How unlikely a Seahawks hero is Eric Saubert?
He’s supposed to be crunching numbers behind a desk somewhere, not propelling Seattle into its first postseason in three years.
The man who caught the Seahawks’ most important pass so far this season, the most impactful catch of his nine, nomadic years in the NFL, is a former university Presidential Scholar. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in actuarial science.
You know, that science of using mathematics, statistics, and financial theory to analyze the economic costs of risk and uncertainty in everyday events. The stuff so many NFL players (don’t) dabble in.
“I wasn’t every good at it, to be honest,” Saubert said with a grin at his locker in Seahawks headquarters Tuesday.
“So I’m glad this worked out.”
The native of Chicago, a middle child of four kids, did not have a major-college football scholarship. So he played at Drake. The private school in Des Moines, Iowa, is known as a mid-major power in basketball. Drake gives no athletic scholarships for football. Yet it competes at and beats other Football Championship Subdivision (former Division I-AA) programs.
“I’m super-thankful for going there, too, man, because a lot that shaped me into who I am,” he said Tuesday. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
In 2017, he became the first Drake player in 34 years drafted into the NFL, by the Falcons in the fifth round. Despite not being a regular starter, he’s playing his ninth season in the league. He’s been a special-teams stalwart and a backup, blocking tight end for eight teams in nine years. He’s gone from Atlanta to Chicago to Jacksonville to Dallas to Houston to San Francisco to Seattle.
The Seahawks signed him as a free agent this past March. They cut him in October.
He came back, on faith that Seattle general manager John Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald would be true to their word and give Saubert a better deal than he signed last spring. His original Seahawks contract was a veteran salary-benefit deal. Those cannot be extended during the season.
Schneider and Macdonald told Saubert in late October, after he had one catch in seven games, to hang tight for two days while they cut him in some more of the team’s constant roster gymnastics. He was briefly an unrestricted free agent.
He did as told. He hung out for a couple of days. He ignored possibly signing with another team. He re-signed with the one that cut him.
The Seahawks gave him an in-season extension, rare for the team. It’s paying him a signing bonus up front of $500,000 plus a proration on a $1.3 million salary for 2025. That’s just over the league veteran minimum for his nine years. More important to him, he got a new deal for 2026. That could be worth over $2.1 million.
“The organization is all class since I’ve been here,” Saubert told The News Tribune this month. “I appreciate them so much for getting this deal worked out. I’m so happy to be here for another year.”
Then, a week after he re-signed, Saubert went on injured reserve with a calf injury. Many teams would shelve a backup tight end on IR for the rest of the season once he got hurt in November. The Seahawks told Saubert how valuable he was to their run-first offense, that they intended to have him back healthy for a push to the playoffs.
They activated him from IR Dec. 13. He played the next day, in Seattle’s win over Indianapolis.
Then last week in overtime of a wild game against the Los Angeles Rams with massive playoff implications at Lumen Field, the tight end with two catches in 15 games was blocking Rams 2024 NFL defensive rookie of the year Jared Verse. Quarterback Sam Darnold looked to his right at three receivers while trying to throw on the game-deciding two-point conversion play. Saubert blocked Verse some more. And some more.
No receiver was open. The Rams even covered running back Zach Charbonnet, who had drifted out into the left flat behind the line of scrimmage as the fourth, safety-valve option on the play.
So Saubert released from his blocking into a short pass route of about 4 yards, to just inside the goal line.
The Rams never saw him.
When he turned his head left, Darnold appeared almost startled at how open Saubert was in the end zone. The Pro Bowl QB aimed his pass like he was throwing a dart. It stuck to Saubert for the two-point play.
Seahawks 38, Rams 37.
The guy who has three career touchdown receptions in 110 career games completed Seattle’s comeback from down 16 points in the fourth quarter.
Seahawks fans packing Lumen Field roared a noise not heard often inside that stadium in the last 10 years. Saubert held the ball triumphantly aloft in his right hand, basking in the rare roars. Then he chucked the ball as high as he could into the noise.
“It’s incredible,” he said about a half hour later, inside the locker room after blaring music.
“I’m kinda last in the progression. Sam is amazing. He knows his progression all the way through. I chipped. Come under late. Sam found me.
“It was awesome.”
Saubert put the Seahawks (12-3) two wins in their final two games, including Sunday at Carolina (8-7), from the NFC West title and top seed with the lone bye in the conference’s playoffs next month.
“They’ve got two great edge rushers,” Saubert said of the Rams. “So we had a big chip-protection plan for them last week (with the tight ends helping the interior offensive linemen). That’s a huge part of the play, as well.”
Saubert credited Josh Jones, the veteran swing tackle who made his first Seattle start against L.A. because Charles Cross was out injured. Jones kept his block long and well enough for Saubert to release his, and for Darnold to wait for his fifth receiving option to emerge.
Given he’s caught just three passes in the end zone in nine years, Saubert agreed he’s never had a bigger catch than that one that shook Lumen Field.
“Yeah, no, I don’t think as meaningful as that one,” he said. “It’s a pretty cool moment.
“Clinched the playoffs. Make us the one seed (for now).”
“I’ve always had this belief in myself,” Saubert said at his locker inside Seahawks headquarters before practice Tuesday. “And it sounds crazy, even going to Drake, but I knew there was something inside of me. And I knew if I got stronger, faster, that I could do something special.”
Last Thursday night, he did. “Just a phenomenal play, man,” Macdonald said of Saubert’s final catch for the winning two points.
“Pretty good feeling when he caught it.”
Darnold, himself forgotten after failed seasons as a starter, discarded by the Jets and Panthers to begin his NFL career a year after Saubert began his, appreciates his backup tight end’s perseverance. All eyes, including the Rams’, were on NFL leading receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, former Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp and Pro Bowler Rashid Shaheed out on pass routes during the season’s biggest play in overtime last Thursday.
Yet it was Eric Saubert, the actuarial science guy from Drake, who made the winning play.
“It’s unbelievable, man,” Darnold said. “That’s the beauty of the NFL. You have all these guys. You have JSN, ‘Shid, you have guys like Coop that make all these plays. And the guy that wins the game is ‘Sauby.’
“He’s been in the league for so long. And I’m just very happy for him.”
Not as happy as Saubert is that he isn’t behind a desk somewhere doing that other job he has a degree for.
“Shout out to the actuaries,” he said.
“But I wouldn’t be having as much fun.”
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