The new NFL season lies just around the corner, meaning the fantasy football news cycle cranks up and hype trains begin to leave the station.
The Seattle Seahawks went 10-7 in 2024 but just barely missed the NFL Playoffs when their elimination went down to the wire in Week 17. After falling short of the postseason for the second straight year, organizational changes were in order — Seattle parted ways with their offensive coordinator, a longtime borderline star at wideout, and even shifted gears by shipping out a veteran quarterback. This is no rebuild though. What will the offense look like in 2025 as the Seahawks try to get back to the promised land?
Will Jaxon Smith-Njigba take the next step as an alpha at wide receiver? Can Kenneth Walker III finally stay healthy enough to finish as an RB1? Find all the answers below!
How will a new offensive coordinator impact the Seahawks?
Last year felt like a window for opportunity in a loaded NFC West as the Los Angeles Rams missed a couple of stars at various points throughout the year, the Arizona Cardinals underperformed and the San Francisco 49ers crashed and burned due to a litany of injuries themselves. While the Seahawks finished with double-digit wins, they didn’t get the job done in the divisional games that mattered most and missed out on a Wild Card spot entirely. It’s easy to understand why they took such drastic measures to shake up the personnel on both the field and sidelines — it’s obvious they’re gearing up for a playoff push.
Whether the moves they made at quarterback and wide receiver pay off remains uncertain, especially since the league has seen what Geno Smith and DK Metcalf contribute to NFL offenses. With the pair traded away and replaced by Sam Darnold and Cooper Kupp, Seattle did bring in big names in their stead. However, the man calling plays on the sidelines may actually be even more important moving forward as the Seahawks hired Klint Kubiak as the team’s new offensive coordinator.
The surname Kubiak does invoke thoughts of coaching legend Gary Kubiak, who earned multiple Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos. Now, his son takes over this Seattle offense with 11 years of past experience at the professional level in a variety of roles. Klint Kubiak served as an offensive quality control coach, offensive assistant, quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator for most of his career with the Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos, and 49ers. However, he did get two years of experience as an offensive coordinator — one of those seasons came with the Vikings in 2021 while the other was spent with the New Orleans Saints last year.
During that season with the Vikings, Kubiak’s offense finished 12th in yardage and 14th in points but the team went just 8-9 thanks in large part to a lackluster defense. Still, that unit ranked in the top half of the league with Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook, a rookie Justin Jefferson and Adam Theilen. They put up a very respectable campaign largely on the backs of a passing attack which ended the season 11th in attempts, 11th in yardage and ninth in touchdowns with the fewest turnovers of any team. The rushing attack was less of a priority with the 16th-most attempts, 17th-most yards and 28th-most touchdowns. Kubiak’s offense was fine, but he still got the boot and was fired along with the rest of head coach Mike Zimmer’s staff.
Last season, Kubiak got another chance to call an offense with the New Orleans Saints. Over the first two weeks of the season, the team demolished the Carolina Panthers 47-10 then went into AT&T Stadium to trounce the Dallas Cowboys 44-19. It looked like Saints were on track to make some noise, but the season nosedived when all of Derek Carr, Chris Olave and Rasheed Shahid all suffered injuries which sidelined them for multiple weeks or the rest of the season outright. With the context of weapons Kubiak had to work with by the year’s end, as well as his stable of quarterbacks including Desmond Ridder and Jake Haener, it’s arguably impressive that New Orleans finished the year 21st in yards and 24th in points.
With the writing on the wall for a new staff following head coach Dennis Allen’s firing, Kubiak parted ways with the Saints over the offseason and took the Seahawks job. Now, he takes over an offense with a pair of quality halfbacks to deploy in the zone running scheme of his West Coast offense — the expectation is that Seattle will deploy a much more balanced attack in terms of run/pass splits — plus a breakout young talent out wide, an established veteran in the slot, and an athletic tight end in line. If Sam Darnold can perform in a fairly similar offensive system and prove last season wasn’t a fluke, the Seahawks could produce a couple of exciting fantasy football assets.
Fantasy star fallout
Quarterback
Sam Darnold
There’s a new sheriff in town in the Pacific Northwest. After a couple of seasons enjoying the revival of Geno Smith’s career, the Seahawks finally wrote him off and shipped him to the Las Vegas Raiders. His replacement, former damaged-goods-turned-MVP-candidate Darnold, earned a three-year, $100.5 million contract after putting up a fantastic season with the Vikings last year. There’s an out after each season of his contract and Seattle did select Jalen Milroe in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft, but Darnold is locked in as the starter for this year at the very least.
Here’s the deal — Darnold averaged 18.1 FPPG last season and finished as the overall & per-game QB9 (excluding players with just one start) with by far the best season of his career. He completed 66.2% of his passes for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns to 12 interceptions, career-highs across the first three of those stats. Many people doubt the 28-year-old can replicate that success, which may ring true without an assortment of weapons like Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson, but Kubiak comes from the Shanahan system and his West Coast style should somewhat resemble that of Minnesota’s which Darnold saw success in last season.
