DK Metcalf saw helmets for practice, feared Seahawks were cutting guys. So he stepped up
DK Metcalf ran off the field to the cheers of fans celebrating a home win and, they hope, a truly new Seahawks year.
The huge wide receiver’s smile was almost as wide as his farmhouse-wide shoulders.
A dozen days earlier, he’d been stomping mad coming off the field. He’d been frustrated by more missed opportunities, that time when he felt he and his Seahawks could have beaten the Los Angeles Rams. It became another loss in Seattle’s lost season.
Why the transformation in Metcalf in just 12 days?
His career-high three touchdown passes in a 51-29 runaway from the Detroit Lions — who absolutely are not the Rams — was an obvious reason.
But coach Pete Carroll ramping up the intensity a notch amid normally breezy, end-of-season practices this past week truly got the 24-year-old Metcalf’s attention.
“I usually don’t practice on Thursdays because of my foot injury has been holding me out,” he said Sunday of an issue he’s had since early October. “But I heard we were going helmets Thursday.
“We haven’t gone helmets in, like, five weeks. So I figured they were cutting players.
“I wasn’t going to be the one that they were going to cut. I decided to show my (read end) a little bit at practice. ...
“I showed them you can’t cut me, because I’m still good.”
Wait, seriously? The team’s Pro Bowl wide receiver, who on Sunday re-set his career high with now 11 touchdown catches this season, one more than he had last season, feared getting cut?
“No,” he said, “that’s what I thought when they went helmets.”
Carroll called it a special practice for Metcalf.
“The one day he could really work full speed had a great day. Looked like a great player on the practice field,” the coach said. “And it was interesting that he looked so good again (Sunday), and carried it across. Really proud of him.
“It’s been a hard year in terms of preparation. And it really showed up today.”
It’s been hard year for Metcalf, not just in preparation.
He blew past All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey multiple times Dec. 21 against the Rams, in the game Seattle had to win to keep its faint playoff hopes alive. Yet he caught just two of seven targets by Wilson when Ramsey was shadowing him. Metcalf was stomping the turf in Inglewood, California, punching the air.
The biggest miss in that key L.A. game was with 7 1/2 minutes left in the game and the Seahawks down 17-10. Metcalf was past Ramsey for what would have been a tying touchdown. Wilson underthrew him by at least 5 yards, allowing Ramsey back into the play. Ramsey batted the ball away from Metcalf to end the Seahawks’ drive. The Rams scored the game-clinching field goal on the ensuing possession.
Sunday, Metcalf had a pair of 13-yard touchdown catches against Detroit (2-13-1). The first gave the Seahawks a 24-7 lead with 6 minutes left in the first half. On the second, Metcalf expertly read a Lions zero-coverage blitz with no safety in the middle of the field. He caught Wilson’s lofted pass to put Seattle up 38-7 inside the first minute of the third quarter.
“It was beautiful,” Wilson said of Metcalf’s play. “Couldn’t have done that any better.”
The wide receiver said he didn’t think Wilson was throwing to him on that play.
“I actually thought he was going to Tyler (Lockett). Tyler or Gerald (Everett, the tight end),” Metcalf said. “But, I looked up and I saw the ball and I kind of figured it was a zero blitz.”
Metcalf added a 1-yard pass for a score early in the fourth quarter. That made it 45-22, on a day Seattle scored its most points since Wilson’s rookie season of 2012.
Metcalf was 13 years old in Mississippi then.
He said Sunday the frustrations with this season and the losing and not getting as many passes thrown his way peaked in late October. That was when Wilson was missing the first three games of his career because of surgery on the middle finger of his throwing hand.
“I would say around week 7, 8, 9, it was frustrating,” Metcalf said.
He had two catches in a 13-10 loss to the Saints, six for just 43 yards in a win over the lowly Jaguars and three receptions for just 26 yards in a 17-0 loss at Green Bay in those three weeks he specified. The first two of those games came with backup Geno Smith starting for the injured Wilson.
“But, you start to accept your role on the offense and on the team and you start to mature a little bit and figure out that this is a team game,” Metcalf said.
“You can’t be selfish, or you can’t want the ball every play, because you know you have 10 other guys out there fighting their (butts) off every play.
“I won’t say frustrating, but a lot of growth for me this year.”
The Seahawks improved to 6-10, with one game Sunday at Arizona (11-5) left in their first losing season since 2011. This is Seattle’s second season not in the playoffs in the last 10 years.
Someone asked Metcalf about passing Joey Galloway Sunday for the most touchdown receptions and receiving yards in the first three seasons of a Seahawks career. Metcalf now has 29 touchdown catches and 3,112 yards in 48 career regular-season games.
“We’ve been losing,” Metcalf said, “so that s**t don’t matter.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2022 at 8:17 PM.
