The Seattle Seahawks, fresh off of a Sunday Night Football throttling of the Washington Commanders, made a fairly aggressive move in advance of Tuesday’s 4 p.m. ET trade deadline. Seattle already has the league’s most productive receiver in third-year pro Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and now it has upgraded its WR2 from 32-year-old Cooper Kupp to Rashid Shaheed, whom it received from the New Orleans Saints for two mid-round draft picks, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
It’s a massive upgrade for the 27-year-old, who has quietly become a pretty reliable player in New Orleans. He made the Pro Bowl as a punt returner in 2023 while catching 46 passes for 719 yards and five scores, and after missing the second half of last season with a torn meniscus, he’s amassed 499 yards and two touchdowns on 44 catches so far this season, all of which only trail Chris Olave. His 66.7% catch percentage was better than Olave’s, and his 11.3 yards per catch led the team. His numbers should continue to improve now that he’s playing with Sam Darnold, not Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough.
This season, Shaheed has been especially stellar on throws between 10 and 19 yards downfield in between the numbers or on short throws down the right sideline. Those are zones in which Darnold has excelled, completing 21 of his 25 passes in the intermediate middle for 300 yards, three scores, and one interception and 16 of his 20 passes for 124 yards on shallow routes towards the right sideline. He could also weaponize Shaheed’s speed, given that he’s 11-for-11 for 356 yards and two scores on passes traveling more than 20 yards in the air down the right sideline for a perfect 158.3 passer rating.
With the Saints, Shaheed turned his one deep catch down the right sideline into an 87-yard score, but it came on just five targets, thanks to inaccurate throws by both Rattler and Shough. That shouldn’t happen in Seattle: Darnold leads the league in on-target percentage despite being the league’s second-most aggressive passer, while Rattler ranks just 16th in intended air yards per passing attempt and 14th in on-target percentage. The Seahawks also have a better offensive line than New Orleans, which should allow Shaheed’s full route tree to develop.
Of course, in addition to upgrading his quarterback, he’s also upgrading his co-star. Smith-Njigba has 117 more receiving yards than any other player despite making 18 fewer catches than Ja’Marr Chase, and he’s been basically the league’s most efficient wideout by any measure. There are trade-offs to that: Shaheed’s 20.4% target share is likely to go down somewhat that he shares the field with Smith-Njigba, but defenses will give him less attention than they would have been able to with the Saints. Plus, Smith-Njigba has operated more towards the left sideline, so Shaheed’s skills are pretty complementary. He’s also capable of lining up either in the slot or on the outside, which should help keep him on the field regardless of the personnel packages that Seattle runs.