If health permits, Darnod should be able to make the most of his receiving corps. Smith-Njigba saw a breakout season last year and Kupp should have some gas in the tank if health permits. It’ll be interesting to see how those two are utilized since they do similar things stylistically, but either way, the ‘Hawks have pass catchers. It’s best to pencil Darnold in to see some regression though and he’ll likely finish as a high-end QB2 more than a real 12-team starter since he relied on a high touchdown rate last year and doesn’t offer much with his legs.
Running backs
Kenneth Walker III
Maintaining your health can present a challenge for NFL running backs, and few know how true that rings better than Kenneth Walker III. The Michigan State product enters his fourth NFL season having played 15, 15 and 11 games to begin his career, much to the frustration of the back himself as well as fantasy managers.
Real ones know what they’re watching when he’s on the field, though. Walker III averaged 13.5, 13.3 and most recently 16.5 FPPG, a mark that slotted him as the per-game RB12 last year. While he appeared in just 11 contests, he tallied 573 rushing yards and seven scores with an additional 299 yards and one TD via the receiving game. Walker also averaged 0.42 avoided tackled per attempt, the best mark of any halfback in PFF’s 19 years of record-keeping. He’s one of the NFL’s best talents at the position — health is the only thing keeping K9 from entering the upper echelon of fantasy football assets.
He may operate in a slight timeshare with Zach Charbonnet, but Walker looks like he’s still the starter here and should remain so barring injury. He’s a better runner in zone concepts than other variations of ground-game calls, so the fit between he and Kubiak feels natural. Add his ability in the passing game after averaging almost five targets and over four catches per contest, and Walker seems like a smash draft pick as an RB1 candidate in the middle rounds. He’s primed for a big year as long as he remains relatively healthy.
Wide receivers
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Death, taxes, and Ohio State wideouts emerging as top options in the NFL… such are the certainties in life. After a quiet rookie campaign with 63 catches for 628 yards and four scores, Jaxon Smith-Njigba emerged as a standout option in the Seahawks’ pass-happy attack last season and broke out as one of the league’s best young talents.
Smith-Njigba benefitted from Tyler Lockett’s decline and saw the field much more as a sophomore. He saw 137 targets, hauling in 100 of those for 1,130 yards and six touchdowns. The standout game of his season was a 13-target, seven-catch, 180-yard and two-score affair in Week 9 against the Rams which fully announced his arrival as one of the game’s rising stars. Over the full year, Smith-Njigba averaged 14.9 FPPG and finished as the overall WR9, though his per-game average slotted him in as the WR20.
While that’s a discrepancy to keep in mind during fantasy drafts, there’s reason to believe the 23-year-old could garner even more targets this season. The Seahawks vacated over 200 targets between Metcalf, Lockett and Fant, so those are opportunities Smith-Njigba could absorb in 2025. If he becomes a true target hog, the quality of the offense and Darnold’s play matters significantly less than previously assumed. With the NFL’s 16th-best receiving grade at the position, he has the talent to become an even more effective fantasy asset. He’s a very safe WR2 with room for much more.
Cooper Kupp
Age and injury history be damned — when you have the opportunity to add a former Triple Crown winner and Super Bowl MVP, you make the move. Seattle’s front office knew what they needed to do when they added Cooper Kupp this past offseason, bringing the Yakima, Washington native closer to home and adding him as a primary option for this offense.
Kupp appeared in just 12 games last season but still saw 100 targets come his way as a member of the Rams. He hauled in 67 of those for 710 yards and six touchdowns, but his 7.1 yards per target and 10.6 yards per reception both marked career-lows. While he ended the year as the overall WR38, Kupp’s 14.6 FPPG ranked him as the per-game WR22. Injuries are a concern at this point after he played no more than 12 games in any of the last three seasons, but there’s no question the former star can still ball out when healthy.
What exactly Kupp’s role looks like remains a smidge uncertain since as mentioned earlier, excels at a lot of the same concepts Smith-Njigba does such as the short and intermediate games as a surgical route-runner rather than an athletic threat. With Metcalf now out of the picture, the offense now relies on technicians rather than brute force and raw speed to win. There are plenty of targets available here, but Kubiak must find a way to prioritize his slot receivers since Kupp’s one of the NFL’s most proven target-earners.
Tight end
Elijah Arroyo
Most of the players in this Seahawks offense are established pros or younger talents who showed undeniable talent at the highest level. The team’s new tight end falls into neither category though since the rookie brings a fresh face to the locker room. He’s not one to write off, though — Seattle may have known something when they drafted Elijah Arroyo in the second round.
The Miami product fought through some serious injury issues over his first three years in the NCAA before finally bursting onto the scene in 2024. He earned a Second-Team All-ACC nod and started all 13 games, catching just 35 passes but racking up 590 yards and seven touchdowns. While he didn’t participate at the Draft Combine for an official 40-yard dash time, Arroyo’s athleticism stands out as he averaged 16.9 yards per reception during his final college season, quite the impressive mark for a tight end.
If Arroyo’s knee holds up and he adjusts to the pro game quickly, he could become a true weapon for Kubiak to harness. Players at 6-foot-5 with his physical gifts don’t come around often, so the coordinator will hopefully allow him to work down the seam and in the middle of the field where he operates most effectively. The best news is that talk out of training camp has sounded quite complimentary of the rookie, so he has a legitimate chance to start from day one in a thin position room.
