Rashid Shaheed’s first stretch in Seattle didn’t exactly scream “featured receiver,” but that’s only part of the story. After arriving at the trade deadline last season, he made his mark in the ways this team needed most: kick returns, punt returns, and the occasional jet sweep. He did flash once as a pass-catcher, hauling in a 51-yard grab in the NFC title game against the Rams, but otherwise his receiving role stayed pretty quiet.
That limited sample can be misleading. In 12 total games, Shaheed finished with 18 catches for 266 yards and no touchdowns, which is the kind of line that can make a player look more like a gadget piece than a true weapon. But his track record in New Orleans tells a much different story.
Even as a rookie, with Chris Olave, Alvin Kamara, and Juwan Johnson mostly healthy around him, Shaheed put up nearly 500 receiving yards in just 12 games. He followed that with more than 700 yards in 15 games in 2023, then ripped off 350 yards in only six games in 2024 before injury cut that season short. He also had 500 before getting traded from New Orleans in 2025.
That same 2025 season showed a different side of his game. Shaheed shifted from being mostly a big-play threat - he averaged 16.6 yards per catch from 2022 to 2024 - to a much higher-volume target, catching 44 passes in nine games at 11.3 yards per reception. The point is simple: he can help a passing game in more than one way.
He’s not just a burner, either. Shaheed has excellent hands, and in 2025 he led the league in targets without a drop, with none of the 92 balls thrown his way bouncing off his hands. And he did that while working with a pretty rough quarterback mix in New Orleans: 35-year-old Andy Dalton, Jameis Winston, Spencer Rattler, and rookie Tyler Shough.
The quieter production in Seattle last year had its reasons, but the biggest one is easy to spot: he never really had time to build a connection with Sam Darnold after the trade. That’s just the reality of joining a team in the middle of the season. He did come in with some familiarity with the offense, thanks to Klint Kubiak’s time in New Orleans in 2024, but not with the people throwing him the ball.
Now he gets a full offseason with Darnold, and that’s where the optimism comes in. The expectation is more volume, more downfield chances, and more of the explosive plays that make Shaheed such a dangerous fit. He won’t be a thousand-yard receiver with Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the mix, but the Seahawks believe he’ll be worth every penny and a major part of the push for a repeat.
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