The eyes will tell you that the Seattle Seahawks are a big ol' dumpster fire. They put forth one of the worst offensive performances of the season Sunday night in a loss to the Arizona Cardinals, and Russell Wilson hasn't thrown a touchdown pass since Week 4.
Looks -- it turns out -- can be deceiving.
The Seahawks enter Week 8 ranked ninth in schedule-adjusted passing efficiency. This translates over to Wilson on an individual level as he ranks 11th in Passing NEP per drop back and sixth in Success Rate, right behind the nation's darling, Matt Ryan. Despite the perception, Wilson has been playing really solid football.
Obviously, last week's game was ugly. However, that was a road, divisional game against numberFire's fourth-ranked pass defense. He's on the road again this week, but this time, he's facing the 29th-ranked defense. These two things are just a smidge different.
Although Wilson's willingness to rush has been down this year, he likely wouldn't need it to post a quality outing against the New Orleans Saints. There are five different quarterbacks who have had top-10 outings against the Saints, and none of them logged more than 23 yards on the ground. Outside of a Cam Newton rushing touchdown, they all did their damage through the air, and Wilson has shown that he's still capable of doing that this year.
You're never going to get a quarterback at low ownership against the Saints, but that's not the question at hand here. The question is whether Wilson has the ability to finish as the week's highest scorer at quarterback, and his efficiency numbers make it seem as if that is absolutely the case.
As you're looking to stack Wilson, the obvious choice is Jimmy Graham to get a piece of the juicy revenge-game narrative. His value runs deeper than that, though. He has a 27.1% target market share the past four games, and he has had at least four targets in each of those. He's a solid cash-game option, too, if you don't mind paying up at the position.
We always prefer Doug Baldwin at home, but he's in play here, too, if you don't want to bear the brunt of Graham's likely grotesque ownership. Baldwin has 23.81% of the team's red-zone targets, and the Saints have allowed an average of 5.67 red-zone targets per game this year. Graham's the better standalone play, but Baldwin works if you're attempting to differentiate a bit while stacking with Wilson.