Why Seahawks may be welcoming Rams’ Jalen Ramsey shadowing DK Metcalf in L.A.
Jalen Ramsey shadowing DK Metcalf?
The Seahawks may be hoping for that.
When Seattle (6-2) plays Sunday at Los Angeles (5-3) for first place in the NFC West, Ramsey, the Rams’ shutdown cornerback, is likely to spend much of the afternoon covering Metcalf one one on all over SoFi Stadium.
Best versus best.
That’s what the Seahawks’ play caller is expecting.
“We are very comfortable that DK going against Jalen, that that’s a very, very good matchup for us,” Seattle offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said. “He’s a great player.
“So is DK.”
And so is Tyler Lockett.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll likens the way the Rams use Ramsey to how Arizona uses Patrick Peterson.
The last time an opponent used its top cover man to shadow Metcalf, it was the Cardinals with Peterson three games ago. So Russell Wilson targeted Lockett a whopping 20 times instead, for Lockett’s career game. He had 15 catches, 200 yards and three touchdowns at Arizona.
“Pick your poison,” Metcalf said.
Indeed, that dual threat of Metcalf and Lockett with Wilson is what has Seattle number one in the NFL in passing offense and number one in scoring.
Metcalf is second in the NFL in yards receiving (788) and receiving touchdowns (eight).
Lockett is third in the league in touchdowns (seven) and 10th in catches (53).
Wilson leads the NFL with 28 touchdown passes. He needs five TD throws Sunday to match Tom Brady and Peyton Manning for the most ever through nine games. He’s thrown for five TDs in two games already this season. Two touchdown passes Sunday will make Wilson, Drew Brees (nine consecutive seasons) and Brett Favre (five) as the only NFL players with 30 touchdown throws in at least four consecutive seasons.
The Rams switched defensive coordinators since last season. Long-time NFL schemer Wade Phillips left. Brandon Staley entered.
Schottenheimer said Staley has the Rams running more variations of their usual “cover four” defense.
Cover four is a scheme that assigns each of the four primary defensive backs a quarter of the field in vertical slices from sideline to sideline. A fifth defensive back, the nickel, stays more shallow and plays either man or zone coverage on underneath routes. The intent is to take away deep passes—the ones Wilson, Metcalf and Lockett have used to turn Seattle in the NFL’s highest-scoring and top-ranked passing offense this season.
“They are playing more versions of it,” Schottenheimer said. “They are rolling (the coverage) over to your passing strength, trying to create a numbers advantage for them.”
He explained if the Seahawks send three receivers to one side, as they often do, the Rams will tend to roll their safeties over the top of weighted coverage to that side, a sort of “cover-two” version with the safety as the deep help cover man. That’s so-called “cloud,” safety-help coverage to the loaded-receivers’ side, with “quarters,” cover four, on the opposite side.
The Seahawks often send the 6-foot-4, 229-pound Metcalf as the lone receiver to the side opposite three receivers. That is when the Metcalf-versus-Ramsey matchup may be most noticeable Sunday.
“This is going to be a great chess match between these two guys, if they line up near each other,” Staley told Southern California media this week, per the Los Angeles Times. “We all know it’s a team game, but there’s that game within the game and these two guys are as good as I think that I’m seeing right now in the NFL at their positions.”
In his two games last season against the Rams, Metcalf as a rookie had eight catches in nine targets from Wilson, for 122 yards. Metcalf caught a 40-yard touchdown pass in Seattle’s one-point home win in October. That was on a deep post route from the left slot versus zone coverage. Cornerback Marcus Peters was the closest Rams defender when Metcalf split him and a too-shallow safety.
A dozen days later, the Rams traded with Jacksonville to get Ramsey.
Last December when the Rams dominated the Seahawks in the L.A. Coliseum, Metcalf had six catches in six targets for 78 yards. He beat Ramsey on a double move, a stop short then sprint down the left sideline, for a 35-yard gain. That was in the fourth quarter of a 28-9 game.
After last season, the Rams gave Ramsey a new contract worth $105 million for five years, the largest deal in league history for a cornerback.
So, yes, expect them to put their money to full use covering Metcalf in this one.
“He’s good,” Ramsey told reporters in L.A. this week, per the Los Angeles Times. “He’s even taken a huge step from where he was last year to this year. It’s undeniable talent and he’s just taken it to another level.”
The biggest factor in the Metcalf-versus-Ramsey matchup Sunday?
It may prove to be Aaron Donald.
Los Angeles’ All-Pro defensive tackle has 12 sacks of Wilson in his extraordinary career. That includes eight in their last four meetings. This time, Donald will be opposing Seahawks rookie right guard Damien Lewis, left guard Mike Iupati returning to play for the first time in five games following a neck injury—and a backup center making his first career start at the position.
Kyle Fuller, a practice-squad player when these teams played last season, has never played an offensive down for Seattle. He will start Sunday because Ethan Pocic got a concussion playing every snap of the Seahawks’ loss at Buffalo last week.
“For the most part, they are going to line him up on the guard,” Carroll said of Donald. “But he’ll probably find his way (over Fuller).
“Kyle will be ready to go. He’s going to do a good job for us.”
Schottenheimer says the Seahawks’ offense will run its full array of plays with Fuller, as if Pocic was at center.
That means, yes, he will challenge Ramsey with Metcalf, as he did the last time the Seahawks played the Rams.
“Kyle Fuller’s a guy we’ve got a lot of confidence in,” Schottenheimer said.
The play caller used the same word as quarterback Russell Wilson—”unbelievable”—to describe Fuller’s first training camp with the team, in August.
“Probably one of the most improved players that we had,” Schottenheimer said.
“We don’t have any question he’ll play well.”
