Gunnar Helm Camp Update — August 23: Four Catches in the Seattle Joint

Gunnar Helm caught four passes in Friday's joint practice against the Super Bowl champion Seahawks, by Jim Wyatt's hand count at the team's website, after catching four in Monday's session too — the next-closest receiver behind Tyjae Spears's practice-high six that day, per Wyatt. For a tight end whose entire case rests on target volume, two four-catch practices in a week is the right kind of boring. Easton Freeze at A to Z Sports went further after Friday, writing that Helm, "with his big frame and strong hands, looks like a prime candidate for a healthy volume of 3- and 4-yard completions on out routes" in Brian Daboll's quick-game structure, and noting a timing route Helm caught from Cam Ward on the two-minute touchdown drive.

The honest complication in the same charting: Daniel Bellinger also caught four passes Friday, and it was Bellinger who caught the two-minute touchdown from Ward — his second week running as the finisher, after a scoring grab in the Seattle session drew the quarterback's trust with the clock running. The room also got thinner behind them, with tight end Matt Lauter released this week, per the team's announcement. Nothing in the reporting calls Helm's starting job into question; what the week shows is a coordinator spreading tight end work across two catchers rather than funneling it to one.

Back in June we previewed Helm on the stickiest number we track — tight end targets per game, which repeats year over year better than anything else — and said his 80 percent catch rate was believable while growth from three-and-a-half targets a game would be expensive. A week of eights split with Bellinger is that argument playing out in miniature.

What to watch: Helm's targets during the starters' 20-odd plays against Seattle tonight, per Wyatt's preview of the playing-time plan, and how the tight end room lines up after next Sunday's cutdown to 53. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._