It’s that time of year once again! Football Absurdity will bring you a breakdown of every notable fantasy football-relevant player throughout June, July, and August. We continue with the tight ends. Things haven’t gone great for Noah Fant since he started his career as hot as humanly possible. Unfortunately, he’s been tied to Drew Lock in a run-first offense with two stud wide receivers to take the meager target volume from him. Luckily for Fant things have… this can’t be right… stayed the same?! What can we expect from Noah Fant in 2022 fantasy football? Let’s take a look at his fantasy football player profile!
Noah Fant ADP and AAV:
Average Draft Position: TE16, 137 overall
Average Auction Value: $1.1
Noah Fant Statistics:
| Year | G | GS | Tgt | Rec | Yards | TD | Tgt/G | Rec/G | Rec% | Yds/Tgt | Yds/Rec |
| 2021 | 16 | 16 | 90 | 68 | 670 | 4 | 5.63 | 4.25 | 75.6% | 7.44 | 9.85 |
| 2020 | 15 | 14 | 93 | 62 | 673 | 3 | 6.20 | 4.13 | 66.7% | 7.24 | 10.85 |
| 2019 | 16 | 11 | 66 | 40 | 562 | 3 | 4.13 | 2.50 | 60.6% | 8.52 | 14.05 |
| Year | Std Pts | HPPR Pts | PPR Pts | Pts/G | HPPR Pts/G | PPR Pts/G | Pts/Tgt | HPPR Pts/Tgt | PPR Pts/Tgt |
| 2021 | 91 | 125 | 159 | 5.7 | 7.8 | 9.9 | 1.01 | 1.39 | 1.77 |
| 2020 | 87.3 | 118.3 | 149.3 | 5.8 | 7.9 | 10.0 | 0.94 | 1.27 | 1.61 |
| 2019 | 71 | 91 | 111 | 4.4 | 5.7 | 6.9 | 1.08 | 1.38 | 1.68 |
| Year | Air Yards | aDOT | YAC | YAC/Tgt | YAC/Rec | AYMS | Tgt MS |
| 2021 | 550 | 6.11 | 309 | 3.43 | 4.54 | 14% | 18% |
| 2020 | 622 | 6.69 | 381 | 4.10 | 6.15 | 17% | 20% |
| 2019 | 518 | 7.8 | 330 | 5.00 | 8.25 | 14% | 13% |
2022 Noah Fant Overview:
It’s hard to find a tight end who had so much about his situation change and have so much stay exactly the same. Fant is moving from a run-first Broncos team where he stood behind Jerry Jeudy and Courtland Sutton for targets from an iffy Drew Lock. Now, he is on a run-first Seahawks team where he stands behind D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett from targets from an iffy Drew Lock (or Geno Smith!). There are a lot of words that you can spill about Fant as a talent, and I’ve spilled them. Long story short: he had an absolutely blistering start to his career, with two games of 100+ yards and a touchdown in his rookie campaign (the only tight end to ever do that). But since that season, things have been… wobbly.
Fant finished as TE8 in 2020 and was poised for a big breakout. It didn’t really come in 2021, as he finished as TE12. But, what if I told you that Noah Fant was a more consistently useful tight end compared to his TE8 season? In 2021, Fant finished as a TE1 seven times in sixteen games (with two in the top-five), making him a good start about half the time. In 2020, that number was just four games inside the top 12, with half of them in the top five.
If those don’t sound like exciting usage figures from a top-12 tight end, that’s because, despite his final rank, Fant wasn’t that. That’s because Noah Fant had the Health Bump in both seasons. Fant was TE12 in PPR points per game in his TE8 season, and he was TE14 in 2021. But, he missed just one game in each of the last two years. Guys ahead of him missed multiple games, bumping his season-long rank up despite living on the periphery of usefulness every week.
And really, not much has changed in Seattle. He’s going to have basically the exact same situation, so despite the trade doing wonders for Albert Okwuegbunam, Fant will see no such bump.
2022 Noah Fant Fantasy Football Draft Strategy:
Noah Fant Salary Cap Value: $0
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet!
Since Noah Fant lives on the periphery of usefulness on a weekly basis, despite his immense talent, it’s hard to justify taking just Noah Fant in your fantasy football drafts. His ADP reflects this, as Fant is TE16 off of the board, pick 134. He, Cole Kmet, Irv Smith, and Albert Okwuegbunam all have an ADP within seven picks of each other, in round twelve in 12-team leagues, indicating that people are taking their second tight end from that range before they dive into kicker and D/ST.
So really, in snake drafts, it comes down to who you prefer. With Noah Fant not having the immense upside of guys like Cole Kmet and Albert Okwuegbunam, I would take them first. But, I would definitely rank Fant over Irv Smith, who feels like a lot of theory crafting. Ultimately, I would likely skip this tier and just get Gerald Everett (TE18, 147 overall) as my TE2, instead.
Best Case Scenario:
Noah Fant and Drew Lock (or Geno Smith) click. Fant finally fulfills his skills and finishes as TE8 on the back of an 80 catch, 800-yard, 8 touchdown season. In the Chinese population of Seattle, thanks to the luck carried by the number 8 in Chinese culture, you win your fantasy league.
Worst Case Scenario:
Noah Fant takes in the sights in his new city and comes across the Pike Place Fish Market. “Oh, like the crazy Sunday Night Football bumper videos!” he exclaims. He decides to abandon his career as an NFL tight end to live out his days as the face of the fish mongers there for SNF B-roll. He is still on Sunday Night Football more than the Titans.
Check out all our 2022 player profiles, here.
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[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com, airyards.com, and ftnfantasy.com]
[Header Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Noah_Fant.JPG, cropped under CC BY SA 2.0
