I see Noah Fant was on a radio show was complaining about how the Broncos used him. Doesn’t surprise me. They didn’t do a good enough job of working him into their passing game.
Fant is a talented guy – a former first-round pick – and he showed some of that in his rookie season, with 3 catches over 40 yards. But too often in the last two seasons he’s been deployed as a check-down option around the line of scrimmage, catching balls that didn’t result in much. Fant averaged 14.1 yards per catch as a rookie, but just 10.9 and 9.9 the last two years.
“I feel like when I came into the league, that’s what I was drafted to do, right? Get down the field, make those explosive plays, and kind of be that pass catching tight end,” Fant said in an interview on 104.3 The Fan. “And over my time in Denver, I felt like that narrative kind of got muddled down a little bit. It was more of a focus of me catching flat balls or whatever it may be, and then trying to be a shifty guy and elusive guy and try to break as many tackles possible to get my yards. I view myself as a downfield threat, getting open space, then I can make things happen. It was a little frustrating being used in the short field.”
Thus far as a pro, Fant has 21 receptions that have gone for more than 20 yards. Nine of those came in his rookie season, even though he caught only 40 passes that year. He’s had only 6 of those catches in each of the last two seasons, even though he’s caught 62 and 68 passes.
Put another way, Fant over the last two years has caught over 3 times as many passes (130) as he did as a rookie. But instead of seeing 27-plus catches of 20-plus yards, there’s been only 12.
The catches are listed here, and I’ve got his longest rookie-season receptions in bold.
| NOAH FANT'S CATCHES OVER 20 YARDS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opponent | Quarterback | Yds |
| 2019 | Cleveland | Brandon Allen | 75 |
| 2019 | at Houston | Drew Lock | 48 |
| 2019 | at Kansas City | Drew Lock | 43 |
| 2020 | at Kansas City | Drew Lock | 37 |
| 2021 | at LA Chargers | Drew Lock | 35 |
| 2020 | at Atlanta | Drew Lock | 32 |
| 2021 | Detroit | Teddy Bridgewater | 32 |
| 2019 | at Minnesota | Brandon Allen | 31 |
| 2020 | Tennessee | Drew Lock | 31 |
| 2020 | Miami | Drew Lock | 29 |
| 2019 | at Houston | Drew Lock | 28 |
| 2021 | Cincinnati | Teddy Bridgewater | 28 |
| 2021 | Las Vegas | Teddy Bridgewater | 26 |
| 2021 | Las Vegas | Teddy Bridgewater | 26 |
| 2019 | Jacksonville | Joe Flacco | 25 |
| 2021 | at NY Giants | Teddy Bridgewater | 25 |
| 2019 | Cleveland | Brandon Allen | 24 |
| 2019 | Chicago | Joe Flacco | 24 |
| 2020 | Kansas City | Drew Lock | 24 |
| 2019 | at Houston | Drew Lock | 23 |
| 2020 | at Pittsburgh | Jeff Driskel | 22 |
Fant got shipped out to the Seahawks in the Russell Wilson trade. Presumably they’ll make more of an effort to get him downfield. But Seattle doesn’t have a quarterback right now. They also had a Fant-type tight end last year (Gerald Everett) and didn’t do a great job of using him.
—Ian Allan