Noah Fant comes off Physically Unable to Perform list ahead of contract year
By Charles Hamaker
Renton, WA – On the morning of Sunday, July 30th and the fourth day of Seahawks training camp, Seattle tight end Noah Fant was activated from the Physically Unable to Perform list and is now cleared to partake in the activities after he passed his physical. One of the players that came to Seattle from Denver in the Russell Wilson trade, Fant is a big, athletic tight end that could really flourish in a pass heavy offense, but he made do with the targets he saw last season under the Pete Carroll “balanced” approach with the football. Carroll and the staff wanted to take things slow in getting Fant back to action after he “got some work done” this offseason on a knee injury that lingered towards the end of the season.
Coming off the PUP list
While Seahawks tight ends haven’t gotten much production outside of the singular year in Jimmy Graham’s Seattle tenure that he was used correctly (You could argue that both 2016 and 2017, but I look at his ten touchdowns in the latter year), Fant saw even less usage towards the end of the season and an abysmal one catch in the teams Wild Card loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Any sort of knee injury in major sports can be dangerous, not only for the initial damage to the body caused but also the worry of re-injury. That is where some of the concerns from head coach Pete Carroll and the Seahawks staff may have been, trying to not rush Fant back after the knee injury had bothered him as it lingered from the last few weeks of the regular season into Seattle’s postseason.
“He’s in really good shape. He can run full speed and do all the stuff but we don’t want to push him yet. Like the other guys, we want to make sure and guarantee that he’s back and fully equipped to take on the load. He was frustrated by not being out but he agreed with being on the PUP just so we can take care of him.”
Fant, not wanting to miss out on the action and looking to make a splash this season, didn’t want to go on the Physically Unable to Perform with initially but agreed to so that he could get the proper rest needed as to not immediately reaggravate anything. With the wear and tear that comes with the tight end position, having to often catch passes over the middle and get in the trenches to block (especially in this Seattle offense), it’s a smart decision to not force Fant back into action immediately. Also, considering this next aspect that we’re going to go over next, it’s beneficial for both sides to ensure that they get the best version of Noah during the 2023-24 season. That’s the case for a few other players for Seattle, as the Seahawks still have five players on that Physically Unable to Perform list after Fant was removed: Jamal Adams, Jordyn Brooks, Bryan Mone, Tariq Woolen, and Austin Faoliu.
Noah’s looking to earn a new deal
Fant is entering a contract year, having his fifth-year option picked up last year off the contract that Seattle inherited from the Broncos in that trade after Denver had drafted him 20th overall in the first round of the 2019 draft. After he only had a cap hit of $2,211,917 in the 2022-23 season, Seattle exercising that fifth-year option of Fant’s will pay him $6,850,000. That's a solid amount of money in two different ways, the first being that it makes the top two Seahawks tight ends well paid as Will Dissly is getting $9,190,000 this season. The other big money note regarding tight ends is that the Seahawks total cap space dedicated to that position group ranks third in the entire NFL. Considering that Seattle doesn’t target their tight ends at a high rate, and that the players in that group aren’t highly regarded as great blockers, that’s a puzzling and perhaps concerning fact.
That isn’t Fant’s fault, though, and so we’ll look at his numbers more. Discussing Seattle paying that much for their entire tight end position group leans a bit into what needs to be looked at when we aim towards what Fant’s next contract may look like. On the surface, it seems highly unlikely that he’d earn nearly $7 million per year, as he will be this upcoming season, unless he truly bursts onto the stage and the Seahawks are able to unlock the potential of the big, physical Fant. Also considering that Seattle added wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba through the draft this year, seemingly taking more targets away from the Seahawks tight ends, makes it even more unlikely that it could be possible that Fant can have a breakout sort of season. A likely scenario is that Fant has a middling/solid year and may want more money that he feels accurately respects his athletic ability, and he ends up leaving Seattle in free agency.
Fant’s place in the offense
Seattle used a solid amount of two tight end sets this past season, getting both Will Dissly and Fant on the field in formations that gave them the balance to be able to run the ball and pass as both of those players can do a bit of both. Add the tall (6’7”) Colby Parkinson, and Seattle had an interesting tight end situation in terms of usage in 2022. With Geno Smith having a career year leading this Seattle offense, tight ends weren’t necessarily a huge safety blanket as the ball was somewhat evenly distributed around. As mentioned previously, adding Jaxon Smith-Njigba through the draft should give more targets to the wide receiver group as he’ll create his own havoc on the field, but that should also open things up for DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett as well. Long story short, Fant should see limited targets in the Seahawks passing game, and it isn’t because he doesn’t have the necessary ability to make a difference.