Noah Fant released!

Seahawks release Noah Fant after finding no trade takers

The Seattle Seahawks released tight end Noah Fant on Sunday afternoon, answering any questions we had before training camp as to what Klint Kubiak’s plan was at an overloaded position. Though Fant seemed to have trade value as a former first round pick who is only 27 and has averaged 591 yards per season over six years, interested GMs must have balked at his $8.5 million price tag.

This release opens the door for rookie second round pick Elijah Arroyo and 2024 fourth rounder A.J. Barner to split duties as some combination of TE1/TE2 going into the season.

Barner had 30 catches for 245 yards and four touchdowns as a rookie, which was a pleasant surprise for a player who was given far more praise as a blocker than as a receiver going into the 2024 NFL Draft.

• Barner was the 7th TE off the board

• He ranked 3rd among rookie TEs in catches (30)

• He ranked fourth in yards (245)

• He ranked second in touchdowns (4)

• A.J. Barner’s 4 touchdowns were as many as the rest of the 2024 TE class combined, not including first rounder Brock Bowers, who had 5

John Schneider has expressed a belief that Arroyo would have been a top-15 pick (Bowers went 13th, so that’s quite the praise) if not for an injury history. If Seattle believes that Arroyo enters camp in great condition, then obviously they are hopeful that the staff and the player can keep it that way going into Week 1. In which case, the Seahawks may have a better receiving weapon at the tight end position than Fant.

Thirdly, free agent signee Eric Saubert felt like more of a lock than just a camp body when the team added him to the roster in March. Saubert is going to bring a lot more to the room as a blocker than the other two, and although he has bounced around the league a lot since being drafted by the Falcons in 2017, he has also played in 17 games in three of the past four years.

Saubert played 377 snaps for the 49ers last season in a scheme that will be very similar to Kubiak’s, given that Kubiak was San Francisco’s pass game coordinator in 2023.

Fant exits the Seahawks having caught 130 passes on 170 targets with exactly 1,400 yards over three seasons. He was usually healthy, but Fant also had a knack for always being “just that close” to a good play while rarely actually making the play. He would fall a yard short of a first down or a touchdown. He would go out of bounds when he needed to stay in bounds, or stay in bounds when he needed to go out of bounds. He’s never been much of a blocker. And despite being one of the most imposing pass catchers in the NFL at 6’4, 250 lbs, Fant has no ability to break a tackle or make anyone miss.

One of the biggest red zone targets in the league, Fant scored one touchdown over the past two seasons combined. It came in the last game of 2024 against a Rams defense resting their starters.

If that’s still not enough evidence that Noah Fant is not as good as so many people told me he was, not a single team in the NFL was willing to trade for him this weekend. Although it is late in the year, 28 of 32 teams have at least $12 million in cap space so his salary wasn’t so prohibitive as to make it “impossible”.

As I wrote back in February in an article asking if Fant had any trade value, and I found it unlikely that he did, releasing him would just confirm that in a league where it is practically unethical to not overpay some players, not a single team thinks that Fant is a top-20 player at the position. Maybe not even top-30.

At this point I am a little bit surprised that the Seahawks couldn’t trade Fant — if Seattle was willing to help with the salary — but I’m not surprised that his career is in some jeopardy. Fant won’t have to wait long to find his next team. He also won’t get anything close to $8.5 million from them.

Seaside Joe 2330