Fantasy Football Rankings: Seahawks Players You Should Draft, Avoid This Season

Editor?s note: To help you prepare for your fantasy football draft, NESN.com will profile each NFL team and analyze which players are worth picking and which players aren?t worth your time. Today, we look at the Seahawks.

The Seattle Seahawks should be contenders on the football field again this season, and their players should help you contend in your fantasy football leagues.

In advance of the upcoming fantasy season, we took a closer look at the Seahawks players you should draft, avoid and peg as sleepers.

DRAFT-WORTHY
Russell Wilson, Quarterback: Wilson is one of the best all-around quarterbacks in the game, and he puts up monster fantasy numbers as well. He’s a dual-threat QB who can score both through the air and on the ground and tallied the third-most fantasy points in standard leagues last season. He’s going in the fourth round as the third QB off the board. Draft him with confidence.

Seahawks Defense/Special Teams: They’re one of the best defenses in the NFL, but they aren’t always the best fantasy defense. Are they very good? Yes. But they’re going at the end of the eighth round before both the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. If you’ve got a more pressing need, wait a few rounds and take another defense outside of the top three. That said, don’t worry about having the Seahawks on your roster, either.

Doug Baldwin, Wide Receiver: Baldwin was a nice surprise last season, putting up huge numbers over a five-week stretch late in the season that saw him score 11 of his 14 touchdowns. The rest of the time? He was just mediocre. He also doesn’t provide a huge PPR boost; he caught more than seven passes in a game just once last year. He’s going a bit too high in the fifth round as the 20th wide receiver off the board, ahead of guys like Randall Cobb, Emmanuel Sanders and Larry Fitzgerald. We like him as a backup with boom-or-bust potential.

Thomas Rawls, Running Back: In six games in which Rawls received double-digit carries, he scored a touchdown or ran for 100 yards in five of them. Those are pretty good numbers supporting the now-retired Marshawn Lynch. If Rawls stays healthy, he should be a solid RB2 option with RB1 upside. He’s going 26th overall, and we think that’s an acceptable spot to grab him.

Steven Hauschka, Kicker: He scored the fifth-most fantasy points last season, but he’s going a little high in the 12th round as the second kicker off the board, about three rounds after Stephen Gostkowski. He’s a good guy to have on your team, but you can always get another kicker later if you have more pressing holes to fill.

AVOID
Tyler Lockett, Wide Receiver: Maybe something changes, but he’s not a reliable guy to have in your lineup every week. Hauschka scored more points than Lockett did last year. That should tell you everything.

Jimmy Graham, Tight End: This is weird to write, but we’re not sure we trust Graham. With Graham coming off a major knee injury and returning to a team that seemingly had no clue how to utilize him in its offense last season, we aren’t ready to rely on him as a starter. He’s being taken 106th as the 11th tight end off the board, so it seems drafters agree with us. Take him as a backup, especially if you can use tight ends at the flex, and hope for the best.

SLEEPER
C.J. Prosise, Running Back: Seattle took him in the third round of the NFL draft out of Notre Dame, and it seems he could at least be the third-down back for the team while Rawls serves as the ground-and-pound starter. The 22-year-old rushed for more than  1,000 yards and 11 touchdowns for the Irish last season and added 26 catches for 308 yards and another score. He’s a nice handcuff, especially in PPR formats.

Thumbnail photo via Brace Hemmelgarn/USA TODAY Sports Images