51. Doug Baldwin, WR, Seahawks

Baldwin’s greatest asset is his implicit understanding of the little things that separate good from great at the position.

51. Doug Baldwin, WR, Seahawks

When the Seahawks signed Baldwin to a four-year, $46 million extension with $24.5 million guaranteed on June 28, they did so knowing their top receiver might be a relative bargain in the long run. The undrafted star out of Stanford had a breakout season in 2015, leading the league with 14 touchdown catches. Twelve of those came from the slot, where Baldwin ran nearly 80% of his routes last season. Baldwin can do great things outside, but his skill set and mental approach lean perfectly to the slot position, where he can improvise openings with the best in the business. Baldwin’s greatest asset is his implicit understanding of the little things that separate good from great at the position. Watch him slow-play his route past coverage and then accelerate to the throw, or foot-fake a press defender into oblivion, or sell the wrong angle to take a cornerback out of the play, and you’ll understand why he’s so important to his team. He’s become a team leader, displaying toughness on and off the field, and he is absolutely fearless in traffic. Baldwin didn’t come into the NFL with any fanfare, but he’s doing his level best to make up for that now.

Published Jul 2, 2016

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.