Unheralded Bradley McDougald, the best player on Seahawks’ defense so far this season
High above the south end zone of CenturyLink Field, Kam Chancellor raised the “12th Man” flag before the Seahawks’ most recent game.
Down on the field Sunday, his replacement kept raising his game. And making his own name.
He’s not a superstar. His play is not as eye-catching. He doesn’t deliver the mammoth, highlight hits that made Chancellor a Seattle legend and soul of the Seahawks.
But in his first three games replacing Chancellor full time as Seattle’s strong safety, Bradley McDougald has been a rock. And he’s rolling into Sunday’s NFC West test at Arizona (0-3).
McDougald’s been the most consistent and productive player on Seattle’s massively changed defense through three games this season.
“Bradley’s outstanding,” Seahawks defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. said.
Left wondering where they’d be without Chancellor after he had to retire this offseason because of a neck injury, the Seahawks are actually producing more turnovers and third-down stops so far with McDougald in the center of their defense than they did with Chancellor there through three games last season.
Seattle is tied for second in the NFL with eight turnovers. McDougald has been responsible for almost half of those, with two interceptions and a forced fumble. Last season the Seahawks had two takeaways through three games.
This is how outstanding McDougald has been already for the Seahawks (1-2):
He leads all NFL strong safeties with 17 solo tackles. In fact, every one of his tackles this season has been solo. At 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds, the former college wide receiver has pretty much tackled every guy except the ball boy. McDougald’s stops have usually been in the open field, with little margin for error.
Many of his tackles have come on third down to end foes’ drives; Seattle has held foes under a 33-percent conversion rate on third downs (12-for-37). This time last season, opponents had converted 15 times on third downs.
Plus, McDougald has two stops behind the line of scrimmage and four passes defensed. His two interceptions came in the opener at Denver Sept. 9.
He’s even part of a Seahawks feat this month that no team in the NFL had pulled off since Gerald Ford was our president.
McDougald, cornerback Shaquill Griffin (against Chicago Sept. 17) and Earl Thomas (last weekend against Dallas) each have intercepted two passes in a game this month. The last time a team had a two-interception player in each of the first three games of a season was the 1976 Washington Redskins.
And McDougald chased down Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott from behind and forced a fumble that Justin Coleman recovered in the fourth quarter to secure Seattle’s first win.
Not bad for a Tampa Bay Buccaneers castaway last year.
The Pacific Northwest has been howling at the moves general manager John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll have made—more precisely, missed on—since Seattle’s last made the playoffs in the 2016 season.
Well, here’s one move that’s worked. They signed McDougald to a one-year contact worth $2 million in the spring of 2017. Then, as it became obvious Chancellor wasn’t going to play in 2018, they re-signed McDougald this spring for three years and $13.95 million.
“He just continues to play good football,” Carroll said this week.
“When you go back and when we first evaluated him, he was really active. He was able to do a lot of stuff. We didn’t realize how good of a cover guy he is. He’s a really good cover guy in one-on-one coverage versus receivers and tight ends. He’s got a real sense for it, and we’ve been able to feature that early on.
“We thought he was a really good player that would be really versatile and all of that, and now he’s just playing really good and he’s really aggressive. He’s covering down on some dump offs and stuff. He made some terrific tackles in the open field. He’s doing great.”
McDougald gives credit to Chancellor. He says his predecessor is a constant source of critique and advice.
“As a matter of fact, I still meet with Kam,” McDougald said last month. “I still try to get up with him as much as possible. He’s living a different life right now, so I try to respect his time. But, as much as I can soak in from him I still try to. I still try to pay heed to the man who paved the way.
“He shed a lot of blood here, sweat, tears. He kind of built this thing from the ground up. So to come back (as Chancellor has a few times already this season), and see the coaching staff and see the players, all the people paid that much homage to him, that just showed what he’s done for this program.”
McDougald was something of a revelation last year in his Seattle debut season replacing both Chancellor at strong safety and, while Thomas was out injured for two games in early November, free safety. In that way, he became indispensable: a NFL veteran who can play both safety spots for a defense that often requires the safeties to switch roles depending on down and distance.
They won’t say it, but the Seahawks were so pleased with McDougald from 2017 they re-signed him to the three-year deal this year partly with the likely end of Thomas’ era in Seattle’s defense in mind. Thomas’ contract ends after this season, as you may have heard.
The Seahawks drafted hard-hitting Michigan strong safety Delano Hill in the third round in 2017 to potentially be Chancellor’s heir. That was a month after they signed McDougald from Tampa Bay. The idea then was Hill would be the future strong, and McDougald or 2017 fourth-round pick Tedric Thompson would be the eventual cover safety, usually the free safety in Seattle’s main, single-high coverage schemes.
But McDougald has been so good of a tackler at strong safety, the Seahawks have been able to play him closer to the line of scrimmage, like a linebacker, against the run. Like Chancellor did. And he’s been so dependable and adaptable in coverage they can’t afford to take him off the field. Hill and Thompson remain stuck on Seattle’s bench for two seasons running now.
And McDougald is still just 27. He was recruited by Ohio State out of Dublin Scioto High School in the Columbus suburbs. He switched his scholarship commitment to Kansas because he wanted to play wide receiver and the Jayhawks said he could. By 2011, two years into his career at KU, he was back at safety.
Smart move.
“He’s really smart. He understands ball,” Norton said. “He’s like a coach on the field. And his ability to tackle in the open field, his ability to match up on different receivers and backs, really gives us great versatility.”
Now McDougald, Thomas, Griffin and this post-Legion of Boom Seahawks secondary gets rookie quarterback Josh Rosen in his first NFL start Sunday at Arizona. Thomas is coming off his two-interception game. Some around the NFL are talking about the Seahawks having the best safety tandem in the league again.
And that’s without Kam Chancellor.
Now that Thomas is back from his holdout (that you also may have heard about), McDougald says he is benefiting from having played next to the three-time All-Pro free safety for the final two months of last season, after Chancellor got hurt.
“It felt great to play with Earl (and), of course, have him back out there. I think the games last year helped us,” McDougald said. “We kind of have a little bond, a little chemistry. You’ve been in the system for so long and you’ve done the same things for so long, you kind of have it down. I needed the reps in camp. But with Earl, he sat out and he’s still able to come in and still able to do his job with a very highlighted way.
“Just playing with him, I know where he’s going to be at, I expect to know where he’s at. And the other half of it (is) just me doing my job. That’s most important.”
Roster moves
The Seahawks added to their defensive line Tuesday by bringing back end Branden Jackson to the active roster. He had been on the practice squad.
To make roster room for him, the team waived former Washington Huskies tight end Darrell Daniels. Seattle acquired Daniels this month by trading wide receiver Marcus Johnson to the Colts for him.
The Seahawks had acquired Johnson in March along with a fifth-round draft choice in the trade of Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Bennett.
This story was originally published September 25, 2018 at 3:45 PM.