Noah Fant's breakout season?

Seahawks NFL Pro Next Gen Stats from Week 7's win over the Falcons: Seaside Joe 2059

I asked ChatGPT to define “Fant” for me and this was its answer:

"Fant" can refer to different things depending on the context. In some cases, it might be shorthand for "fantasy" or "fantastic." It could also refer to a type of fruit, like a fanta drink, or even a specific term in certain subcultures or communities.

Setting aside the fact that I’m slightly less worried about AI this morning because the computers believe that Fanta is a healthy snack that you might get out of a grove of some sort, the rest of this answer does kind of apply to Noah Fant.

He can be shorthand for a word like “fantastic” — he’s usually only about halfway to being that good — and though I haven’t played fantasy football since 2011, I’m sure he’s been a frustrating player for those who do; bad players are not frustrating, they’re just free agents. Fant isn’t a bad player.

But better yet, “Fant” is a specific term in certain subcultures and communities.

Specifically, this community. Very specific.

Fant (noun): The 7th-highest paid player on the Seattle Seahawks

Fant (verb): When a person with a high ceiling struggles to get off of the floor

When I write about Noah Fant, it’s never my negative opinion of him. It’s just me…telling you…what Noah Fant did.

That would be like me texting someone the Panthers final score yesterday (40-7) and getting a reply of, “Why are you being so negative about the Panthers?”

Why are the Panthers being so negative about the Panthers?

On the first of August, I wrote an article called “Why I do and don’t believe Noah Fant is going to have a career season”, which means that 50% of that headline is “Noah Fant is going to have a career season”! But by being honest and hesitating to become a full-fledged homer about his future due to Fant’s first five seasons in the NFL (and he still hasn’t scored a touchdown in his last 27 games), that opens me up for questions like, “Why do you hate Fant so much?”

Why not, “Why do you like him at all?”

50%…

Fant is on the Seahawks so it behooves Seahawks fans to see him do well and to root for his improvement. I’m just not going to change my opinion of his actual performances just because he’s on the Seahawks, and I’m going to give him the same amount of credit and blame as I would a tight end on a different team. For example, if Bears fans told you that Cole Kmet was better than Noah Fant, would you buy that?

If they said that no team would rather have Fant than Kmet, is that fair?

I mean, Fant is a fairly popular player on the Seahawks with these stats since 2022:

41 games, 106 catches, 1,163 yards, 4 TD

And in that same period of time, with far worse quarterbacks, Kmet has these stats:

40 games, 149 catches, 1,552 yards, 16 TD

Fant and Kmet are paid roughly the same. Kmet makes a few million more than Fant this year, but Fant makes a couple million more than Kmet next year. No Bears fan would change out Kmet for Fant. But I wonder how many Seahawks fans would agree that Kmet is a better tight end than Fant.

I’m not attempting to point out who is right or who is wrong, I’m just saying that perspective and homerism plays a massive role in most of us perceive the value of individual players. I could be off base, but I don’t think many Seahawks fans would trade Fant for Kmet, yet I also don’t think most people outside of Seattle would put Fant on the same tier as Kmet.

At least, maybe, not until very recently.

Is this the best version of Noah Fant ever?

After another slow start, the “fantasy” of Noah Fant has morphed into something moderately realistic as a high-paid tight end over the past five games. I say, “Fant hasn’t scored a touchdown since the Seahawks drafted Jaxon Smith-Njigba”…Fant says:

“I have caught every single target thrown in my direction in the past month.”

In the first two games, Fant caught 3-of-7 passes for 25 yards, averaging 3.6 yards per target.

In the last five games, Fant has caught 21-of-21 passes for 238 yards, averaging 11.3 yards per target.

Over that period of time, Fant is fifth among all tight ends in receiving yards (if he held this pace for 17 games, Fant would have 70 catches for 800 yards), making him the only player to catch 100% of his targets among players with over 15 targets, and one of only two players to catch over 100% on more than 10 targets, the other being Jaguars tight end Evan Engram (15-15, 137 yards).

(The insane Amon-Ra St. Brown has caught 25-of-26 for 269 yards and four touchdowns.)

The only tight ends with more receiving yards since Week 3 are Brock Bowers (321 yards on 43 targets), Kyle Pitts (282 yards on 30 targets), George Kittle (259 yards on 29 targets), and Kmet (258 yards on 23 targets). As you can see, Bowers is productive because the Raiders won’t throw it to anybody else. Pitts has a lot of yards, but he’s still mostly just a giant receiver (as is Fant in many cases) and he doesn’t do a lot with those gains.

Kmet’s the only other tight end in this category to have a high percentage of catches and yards per target, though right behind them is Dallas Goedert at 232 yards on 20 targets.

Even Travis Kelce (24 catches on 29 targets, 206 yards, 0 TD since Week 3) is having a less productive season than Noah Fant is having with Ryan Grubb.

So is this the best version of Fant we’ve ever seen? Of course! He caught 4-of-4 passes for 65 yards against the Falcons and three of four went for a first down, including two gains over 20 yards. He has nearly caught up to Jaxon Smith-Njigba (319 yards to 263) even though he’s only been targeted half as often as JSN. And Fant is first on the Seahawks in yards per target (9.4) in spite of the fact that DK Metcalf is second in the NFL in receiving yards (568) and is tied with A.J. Brown for the 11th-highest air yards per target (13.7).

But if we’re talking about Fant because he’s caught 24-of-28 targets, then we also need to include Kenneth Walker III (23-of-26) and Zach Charbonnet (20-of-24) in the discussion of how deep Seattle’s bag of pass catchers is this season.

Possibly very, very….Very deep.

The Seahawks have an arsenal that includes a productive tight end? Is this real life or do my eyes deceive me via fantasmagoria?

ChatGPT:

“"Fantasmagoria" refers to a sequence of real or imaginary images like those seen in a dream.”

If this is all a dream, please shut off my alarm.

The rest of this article will cover other Seahawks statistical findings from their Week 7 win over the Atlanta Falcons and the 2024 season as a whole, including more insights on: DK Metcalf’s dominant day against A.J. Terrell, the quarterback’s exceptionally deep day of passing the ball, Kenneth Walker’s speed, the good and the bad of Seattle’s secondary including Devon Witherspoon, Nehemiah Pritchett, and Julian Love, why Derick Hall played like Boye Mafe, how good was Michael Jerrell actually, the Seahawks “SECRET SUPERSTAR”, and much more.

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Let’s start by talking about the Seahawks offensive line.