What is WR Laviska Shenault Jr.'s Ceiling With Seattle Seahawks in 2024?

Laviska Shenault Jr. has become somewhat of a journeyman after being a 2020 second-round pick. What is his upside with the Seahawks?

Jul 27, 2024; Renton, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. (81) carries the ball after making a catch during training camp at Virginia Mason Athletic Center. / Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

Wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. is the gadget player the Seattle Seahawks needed.

Becoming somewhat of a journeyman after originally being a second-round pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2020, Shenault has a skill set unlike any other wideout on the Seahawks’ roster. In the same way head coach Mike Macdonald plays his defensive linemen all across the front, Shenault could be the one offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb moves around his offense.

He combines the blocking skills of Jake Bobo, the tank-like build of DK Metcalf and rushes like Zach Charbonnet with the ball in his hands. Is he as much of a difference-maker as the latter two players? No. But the versatility of Shenault’s game presents a unique weapon for Grubb to utilize.

Injuries have derailed a once-promising rise for Shenault. He battled those in college, too, at Colorado, but it has made him an afterthought during his previous NFL stints with Jacksonville and Carolina. Shenault also has four seasons of league experience despite being just 25.

Career statistics

Receiving

2020 (JAX) – 58 catches (79 targets), 600 yards, 5 TD

2021 (JAX) – 63 catches (100 targets), 619 yards

2022 (CAR) – 27 catches (32 targets), 272 yards, TD

2023 (CAR) – 10 catches (10 targets), 60 yards

Rushing

2020 – 18 rush, 91 yards

2021 – 11 rush, 41 yards

2022 – 9 rush, 65 yards

Kick Return

2022 – 3 att, 82 yards

2023 – 6 ret, 167 yards

At the very least, Shenault will be a quality return specialist and special teamer for the Seahawks. His ceiling could see Shenault be a frequent offensive contributor who could rush for a few hundred yards and catch upwards of 20 passes.

For Shenault's career, 1,102 of his 1,551 receiving yards have come after the catch. Get the ball in his hands, and let him go to work. Just getting him the ball was the difficulty in his past NFL stops.

He’s been a mid-volume receiver during his career, but not since 2021. His catch rate of 63 percent that season was atrocious, but that was with rookie Trevor Lawrence who completed less than 60 percent of his passes overall and the Jaguars posted a 3-14 record. The environment didn’t exactly set him up for success.

Shenault was Seattle’s fifth-highest offensive player during the preseason with a 77.3 overall grade, per Pro Football Focus. Among receivers, he was behind only Easop Winston Jr. and DK Metcalf.

The preseason, of course, doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of the season. Shenault was getting a much larger share of the snaps than he will likely see during the regular season given the Seahawks’ stacked wide receiver corps.

But that’s also why he’s so intriguing. Shenault struggled to find a role in 2023 in Carolina’s wide receiver desert. He now has made the Seahawks’ roster despite it having one of the deepest wideout rooms in the NFL, and he's only on a one-year, $1.292 million deal (value ranking 127th out of 298 receivers), per Over The Cap.

“I feel like I say versatility a lot. I mean the first thing I’m thinking about is in the return game,” Macdonald said of Shenault on Aug. 8. “When the ball is in his hands, he can do a lot of cool things.”

Oct 8, 2023; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young (9) hands the ball to wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. (5) against the Detroit Lions in the first quarter at Ford Field. / Lon Horwedel-USA TODAY Sports

Even if he’s just a dynamic returner or continues to throw shoulders as a lead blocker, Shenault fits the bill as the type of physical player Macdonald values on his football team. Special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh also enjoys Shenault’s skillset.

“He’s shown explosiveness with the ball in his hands and he has really good vision,” Harbaugh said on Aug. 6. “You use the phrase ‘natural ball carrier’ for him because he just has a knack for putting the ball where it should go. He runs with good ball security. Occasionally, you’ll be standing there in front of the return team, and when he hits a hole and is running at you, you see he’s a pretty big guy. He’s a pretty stout guy, and to have his elusiveness and vision with that size is an exciting thing.”

We’ve already seen Shenault impact the run game with the Seahawks, too. He carried the ball three times for 19 yards in the preseason, picking up 11 yards after contact. Grubb wants to see what he has with Shenault in the backfield, and he could serve as a legitimate decoy there even if he isn’t getting a ton of touches with the Seahawks’ also-loaded running back room.

As Macdonald said, the main allure of Shenault is his versatility. Shenault has an embarrassment of riches on offense, which will likely allow him to fly under the radar. It could also be exactly what allows him to flourish in Seattle’s system as an unlikely contributor.