Seahawks QB Russell Wilson said he and TE jimmy Graham have been "lights out" together in practice. Thrown a ton of ball to him, lots of meetings also.

Graham posted low-end TE1 numbers prior to his knee injury last year and that sort of production is within reach if he can get fully healthy.

When Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson attended Jon Gruden's QB camp in 2012, one of the topics they discussed was going empty.

That is, an offensive look with five pass-catchers going out into routes and no running backs in the backfield. It's a concept that Wilson had success with in college and one that the Seahawks used to destroy defenses in 2015.

"I think we've done a great job of that, really for a while now of being in empty," Wilson said. "Kind of reviewing at the halfway point last year, especially. We were like, 'That's something that we do really well and we want to be in that, it's a good thing for us.' Then obviously when Marshawn [Lynch] and [Thomas] Rawls went down, OK, let's capitalize on that even more and got the playmakers out in the flanks that can make those plays.

Wilson averaged 10.3 passing yards per attempt when the Seahawks were in empty last year. That was the top mark in the NFL. He completed 74.7 percent of his passes, which was fourth. The story added the Seahawks like to use motion or shifts to empty, and showed an example in this story of Fred Jackson in the backfield shifting out wide. Of course this year, that's likely to be Christine Michael or C.J. Prosise, who was drafted to be a third down back. The Seahawks used empty 11-percent of the time last year, fifth most in the league, and the story said it could be a bigger part of the offense this year.

Pete Carroll has said Tyler Lockett is going to be "in the middle" of everything the Seahawks do offensively. He and Russell Wilson struggled at times to get their timing down last year, but Lockett showed he can get open downfield on a consistent basis. And if the summer is any indication, Lockett will see plenty of opportunities in the short game on screens and other plays where he can pick up yards after the catch. That should translate to consistent touches on a weekly basis.

The Seahawks are not a high-volume passing offense, but 900 yards and eight touchdowns is a reasonable projection for Lockett, and he has upside.

As a rookie, Lockett owned the #5 fantasy points per target (FP/T) in standard formats (#3 in PPR), and he plays in a historically efficient passing offense. The only issue is volume. Lockett saw just 69 targets in 2015, but averaged 5.4 T/G (and 57.1 yards) over the final nine games of the season, including the playoffs. That’s an 86-target (and a 913-yard) pace, so if he’s able to maintain his 1.48 FP/T, it would yield 128 fantasy points, which is about what Rueben Randle scored as the #28 WR last year. If Lockett is going to crack the top 20, he’ll need to see 6.0+ T/G. The good news is that Wilson has increased his pass attempts in each of the last three seasons, and with Marshawn Lynch retired, it sounds as if there will be more opportunity in the passing game for Lockett.

The second-half outburst came after the Seahawks shifted their offense during their bye week, deciding to emphasize quicker passes, timing routes and spread formations. They were especially successful with empty sets (no running backs in the backfield).

Throwing passes more quickly also helped mitigate some of the offensive-line struggles. Russell Wilson was sacked just 15 times in the last nine games after the Seahawks allowed 31 in the first seven.

Carroll said to expect more of the same in 2016, the first season since 2010 without running back Marshawn Lynch as the focal point of the offense.

“Our rhythm throughout camp, we stayed connected to what we did in the second half of the year,’’ Carroll said. “We went in determined to do that, and right from the get-go when we got back here on the field we were at it with tempo and timing and all that and stood strong throughout the whole camp.”

Of the early-round quarterback picks, Wilson is the player we’d be most inclined to draft since he’s sometimes still on the board in the 6th/7th round. After his Week 9 bye, Wilson averaged 279 passing yards and 3.1 touchdowns over the final eight games. That’s a 4,400-plus/50-TD pace, which is why he’s ranked with the likes of Cam Newton and Aaron Rodgers atop our projections.