Noah Fant

Seven seasons, three teams — his peak (2021) is now four years in the rearview.

The 2020-21 Denver peak (62-673 → 68-670) is the high-water mark and it's getting old. Since the trade to Seattle his per-game receiving yards have hovered around 30-35 a game — functional starter production, well shy of TE1 territory. The Bengals signed him as a complement, not a centerpiece, and the usage reflects it.

Why it matters. Seven seasons across three teams maps the trajectory from early-career focal point to veteran rotation piece. The 2020-21 Denver peaks remain the high-water mark for receiving volume; everything since has been a step down in per-game role.

Target share dropped every time he changed teams — from 18% in Denver to 9% in Cincinnati.

The Denver version (~20% target share, 6+ tgt/G) was a real focal point in the offense. Seattle averaged him down to a rotational role — they had DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett ahead of him every snap, and his target share never recovered.

2025 in Cincinnati is the lowest of any year he's been the listed starter — 9.2% share, 3.2 targets per game — because the offense funnels through Chase and Higgins.

Why it matters. Target share normalizes raw target totals against team passing volume, so it tracks role independent of pace. Fant's slide from a 20% share in Denver to under 10% in Cincinnati shows the move from primary pass-game option to depth piece.

Inside the Bengals' target hierarchy he's the 6th option, not the 3rd.

The headline: Mike Gesicki has more targets than Fant in Cincinnati, and the two TEs combined still trail Andrei Iosivas. The Bengals are running a true two-TE rotation rather than handing Fant the room.

His catch rate (34/41 = 82.9%) is actually the best of his career, but the volume's just not there. He's been efficient inside a small role.

Why it matters. Within a pass-catching room, target count is the cleanest measure of role. Fant ranking sixth on the Bengals — behind a second tight end — quantifies that he is a complementary piece in a Chase/Higgins/Brown-led offense, not a featured weapon.

Both of his career 100-yard games came in a five-week stretch as a rookie.

He has two career 100-yard games — both in 2019, both on 4 targets. The Cleveland line (3-115-1) was on a 38.3 yards-per-catch average; the Houston follow-up (4-113-1) was the same shape: small reception count, monster yards-per-catch.

That's the YAC-tight-end profile from his draft scouting report. Six seasons later, he hasn't built another game like it — every year his peak game has been a high-volume, modest-yardage line instead.

Why it matters. 100-yard games are the round-number benchmark for a starting tight end's ceiling. Fant cleared it twice as a rookie on tiny target counts (yards-per-catch monsters), then never again — a YAC profile he has not recaptured in six follow-up seasons.

He went a full Seahawks season (2023) without a single touchdown.

0 TDs on 43 targets in 2023. Then 1 TD on 64 targets in 2024. Across his 2023-24 Seattle stint he caught 80 passes for 914 yards and just 1 touchdown — a startling drought for a starting TE.

In just 13 games in Cincinnati he already has 3 TDs, almost all of his Seattle two-year output combined. The role's smaller, but the red-zone usage has finally come back.

Why it matters. Touchdown count is the simplest score-impact metric for a tight end. A zero-TD season on 43 targets — and just one TD across 107 Seahawks targets in 2023-24 — is an extreme red-zone usage drought for a starter at the position. The Cincinnati bump (3 TDs on 41 targets in 13 games) signals a different role even at lower volume.