He asked for Kam Chancellor’s blessing to wear his number. Now DeeJay Dallas wows Seahawks
Upon the Seahawks drafting him this spring, DeeJay Dallas had to run through the usual administrative details remotely with staffers from his new team.
Some of those details included equipment: helmet size, shoe size and the like. When it came time to pick a jersey, the Seahawks sent him a list of available numbers.
One leaped off the screen. No. 31.
Dallas, a running back, went to high school in Brunswick, Georgia. He played for the University of Miami.
Though he’s from about as far from Seattle as one can get inside the continental United States, the 21-year-old rookie knew what No. 31 means to the Seahawks, their city, to the entire Pacific Northwest.
“If you don’t know who Kam Chancellor is,” Dallas said, “you live under a rock.”
Dallas contacted the legendary, retired Seahawks safety this offseason.
“I just felt it was only right — being Kam Chancellor, the legend that he is for the Seahawks — I just had to do it,” Dallas said Wednesday.
“I mean it felt right, in my spirit, to ask him. Just knowing what he’s done for this club and knowing what I want to do for this club. That’s really one of the main reasons I reached out to him and asked him for his blessing on the jersey number.”
“The Enforcer,” the retired strong safety and Seahawks Super Bowl champion, would be proud of his protege at this Seattle training camp. Dallas has shown Chancellor’s signature trait, toughness, along with skills as a pass catcher, blocker and runner this summer.
In fact, Dallas has exceeded coach Pete Carroll’s, quarterback Russell Wilson’s and the offensive staff’s expectations on what their fourth-round pick can contribute immediately this season.
As in, the fast-approaching opener at Atlanta Sept. 13.
“He’s been one of my favorite players, DeeJay Dallas,” Wilson said last week.
“He’s done a tremendous job of coming in with the right attitude. Super-professional.”
Dallas has wowed his new coaches with a versatility and grit they’ve needed from a running back in the passing game, on third downs and in no-huddle offense.
Versatility, and especially the grit, are what lacked in the last four years they tried C.J. Prosise as a pass-receiving back. Seattle finally gave up on its third-round pick in 2016 this offseason. The team let his contract expire and sent him into free agency after Prosise’s 10 injuries in four seasons and more time in the training room than on the field.
Dallas took full advantage of Chris Carson being away for 11 of the Seahawks’ first 13 training-camp practices because of deaths in his family last month, and of number-two back Rashaad Penny being on the physically-unable-to-perform list likely out for the first six games.
Two weeks ago, Dallas zoomed past rookie first-round pick Jordyn Brooks at linebacker by many yards to turn a short pass into a long gain. The next day in a full-pads scrimmage, Dallas absorbed All-Pro safety Jamal Adams violently trying to bang the ball from his arms and kept sprinting through the contact to turn another short pass into a first down.
Dallas is pushing 2019 draft choice Travis Homer, his Miami Hurricanes teammate two years ago, on Seattle’s depth chart. Carroll’s original thought was Homer, who proved himself as a strong pass blocker at running back as a rookie last season, could evolve more as the third-down back while Dallas contributed this year mainly on special teams.
But Carroll and the Seahawks didn’t realize how adept and polished Dallas would be from the first practice at catching the ball, running in space, avoiding defender. Plus, he’s shown expert awareness picking up protection calls and blitzers in the passing game.
“I’m surprised that it’s been so clear that he fits in in the throwing game right now. Not that he doesn’t run the ball well; he’s done fine there, too,” Carroll said.
“But (he’s) probably ahead of what we would have expected in the throwing game.”
It figures. Dallas was a wide receiver at Miami before he moved to running back. In high school, he was a quarterback at Glynn Academy in Brunswick, Georgia. He’s showing off those nuanced skills and experience as a first-time NFL running back.
“He’s done a really nice job,” Carroll said. “He’s a natural athlete. He’s played quarterback in his background. He’s been a receiver. So, at the running back spot, he brings some talent and background running routes and getting out of the backfield and feeling real comfortable in situations and downfield catching, and all.”
He also has humility.
Asked what he likes about being a third-down, pass-catching back, Dallas gave a selfless answer: “Protecting the quarterback. Enforcing your will on the guy in front of you.”
He calls Homer “my brother.” He considers Carson “like my big brothers.”
He said he has a happy place this spring and summer, amid the coronavirus pandemic and Black Americans such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake, being killed or shot by white police officers across the country.
“It can be gloomy at times,” Dallas said. “But at other times, I try to find joy in my son and my fiancee.”
Their son was born during Dallas’ final season playing for Miami, last year.
Dallas says third downs, first downs, kicking downs — he’s willing to do any role this rookie season and beyond for Seattle.
“I just know that whatever my role is, I’m just going to do it to the best of my ability, and to just keep trying to approach the game with toughness and grit,” he said. “Just doing what I know how to do.
“If I have to give water to whoever, I’ll do whatever it is. As long as I’m on the team, I good.”
Oh, he’s way on the team for the roster cuts from 80 players to 53 due to the NFL Saturday by 1 p.m.
Anyone wearing Kam Chancellor’s number in Seattle is going to be far more than a water boy.
“He’s caught the ball extremely well. He runs it well. He’s got great vision. He just brings great enthusiasm to the game,” Wilson said. “So I’ve been fired up about DeeJay, and he’s one of my favorite guys on the team as a rookie.
“He’s been special for us.”
This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 5:24 PM.
