‘Hungrier’ DK Metcalf shows it 1 on 1 vs. Ahkello Witherspoon, but Seahawks will vary him
Ahkello Witherspoon was in a bad position, a bad deal for just about every cornerback in football.
He was lined up facemask to facemask with DK Metcalf, with no safety help behind him. Witherspoon versus Metcalf, 2 yards apart across the line of scrimmage from each other, alone on the right side of the field.
At the snap the Seahawks’ uncommonly huge and fast wide receiver took a jab step inside. He took another one outside. Then he chopped his feet quickly. Witherspoon shoved Metcalf with his right, inside arm first.
That cleared Metcalf for the outside release he was seeking.
Uh-oh.
Coach Pete Carroll stood in the middle of the field and turned to watch the show. The 6-foot-4, 235-pound hulk with 4.3 speed lowered his left, inside shoulder. Metcalf zoomed through the 6-3 Witherspoon’s contact. By 10 yards into his go route, Metcalf was 2 yards past Witherspoon, showing the speed that sent him 100 meters in 10.36 seconds racing the country’s fastest professional track sprinters in June.
By 20 yards, he was in the clear.
Russell Wilson lofted a perfect, 40-yard pass. Metcalf caught it in stride at the goal line.
It was the highlight of the one-on-one drill in the 15th practice of training camp Wednesday, at a point in camp when NFL rules finally allowed basically restriction-free battles between defensive backs and receivers.
It was also the latest evidence a “hungrier” Metcalf is hard to stop.
He’s a soaring star at 23 years old. He’s coming off a season in which he set a Seahawks record with 1,303 yards receiving. He made his first Pro Bowl team in 2020. He spent this past offseason impressing those track sprinters by running shoulder to shoulder with them in a 100-meter race before the U.S. Olympic Trials. He hung with the famous from a third sport while taking swings (and misses) in a fourth, during a celebrity softball game at Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game last month.
This month, Metcalf was asked: What has changed for you entering this season, your third of four in your rookie contract with Seattle?
“Hungrier,” he said.
I mean, scheme-wise, with new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron installing his new system?
“Scheme-wise? My bad,” Metcalf said.
“Still hungrier.”
The play Wednesday looked like it. It also made Witherspoon, the Seahawks’ new starting left cornerback, look bad — but not worse than just about every cornerback in the NFL.
Everyone not named Jalen Ramsey.
The All-Pro cornerback for the Los Angeles Rams has had success shadowing Metcalf. Last season, NFL’s Next Gen Stats showed Ramsey was on Metcalf for 30 of his 42 pass routes (71%) in the Seahawks-Rams game in Inglewood, California, in November. Metcalf had no catches and Wilson targeted him just once with Ramsey on him thay day. The Seahawks lost, 23-16.
In the rematch in Seattle in December, the Seahawks changed their strategy. They sent Metcalf in pre-snap motion more, and often away from Ramsey. That’s how Metcalf had two catches in four targets versus Ramsey, and six catches for 59 yards in all that afternoon. The Seahawks beat the Rams and clinched the NFC West title.
Ramsey didn’t like that cat-and-mouse act.
“I feel, personally, that it should be big on big,” Ramsey told the Los Angeles Times in January. “If you believe you have a top guy, I’m looked at as a top guy, we should be matched up against each other a fair amount of the time. That’s what I would like to see, selfishly. That’s what big-time games should be. That’s what the fans would like to see.”
Ramsey said that heading into round three, January’s Rams-Seahawks wild-card playoff in Seattle.
In that game, Metcalf did not motion away from Ramsey as much. The Rams mostly kept two safeties deep to keep receivers Metcalf and Tyler Lockett in front of them. Ramsey shadowed Metcalf all over the field 25 times in Seattle’s first 43 offensive plays. Metcalf had three catches against Ramsey. The third came with 11 minutes left in the game. The Seahawks were 0 for 8 on third down after Wilson’s long ball to Metcalf got batted down expertly by Ramsey with 7 minutes left in the third quarter. Seattle stayed behind 20-13.
Next Gen Stats showed Ramsey followed Metcalf on 69% of his routes (22 of 31) that day. He held Metcalf to three catches on seven targets by Wilson, for 33 yards. Metcalf had a touchdown catch late in garbage time of the Seahawks’ dismal, 30-20 loss to the Rams that ended Seattle’s season with a thud.
In the three games last season, Metcalf had just four catches on 11 targets while Ramsey covered him, for 44 yards. That 11 yards per catch was nearly 5 full yards below his season average (15.7).
Carroll talked after the season how the 2020 Seahawks offense allowed defenses and defenders such as Ramsey to dictate to it, too often. Seattle having no answer to take defenses out of two-deep safety coverage it saw the last six weeks of the season was a prime example.
Enter Waldron.
Carroll hired the former Rams pass-game coordinator soon after that playoff loss to put the Seahawks into quicker attack mode in 2021, to make defenses react to it instead of 2020’s vice versa.
This month Waldron is installing an offense that is quicker in all it does. Quicker in the huddle. Quicker to the line between plays. Quicker to read the defense, make line calls and snap the ball. And quicker getting the ball out of Wilson’s hands.
Metcalf has perhaps the most to adjust to in the new scheme. Instead of often running 40-yard go routes like the one on which he beat Witherspoon in practice Wednesday, Metcalf is likely to be running far more short routes. As in, one- and two-step routes and shallow crosses just behind the linebackers or even behind defensive linemen.
Think: Cooper Kupp with the Rams.
Thing is, Kupp is 6-2, 208. The Seahawks love the idea of getting the ball out quickly to Metcalf in space and then unleashing his bigger size and speed against smaller defensive backs —since — every defensive back in the league is smaller than he is.
The plan is to have those shorter, quicker passes and more and more varied runs with Chris Carson force defenses to bring that second safety back closer to the line of scrimmage, where it had been for years against Carroll’s Seahawks offenses. Then Wilson can get back to throwing the home-run balls to Metcalf against more single-high coverage, which Seattle saw more in the first half of last season. That was when the Seahawks were leading the NFL in passing yards and scoring, and Wilson was on a league-MVP pace.
Metcalf said of Waldron’s new offense: “It gets the ball out of Russell’s hands faster to his play makers, so we can break tackles and go score.”
“I think it’s been a pretty big emphasis that we didn’t have last year,” Metcalf said. “So, adding that to our repertoire is going to be pretty big.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 11:22 AM with the headline "‘Hungrier’ DK Metcalf shows it 1 on 1 vs. Ahkello Witherspoon, but Seahawks will vary him."
