Which Baldwin suits you best? There are many Baldwins. Alec Baldwin is the most successful of the Baldwin brothers. He’s in my favorite movie, The Departed. He plays the president on Saturday Night Live. He’s starred in a movie with Meryl Streep and other big movies like The Hunt For Red October. The man stayed busy on television as well, starring in 30 Rock and a role in Will And Grace. Along with acting, Baldwin also is a vegan. I didn’t know that.
Stephen Baldwin had moderate success in Hollywood as well. He was in a cult classic called Bio-Dome. The year before that, he was in Usual Suspects and in 2000 he starred in a Flintstone movie. He also made waves in the reality TV world by finishing 5th place in Celebrity Apprentice. Perhaps his best accomplishment is staying married to the same woman since 1990. That’s a rarity among celebrities.
Perhaps the 3rd most famous Baldwin brother is Daniel Baldwin. This guy seems like a complete train wreck. He had some acting jobs and also some reality TV recognition. But, he’s probably most famous for getting arrested for cocaine possession in a New York hotel while running through the lobby screaming, “Baldwins!” This is probably the most attainable achievement for us common folk. On the bright side, at least it was a nice hotel and not the Motel 8.
Maybe you are here for fantasy football and you are interested in Doug Baldwin. You have come to the right place. I love Doug Baldwin this season. We will get into the reasons why I love him on the football field shortly. Let’s talk about ADP. Baldwin is currently the 31st player and 12th wide receiver off of the board. That puts him right in the middle of the third round to late in the third round in 12 team leagues, which is definitely a pick that you want to nail. Baldwin is on my radar late in the second if I don’t have a pick early or in the middle of the third round.
First of all, Seattle hasn’t done enough to improve their offensive line. We are going to see a lot of Russell Wilson the scrambler this season. Russell ended up having a great year last year despite Seattle’s shortcomings. In fact, Wilson finished as the #2 overall fantasy point scorer. This is despite Seattle receivers not being able to gain yards after the catch.
If you’re thinking about drafting Wilson this year, that is a whole separate decision that I will address later in the preseason. We’re here to talk about Baldwin. Baldwin will be a target and volume monster this season. Jimmy Graham and Paul Richardson both have left Seattle. Seattle did bring in Brandon Marshall, but he has seen better days and it will be interesting to see if he will be able to stay on the field. Even if Marshall is able to stay on the field, can he be productive?
Baldwin was not able to achieve a third straight 1,000 yard receiving season last year, falling 9 yards short. Despite the yardage issue, Baldwin was able to finish in the top 10 among wide receivers with 8 touch downs. Last year’s end zone production follows up a 14 touch down season from 2016 bringing his total up to 29 touch downs since 2015. 2018’s end zone production could end up looking a lot like 2016’s production instead of 2015 and 2017. Doug Baldwin only saw 8 red zone targets last year while Jimmy Graham saw 26 and Paul Richardson saw 11.
With Paul Richardson gone, somebody needs to pick up the slack for explosive plays and deep balls. Tyler Lockett is definitely a name to look at later in drafts to fill this void, but you can also expect Baldwin to see an increase in his 8.5 YPA from last season. Baldwin saw 116 targets which ranked 16th in the league last year. His target share saw a drop off in the second half of the season as he only saw 43 targets in the final 8 games. You can probably sense a common theme here that with Richardson and Jimmy Graham gone, Baldwin should see a more substantial share and probably more equally distributed throughout the season unless someone like Lockett really emerges.
The pick that I will be targeting Baldwin at certainly comes with some risk, but with all things considered, I think his floor is pretty high as long as he is able to stay healthy. Football can brutal for health, but historically Baldwin has been able to stay on the field. Baldwin hasn’t missed a game since 2012. In PPR, I think a Larry Fitzgerald-type season is not out of the question. 95-100 catches is certainly attainable as the focal point of the offense. If Baldwin is able to achieve that and double digit touchdowns, a top-5 WR finish is promising.
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