Seahawks to let Geno Smith throw more and deeper down field? ‘We’ll see,’ DK Metcalf says
Time to open up the locked-down Seahawks offense?
Deeper shots down the field to DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett?
Yes and yes, Pete Carroll says.
The coach said this week his Seahawks need to let Geno Smith throw more down the field. That’s to counter defenses that are stacking the line of scrimmage against Seattle’s intentions to run the ball and playing “umbrella” coverage deep. Foes have been doing that primarily to guard against big pass plays to Metcalf, off the run.
Smith is first in the NFL with a 81% completion rate through two weeks. But he’s been throwing the shortest, safest passes in the league. He is 33rd out of 33 quarterbacks who have started a game this season in yards per completion (8.3).
Carroll said that has to change. Not eventually. Now, when the Seahawks (1-1) host the Atlanta Falcons (0-2) Sunday at Lumen Field (1:25 p.m., channel 13 locally).
“We could have thrown the football more with the opportunities that we had (in a 27-7 loss at the 49ers last weekend),” Carroll said. “With the trust we have in him, we need to do that. When it’s given to us, we need to take advantage of it.
“We don’t have to hold back, at all.”
That sounds good to Metcalf.
He has just 71 yards receiving through two games. That’s 42 yards fewer than his previously lowest production to begin a season. In 2020, the season in which Metcalf set a franchise record with 1,303 yards receiving and was selected to the Pro Bowl, Metcalf had 187 yards by now.
The Seahawks just gave him a $72 million contract extension this summer. This is the first time in Metcalf’s four-year career the receiver has not had a touchdown through two games.
The more Smith throws, the better it should be for Metcalf.
It can’t get a whole lot worse. Seattle hasn’t scored a point on offense in the last six quarters.
“Just to hear Pete to say (that), finally, you know, it’s a sigh of relief to let Geno actually go out there and just play free and not have any restrictions as an offense,” Metcalf said Wednesday.
That must be nice for a wide receiver paid to catch bigger passes to hear, no?
“Yeah, we’ll see,” Metcalf said.
He chuckled.
Metcalf is just 24 years old. But he’s been around Carroll and the Seahawks long enough to have heard some of this before.
Seahawks pass to set up the run?
Carroll is caught philosophically between wanting to run the ball more and taking what defenses are giving Seattle. It’s about not literally running into a brick wall, as the Seahawks did at San Francisco. Seattle rushed 14 times for a measly 36 yards against Nick Bosa and the Niners’ nasty defensive front.
The holes in the defenses should be between foes stacking against the run and laying back guarding against Metcalf going deep. That’s the intermediate route areas, 10 to 15 yards past the line of scrimmage.
That’s where the immediate change may come — though, as Metcalf knows, Carroll has said in the past he wants his offense to run more or pass more, and it continued to not happen.
Carroll stated this season his intent for offensive coordinator and play caller Shane Waldron to run more with a backfield tandem of Rashaad Penny and rookie second-round draft choice Ken Walker. That’s behind an offensive line that is 60% new and is starting two rookie tackles, Charles Cross on the left and Abe Lucas on the right.
But the Seahawks are last in the league in rushing offense (56 yards per game). They are 31st in total offense (234.5 yards/game). If not for Denver fumbling twice inside the 5-yard line in the second half of the opener Seattle won 17-16, the Seahawks’ offense would have them at 0-2.
The Broncos and 49ers have defended Metcalf the way the league did last season after his breakout 2020 of deep pass plays. They are bracketing him with cornerbacks in shorter areas with a safety over the top to guard against long routes.
DK Metcalf calls it a process
Asked if there are any difference in how he’s being defended so far this season to last, Metcalf said: “No, sir. I’m just still trying to do my job as an offensive player and as a receiver in the running game and when pass routes are called. I still have to run my route to the best of my ability.”
He says he sees the early part of each season as a process, one that won’t settle into a team’s true self until about the end of October.
He says he learned that perspective from Bobby Wagner, Seattle’s former captain and All-Pro linebacker the team sent away this spring to the Los Angeles Rams.
“A team really shows their true colors at around week eight. I remember that’s one thing that Bobby told me in my rookie year,” Metcalf said. “We were about to go play the 49ers and he said to ‘Wait until week eight or nine, and then teams will start showing their true colors.’
“We still have a long way to go until then. We still have some mistakes to clean up. And we still have to find our identity as a team.”
Carroll wants to speed up that process.
The coach says Smith has proven in the two games he’s ready to take bigger shots. Cross and Lucas are allaying his concerns about the rookies’ pass protection. So, Carroll reasons, it’s time for the passing game to challenge defenses more, deeper down the field.
“There’s no reason not to go for our stuff,” Carroll said. “We have all kinds of things that we want to do, and I think we can do more of it. ...With this thought that I’m not going to wait three or four more weeks to figure out what Geno’s going to look like. I think he looks really good. I’m convinced...
“There’s no reason to worry about him, at all.
“We are just going to go and see if we can get this thing rolling at a better clip than we have.”
As Metcalf said, we’ll see.
This story was originally published September 21, 2022 at 3:27 PM.
