RENTON — Along with winning four letters for football at Drake University, Seahawks tight end Eric Saubert earned a degree in actuarial sciences.
What can one do with an actuarial sciences degree?
As Drake’s website defines it, the degree would allow someone a career assessing “how much should a company charge an individual for car insurance? How much should a business set aside to cover potential liabilities resulting from risks they cover? You’ll learn to use probability, statistics, and data analysis to answer these questions and make important strategic decisions for your organization.”
But if Saubert learned how to use numbers during his years in Des Moines, Iowa, one math equation had him stumped this week.
How many text messages, he was asked, did he receive after turning in one of the biggest plays of this NFL season, his reception on a two-point play for the winning points in the Seahawks’ 38-37 overtime victory over the Rams last Thursday night?
“Too many to count,” Saubert said. “But appreciate the love. Obviously it’s cool.”
Maybe the coolest moment of an NFL career that has featured these stats:
8 — The number of teams Saubert has played for during a career that dates to 2017 when he entered the league as a fifth-round pick of the Falcons, No. 174 overall.
11 — Rosters Saubert has been on at some point during his career, including three for which he never played.
49 — Total transactions listed for Saubert on his Pro Football Reference page, which includes signing with the Seahawks as a free agent last March on a one-year deal to add depth at tight end with the team anticipating it might cut Noah Fant (as eventually happened). That he’d played under new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak in Denver helped.
But if all that instability — which included being on the rosters of four different teams in the 2019 season when he played in only two games — might have seemed like a challenge to endure and persevere, Saubert views it more pragmatically.
“I would say how thankful I am for that, because I’ve met so many great people on the road,” Saubert said. “I’ve learned so many things, it’s kind of made me the player I am. I’ve taken little things from different places and different people. A lot of people, I think, could look at it and say how hard it’s been, but I just appreciate it, and I’m grateful for my time and the stops and the people that I’ve met.”
It’s a road that led to Thursday night when he made maybe the biggest play of the 110 games he has played in his NFL career.
The Seahawks made the strategic decision to go for two after cutting the lead to 37-36 on their first possession of overtime with 3:13 remaining.
No pressure, really.
A win would put the Seahawks in the driver’s seat for the top seed in the NFC, a bye in the first round and home field until the Super Bowl. A loss would essentially eliminate any hope of those things.
After timeouts by each team, the Seahawks lined up with receivers Cooper Kupp and Jaxon Smith-Njigba and tight end AJ Barner to the right and Saubert lined up in-line to the left next to Josh Jones, assigned to help him block Rams end Jared Verse and peel off into the end zone as an outlet receiver as a third or fourth option.
Saubert had just two catches in eight games this year before Thursday and didn’t have a catch or a target in the 26 snaps he played against the Rams before the two-point play.
So the Rams can be excused for momentarily forgetting about him.
But Saubert hasn’t lasted as long as he has without always being ready.
“Even when we’re walking through plays, (quarterback) Sam (Darnold) goes through his progression, he might throw the ball to someone, but then he’s looking to who he’s going to next,” Saubert said.
After Darnold scanned the right side of the field and saw no good options he turned to the middle where Saubert was wide open, getting just enough time to get rid of the ball thanks to Jones’ work on Verse — and the help he got from Saubert’s chip.
Darnold fired to Saubert, who made the catch to set off one of the more fevered celebrations in recent Lumen Field history.
“Wasn’t surprised he got to me,” Saubert said. “I always tell the tight ends, every play, no matter where you are in the progression, you got to think the ball is coming to you that play.
“Because if the ball gets on you and you’re not ready for it, then you’re going to be kicking yourself. So every time I’m involved in a route or whatever the concept, I’m gonna be ready for it.”
Saubert, who has crafted a role that focuses on special teams and run blocking, has just 49 catches in his career (11 last season with the 49ers) and three touchdowns.
Officially, a two-point play doesn’t count in his stats. But he knows where it ranks.
“I don’t think (any of his previous catches are) as meaningful as that one,” Saubert said. “It’s pretty cool. To clinch the playoffs, make us the one seed (for now) … It was awesome. Putting the nail in the coffin in that game, being a part of a culmination of a lot of other plays that guys made to be in a big moment, have my name called and answer is cool.”
While Saubert has had an uncommon path he said he never doubted a moment like that might come. He had no Division I offers playing out of the Chicago suburban high school Hoffman Estates High, which led him to Drake, which is known for a basketball program that has made the NCAA tournament the last three years but plays football at the FCS level.
He caught 111 passes for 1,356 yards and 17 TDs his final two seasons at Drake to get on the radar of the NFL, which was intrigued by his size (6 foot 5, 248 pounds) and finishing second in the bench press at the NFL combine among 19 tight ends, fifth in the broad jump and eighth in the vertical leap.
Still, Drake is hardly known for producing NFL talent. The only player from Drake to play in the NFL from 1994 until Saubert was kicker Billy Cundiff.
“I’ve always had this belief in myself,” Saubert said. “And it sounds crazy (but) 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.”
Even before Thursday night he’d proven a lot to the Seahawks for his dirty-work blocking and special-teams play as well as his fit in the locker room. Kupp recently said, “He is probably the funniest guy on the team.”
That compelled the Seahawks to rip up the one-year veteran salary benefit he had for the 2025 season that paid him $1.225 million to sign him earlier this month to a new contract that goes through 2026 and will pay him $2.67 million next year, including $1 million guaranteed.
It’ll be almost double what he’s made in any previous season. That’s something Saubert won’t have any trouble calculating, even if he said he’s far happier playing between the numbers on a football field than analyzing them on a spread sheet.
“I wasn’t very good at it, to be honest,” Saubert said. “So I’m glad this worked out.”
Bob Condotta: [email protected]. Bob Condotta is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times who primarily covers the Seahawks but also dabbles in other sports. He has worked at The Times since 2002, reporting on University of Washington Husky football and basketball for his first 10 years at the paper before switching to the Seahawks in 2013.
