likely that Higgins wants to emerge from Chase’s shadow, so even if the Bengals could magically find the cash, he may still choose to bolt.
There are a lot of teams that would pay for his services. A classic big-body receiver with speed and great hands. Higgins is a contested-catch wizard. Despite often playing as the number two option and missing assorted games with injuries, the Clemson product nonetheless has still averaged 66 receptions per season at about 14 yards per catch.
He has scored 34 touchdowns and picked up more the 230 first downs. Higgins has been primarily running patterns out of the Z spot with Chase running a wider range from the X, but there is virtually no route Higgins cannot run.
Higgins is not going anywhere as a complementary receiver. He only makes sense in Seattle if the Seahawks trade DK Metcalf. Metcalf is a little older and has been more productive up til now, but Higgins has never been the number one guy. In 2024, their numbers were very similar. A slight edge may go to the Bengal.
John Schneider has to decide whether Higgins would be a genuine upgrade or whether this is a classic case of the grass looking greener on the other side of the fence. If they can swing a deal for Metcalf, Seattle would be one of the best-positioned teams to make an offer to Higgins because they would not be shelling out big bucks to a quarterback or to a different top receiver.
That is the case until they must renew JSN. And whoever the new offensive coordinator is could make the case that JSN will not take targets away from Higgins, as Chase did. They could run very different routes and form a dangerous tandem.
Mid Tier - Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Tennessee Titans
The Higgins option may be wishful thinking. Nick Westbrook-Ikhine is a much more modest target. But he could yield very good results. The UDFA from Indiana didn’t enter the league with the pedigree of Metcalf or Higgins, and for most of his five years, he has been a marginal receiver on an underpowered, run-first offense. That’s why his one-year renewal with the Titans cost one-tenth of what the Bengals spent on Higgins. His production in 2024 far outpaced that salary.
Westbrook-Ikhine has only been a spot-starter for the Titans, and he has never caught more than 40 balls in a season. Still, in 2024, he had a higher yards-per-catch figure than both Metcalf and Higgins at 15.5, and he scored nine touchdowns – just one fewer than Higgins and four more than Seattle’s supposed top man.
Like the two bigger names, Westbrook-Ikhine has excellent size. He simply doesn’t have the freakish athletic ability of a Metcalf. Still, he has developed into a reliable receiver, playing in the dwindling days of Ryan Tannehill and through the early growing pains of Will Levis. This season, he began buried on the depth chart, but injury and trades elevated him and he thrived in the second half of the season.
He is in line for a multi-year deal and a healthy raise wherever he ends up going. The question for Schneider is whether there is more room for growth if he is given a number-two receiving slot alongside JSN. The Nick Westbrook-Ikhine of the last five seasons is nothing to get overly excited about. But the NWI (to pair with JSN) of 2025 might be a completely different story.
Bargain Basement - Justin Watson, Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs receiving corps is in a constant state of flux. Marquise Brown and DeAndre Hopkins are pending free agents. Mecole Hardman is in his second stint and probably will go and come several more times before his career comes to an end. Next season, Rashee Rice should return from injury to pair with rookie rocket man Xavier Worthy to give Andy Reid the thing he likes best – speed.
In recent years, that has been one of the jobs of Justin Watson, an unheralded wideout who came to KC as a free agent shortly after the 2021 season. He seemed to develop a nice rapport with Patrick Mahomes and, playing as a reserve, posted the best numbers of his career in his first couple years with the Chiefs. His production fell off some in 2024, causing many to wonder if the Ivy Leaguer, who turns 29 soon, may be done.
And he may be. But Watson can do two things that Seattle might find useful. He is a smart receiver who has developed a knack for finding holes. Any receiver who plays with Patrick Mahomes has to be able to do that. And Watson can run.
At 6’2” and 215 pounds, he isn’t especially quick, but he has the raw straight-line speed to run past defensive backs if they do not honor the deep shot. In his first two seasons with the Chiefs, Watson caught 42 balls at an eye-popping 18.5 yards per catch. That’s a better number than Metcalf or Higgins has ever had in a single season.
Watson will not carry a big price tag but he can help open up coverage for JSN and any other potential second receiver the same way that Chris Hogan did for the Patriots in their Super Bowl-winning seasons of 2016 and 2018, or as Alvin Harper did for the Cowboys when they captured the Lombardi Trophy in 1992 and ’93.
Adding a low-cost proven deep threat could prove beneficial regardless of whoever else may be running routes for the Seahawks in 2025.
Next time, I suppose we’ll look at tight ends. Or maybe not. Maybe we’ll switch it up and check out special teams additions. I still miss Nick Bellore.