Seattle looks great in every phase heading into 2016. The burning questions are whether the Baldwin and Rawls breakouts were real. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

The Juggernaut Index is our annual ranking and review of NFL teams for fantasy purposes — repeat: FANTASY PURPOSES. Here we concern ourselves with a franchise’s likely contributions to the fantasy player pool. We are not concerned with projected wins and losses. Instead, we’re focused on yards and points. As always, we’re beginning with the league’s least useful teams, working our way toward the elite fantasy juggernauts.

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Within the fantasy expert community, few subjects have received more attention and analysis than Doug Baldwin’s second-half surge in 2015. Baldwin was available for free in a majority of fantasy leagues last November following Seattle’s bye, and there were no obvious signs that a breakout was imminent. Over the first eight weeks, he’d caught just 31 passes for 345 yards and two scores. For fantasy purposes, he was basically Kendall Wright (28-343-3). Or Jamison Crowder (38-342-0). Or Jermaine Kearse (21-338-1).

And then, with no warning, Baldwin went supernova.

It started with a 7-134-1 performance against Arizona, and it didn’t end until every remaining defense on Seattle’s schedule had been roasted. He found the end-zone three times against Pittsburgh, twice at Minnesota, three times at Baltimore, and twice versus Cleveland. In Week 16, Baldwin caught eight balls for 118 yards and one TD against the Rams; it was one of his worst fantasy outputs of the season’s second-half.

When all the numbers were in the books, Baldwin ranked as the seventh highest scoring wide receiver in standard fantasy leagues. He finished the year with 1069 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns, delivering 724 of those yards and a dozen spikes after the mid-season bye. Plenty of analysts have suggested that Jimmy Graham’s season-ending knee injury was the event that enabled Baldwin’s breakout, but in fact No. 89 was already rolling when the Seahawks lost Graham in Week 12.

Too often, fantasy touts begin and end their Baldwin forecasts for 2016 by telling you his second-half touchdown binge is not sustainable. It’s a position that no reasonable person would dispute, unless you happen to believe that Baldwin is the ’87 version of Jerry Rice. To me, the important questions are these: Can Russell Wilson continue to perform near the level he reached in the second-half of 2015, and will Seattle adhere to the same offensive principles that guided the team from November through January?

If your answer to each of those questions is yes, then I don’t know how you can possibly dislike Baldwin as a fantasy option in the year ahead. He doesn’t need to cross the goal-line another 14 times in order to produce a useful season. Remember, Baldwin closed with 724 receiving yards over his final eight games, catching 47 passes on 63 targets. Even if he hadn’t scored a single touchdown, he would have averaged 14.9 fantasy points per week in full-PPR.

View photos Wilson and Baldwin, back for more. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images) More

When the Seahawks came out of their Week 9 bye last season, Wilson had thrown only nine TD passes and he’d been sacked 31 times, an appalling total. The team began to emphasize the quick-hit passing game, targeting Seattle’s small and shifty receivers — not just Baldwin, but also first-year receiver Tyler Lockett. After returning from the break, Wilson significantly reduced his average time-to-throw, which of course kept him clean — he was sacked just 14 times in the second-half. A greater percentage of his passing yards came after the catch, as Baldwin in particular consistently torched defenders after snagging well-delivered throws. Here’s a prime example. And here’s another. Wilson’s pass attempts increased only modestly in the second-half (234 to 249), but his efficiency was absolutely ridiculous. Over his final eight games, he averaged 8.6 yards per attempt while tossing 25 touchdown passes and only two picks. Two. His passer rating during that stretch was 124.3.