After a growing season, DK Metcalf would like a Seahawks deal. ‘I’m not trying to leave’
If it’s possible for a huge, 6-foot-4, 239-pound man to grow, DK Metcalf just did.
Seattle’s 24-year-old star wide receiver has emerged through frustrations of not getting the ball often enough, through adjusting to a new play caller — and to his trigger man Russell Wilson missing a month because of surgery on his trigger finger — to catch 12 touchdown passes. That’s his career high, to go with 70 catches and 909 yards through 16 games. It follows Metcalf’s 2020 season in which he set a Seahawks record with 1,303 yards and made his first Pro Bowl.
He had a career-high three touchdowns last weekend in Seattle’s rout of Detroit.
Thursday, Metcalf affirmed his desire to get a new Seahawks contract this coming offseason, before his rookie deal ends this time next year.
“Of course,” Metcalf said.
He flashed a huge smile.
“I’m not trying to leave.”
He then dutifully addressed to his task at hand instead: the finale to this lost season for the Seahawks (6-10) Sunday at Arizona (11-5).
“We’ve got the Cardinals to focus on right now,” Metcalf said.
“You can hit me up later in the offseason if you need that (contract) question answered.”
Metcalf has answered some questions about himself the last couple weeks.
At times this season, the hulking, speedy receiver has been a sulking, needy receiver.
In September Wilson and coach Pete Carroll were talking to Metcalf about toning down his after-plays jawing and extra woofing with opposing defensive backs. Officials targeted him while enforcing the NFL’s emphasis on taunting penalties for the 2021 season. Metcalf entered October among the league leaders in penalties, with multiple flags for personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct.
He even was penalized for taunting a Colts defender away from the play during Wilson’s touchdown pass to tight end Gerald Everett in Seattle’s opening-game win at Indianapolis.
“You remember right off the bat, he was really feisty and he was trying to figure out how aggressive he was going to be and how much of a factor he could be,” Carroll said this week. “He found out that he was getting a lot of attention from officials and he had to find the right rhythm and the right kind of mentality.
“We’ve been working at it.”
Lost games
Metcalf vanished from some of the Seahawks’ most galling of their 10 losses this season.
He out-muscled four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Marshon Lattimore for Geno Smith’s pass on his 84-yard touchdown catch early in Seattle’s home game against New Orleans in October. It was the longest reception of Metcalf’s career. But he had just one other catch, for 12 yards, over the final 3 1/2 quarters. The Seahawks scored just three more points. The Saints won 13-10.
Two games later, in Green Bay, Metcalf had just three catches for 26 yards. The Seahawks wasted having held Aaron Rodgers and the top NFC-seed Packers to just three points into the fourth quarter and lost 17-0. It was the first time Wilson had been shut out in his 10-year career.
In the final, garbage-time minutes of that loss, officials ejected Metcalf for fighting with three Packers defensive backs following a play.
Afterward, when asked why he got ejected, Metcalf said: “Tired of losing.”
The Seahawks were 3-6 at the time.
Then they lost two more in a row. The second defeat was 17-15 at Washington to end November. Metcalf had one catch for 13 yards that night. Wilson missed Metcalf breaking open on the right side of the end zone on what would have been a tying two-point conversion in the final seconds.
The Seahawks were 3-8.
All the while, Metcalf missed practices in the middle of game weeks. The team’s medical staff has been managing a foot injury he now says he got in early October.
Metcalf’s frustrations appeared to peak Dec. 21 in Seattle’s game at the Los Angeles Rams, one the Seahawks had to win to remain alive for the playoffs. Metcalf broke open past his recent nemesis All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey three times that day for what would have been touchdowns. Wilson threw too short to Metcalf twice. The second time was on a fourth down with 7 1/2 minutes left, on a play that could have tied the key game at 17. Wilson’s underthrow allowed Ramsey to get back into the play and tip the pass away.
The Rams took over on downs then kicked to the game-clinching field goal.
The third time Metcalf was free to the end zone, Wilson had his arm hit on a throw intended for Metcalf. It became an accidental 34-yard deflected pass to tight end Gerald Everett.
Metcalf stomped and threw air punches on the field throughout that game. At one point late in the first half, after the Everett play and the drive ended in a field goal, Metcalf marched away from Wilson, who was trying to talk to him on the sideline.
The Seahawks lost 20-10, effectively ending their chance at making the postseason for the ninth time in 10 years.
‘A lot of growth’
Sunday after his three TDs against the Lions, Metcalf admitted being frustrated this season, particularly, he said, in the span from the Saints through Packers games while Wilson missed the first three games of his career then had that too-early return at Green Bay.
Those defenses, and most this season, used bracket coverage on Metcalf with a cornerback short and a safety over the top deep.
“I would say around week 7, 8, 9, it was frustrating,” Metcalf said. “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. ...
“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 (read end) off every play.
“I won’t say frustrating, but a lot of growth for me this year.”
Besides the frustrations with not getting targeted, the flags and the foot, Metcalf had to adjust to a new offensive coordinator. And Shane Waldron had to adjust to having Metcalf while calling plays for the first time in the NFL.
Metcalf said that adjustment took time.
“Yes, sir,” the receiver said. “It was a new team, new offense.
“When I got here, (previous Seahawks coordinator) Brian Schottenheimer was here for already a year, so I was just really hopping in where I fit in.
“Bringing a whole new system to 11 different players (with Waldron), I will say, is very challenging.”
Metcalf sees a growth there, too. The offense has averaged 30 points per game the last five games, with a low of that 10 against Rams and high of 51 last weekend against the Lions. It was Seattle’s most points since 2012.
“Just the ground that we made up during the season and not falling apart completely but keeping our composure and continuing to compete and fight every game is something that speaks volumes,” Metcalf said, “not about just Shane, but about this team.
“We’re going to continue to fight. You’re going to see a fight Sunday.”
Waldron says he’s learned one overarching thing about Metcalf this season: get him the ball.
“The most I’ve learned with him is he has that ability to move around and play different positions,” Waldron said. “Knowing going into this year some of the success he’s had in the past he was going to garner more attention down in and down out. That’s happened.
“And, learning, he at his core, DK wants to win, right? That’s what he’s about. That’s what he’s built around. ...
“He’s done a really good job of having times where he’s had to be a little bit patient, knowing we want to get him the ball, he wants the ball, but the priority is to win.
“We’ve got to keep working to figure out ways to target him and get him involved as much as we can. Because, like we saw this past week, when he touches the ball good things happen.”
It’s not like Waldron, Wilson and the Seahawks ignored Metcalf. His 118 targets this season are just 11 fewer than he got in 16 games last season when he made the Pro Bowl.
It’s just the targets have sometimes disconnected, or worse, disappeared, in the clutch.
Carroll called Metcalf’s season one of “going all of the stages that have kind of happened with DK.
“We’ve been working at stuff pretty much all year, and it’s been a good year in that regard,” Carroll said.
“It is a big growth year for him, and he’s doing really well. He’s coming out the other end of this thing stronger and better and more committed to how he plays and how he works and the expectations that he’s living with. I think it’s been a great year in that regard.
“And it hasn’t been easy. It’s been uncomfortable at times, but he’s figured his way through it.
“The best thing about is is he’s been really open-minded and he’s been willing to talk about stuff and he hasn’t been thinking he’s got all the answers. He’s really been good in that way, and so he’s going be better for it.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 5:10 PM.
